Richard Van Emden

The Heroic Year in Soldiers' Own Words and Photographs

Road to Passchendaele

Harry Patch

The Last Fighting Tommy

Stephen Humphries

An Oral History of Life in Britain During the First World War

All Quiet on the Home Front

Norman Collins

Originally published: Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Leo Cooper, 2002.

Norman Collins : the Memoirs, Letters & Photographs of a Teenage Officer

Last Man Standing

The Great War ended more than ninety years ago yet still haunts and fascinates us today. In The Soldier's War, Richard van Emden traces a history of the fighting month by month and year by year, using original diaries, letters and previously unseen photographs taken by the soldiers themselves. We follow the British Tommy not only in devastating battles and trench warfare, but also in his quieter moments away from the front line, contemplating the natural world around him. This history of the war as seen from the trenches is shockingly intimate, sometimes heartbreaking, often wryly amusing, but always compelling.

The Great War Through Veterans' Eyes

The Soldier's War

Harry Patch, the last British soldier alive to have fought in the trenches of the First World War, is now 108 years old and one of very few people who can directly recall the horror of that conflict. Harry vividly remembers his childhood in the Somerset countryside of Edwardian England. He left school in 1913 to become an apprentice plumber but three years later was conscripted, serving as a machine gunner in the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. Fighting in the mud and trenches during the Battle of Passchendaele, he saw a great many of his comrades die, and in one dreadful moment the shell that wounded him killed his three closest friends. In vivid detail he describes daily life in the trenches, the terror of being under intense artillery fire, and the fear of going over the top. Then, after the Armistice, the soldiers' frustration at not being quickly demobbed led to a mutiny in which Harry was soon caught up in. The Second World War saw Harry in action on the home front as a fire-fighter during the bombing of Bath. He also warmly describes his friendship with American GIs preparing to go to France, and, years later, his tears when he saw their graves. Late in life Harry achieved fame, meeting the Queen and taking part in the BBC documentary The Last Tommy, finally shaking hands with a German veteran of the artillery and speaking out frankly to Prime Minister Tony Blair about the soldiers shot for cowardice in the First World War. The Last Fighting Tommy is the story of an ordinary man's extraordinary life.

The Life of Harry Patch, the Oldest Surviving Veteran of the Trenches

The First World War as a living history is to all intents and purposes over. As of today February 2005, there are only twelve veterans from six million alive who served on the Western Front. Richard has spent the last 20 years interviewing and carefully recording the memories of over 270 veterans and this book is a culmination of his 20 years of work. The book will be an extraordinary collection of stories told by the veterans themselves but also through the author's memories of them: the remarkable, the sad, the funny, the moving. It will also feature an outstanding collection of photographs taken of the veterans as they were, as soldiers during the war together with recent images of almost all of these men, taken at home, back on the Western Front, at the final veterans' reunion, and at various investitures. Britain's Last Tommies will also offer a unique list of veterans, all of who individually hold the poignant title of being the last Gallipoli veteran, the last Royal Flying Corps veteran, the last Distinguished Conduct Medal holder, the last cavalryman, the last Prisoner of War.

Final Memories from Soldiers of the 1914-18 War - In Their Own Words

BritainÕs Last Tommies

The Last Survivors of the Great War

Veterans

At the outbreak of the First World War, boys as young as thirteen were caught up in the overwhelming tide of patriotism and in huge numbers cheerfully enlisted for active service. Many were to serve in the bloodiest battles of the war, such as ex-miner Dick Trafford who took part in the Battle of the Loos, and Frank Lindley who, seeking to avenge his dead brother, went over the top on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. Both were just sixteen. In 'Boy Soldiers of the Great War', Richard van Emden tells their stories of sacrifice and heroism for the first time.

Their Own Stories for the First Time

Boy Soldiers of the Great War

Steve Humphries

The truth about the sacrifice and suffering on the home front during World War I is rarely discussed. In this book, some of the oldest men and women in the country speak about experiences and events that have remained buried for 85 years. Their testimony shows the same candor and courage we have become accustomed to hearing from veterans of the western front. Those interviewed include a survivor of a Zeppelin raid on Hull in 1915, a Welsh munitions worker recruited as a girl, and a woman rescued from a bombed school after five days. There are also accounts of rural famine, bereavement and the effects on families back home, and even the story of a woman who planned to kill her family to save them further suffering.

Richard Van Emden

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