In Their Own Words: Untold Stories of the First World War

“The war had begun and my heart beat then as it had neverbeaten before.”—Rosie Neal on the outbreak of war, 1914
 
“Soon the wounded began to arrive: some walking, some carried, some just helped along; the usual bloody, patient, battered crowd.”—Lawrence Gameson at the Battle of the Somme 1916
 
“There was a huge sheet of flame, and then the awful pall of yellow smoke, and the ship was gone. There were no survivors.”—Kit Caslon, the Battle of Jutland, 1916
 
World War I was arguably the defining event of the twentieth century. Claiming the lives of over sixteen million people across the globe, it had an enormous impact on every country, city, and person who experienced it. No nation in Europe was left untouched—even neutral states felt its devastating impact.
 
Yet as In Their Own Words reveals, it was truly the ordinary people who were most affected by the war, such as citizens like Flora Sandes, the only British woman to serve in the military; Captain V.D. Siddons, who served with the RFC in Arabia supporting T.E. Lawrence; and Sidney Lewis, who, at twelve, was the youngest boy soldier in the army. In Their Own Words offers a gripping, poignant collection of memories that tell the story of World War I from the perspective of those who were there, using letters, diaries, and memoirs from the Imperial War Museum’s unparalleled archives.
 

Anthony Richards is the head of documents and sound at Imperial War Museums.