The Great War, which Britain entered with such high hopes in 1914, had by
1918 left Europe in ruins. Britain’s small professional Army of 1914, the
so-called “old Contemptibles”, had long since been replaced by millions of
volunteers and then conscripts, and had changed out of all
recognition.The story of those four dreadful years is told in the letters of servicemen who wrote home about anything and everything: pride in the cause, humour in the face of uncertainty, the horror of trench warfare, concern for the family at home.
This book will use the letters to tell the human story of the First World War - what mattered to the soldiers, sailors and airmen, their feelings about the war, how the conflict changed them, and how normal life continued in the Edwardian world at home.
PUBLICATION: November 2014
My relative, Herbert Kendall, was a subaltern in the British army during WWI and wrote much of the horrors of trench warfare when corresponding with his brothers. His eldest brother, as a country doctor, wrote about the effects of the war on Britain, while his expat brothers expressed a colonial outlook on the war. Jacqueline Wadsworth wrote an article on my family's wartime correspondence in the latest issue of Your Family History.
ReplyDeleteThanks Edward, and of course my article in YFH is just a taster for what is to come ... next spring (2013)a first volume of the Kendall brothers' letters is being published Eden Diaries Ltd (www.edendiaries.co.uk) and it promises a fascinating insight into the life of an early 20th century family.
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