Letters from the First World War

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FROM THE CONTEMPORARY LOCAL NEWSPAPERS OF NORTH BUCKS (BUCKS STANDARD, NORTH BUCKS TIMES, WOLVERTON EXPRESS)

With today’s internet a wealth of official information is available regarding those who served.
In an age before local radio and television, families often allowed letters to be published in the local press from their loved ones on active service.
However, for their descendants the letters reveal a more personal aspect, graphically describing the experience of the people and providing an insight into their personalities.

Keep the Home Fires Burning - detailing wartime life in the towns and villages mentioned.

NBT 1916 Nov. 7th Tue.
Letters from the friends of their grandson, Private John Clarke, of the 2nd Bedfordshire Regiment, have been received by Mr. and Mrs. John Clarke, presuming that he was killed on October 12th. In fact some weeks earlier the War Office had notified Mr. and Mrs. Clarke of his death in action, but this they discounted, since he had continued to write to them after that date.

(A native of Battlesden, Private John Clarke was killed in action aged 22 on October 12th, 1916, and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.)

ALSO AVAILABLE IN BOOK FORM AS ‘LETTERS FROM THE FIRST WORLD WAR’ FROM WWW. LULU.COM,
PRODUCED WITH THE INVALUABLE EXPERTISE OF ALAN KAY & ZENA DAN.