We Will Remember Them: Voices From the Aftermath of the Great War

For Britain and her empire, the human cost of the First World War was worse than any other conflict in history. Almost a million British people died in the war, with a further quarter of a million from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India and Africa. Almost twice as many again were injured in battle and forced to live the rest of their lives with missing limbs, damaged lungs and mental disorders. The legacy of the Great War was just as deeply felt as the war itself and was much longer lasting. An entire generation of children grew up without fathers. In some areas, women were doomed to a life of spinsterhood because there simply were not any young men left to marry. Every community supported dozens of damaged men, sometimes the butt of cruel childish jokes, but more often the object of silent pity. Most managed to forge a life for themselves again, despite their disabilities, traumas and disfigurements. Many rebuilt relationships with their families that had been all but destroyed by their experiences of war.