Dedicated to Private George Joseph Hester, 10892, 2nd Bn., South Wales Borderers, Killed in Action 14th May 1915, Aged 19, and Private Frederick Elson, MI/08939 Mechanical Transport ASC. Died 10th July, 1917, Aged 24. and the 18 lads commemorated on the Alderholt War Memorial. Also remembering all the men who gave their lives fighting for our freedom, during the 1914-18 conflict.

Welcome to my Great War pages.

No conflict has touched the British nation quite like the Great War of 1914-1918. Although the Second War was greater in terms of Human tragedy fewer British servicemen lost their lives. 704,803 servicemen from the British Isles gave their lives during the Great War compared to 264,000 British armed service fatalities during the Second World War. More than 300,000 have no known grave. Whole communities were shattered by the events that took place between August 1914 and November 1918.

Although considered by many to have taken place mainly in Northern France, Belgium and the Dardanelle straights in Turkey, the Great War had a far larger theatre, stretching as far as China in the east to Southern Africa in the south. Other conflicts took place in Mesopotamia, Salonika, Italy, Egypt and Palestine. The Great War could truly be considered a World War.

Its victims too encompassed the globe, Britain called on its Empire to supply the army. In 1914 the British regular army was known as the BEF, the British Expeditionary Force, this was primarily used for policing the Empire and consisted of some 247,798 officers and men in August 1914. With ex-regulars, reservists and territorials Britain could call upon an army of about 730,000. The call to the Empire was answered from all parts of the globe, Australia, Canada, India, Newfoundland, New Zealand South Africa and the West Indies to mention just a few and whose sons suffered greatly on the battlefields of the Great War.

My interest in the Great war is the Western Front, a pilgrimage to which I have now made several times. The true horror of the war on the Western Front can never be fully imagined today, but to visit the battlefields and to see the scarred landscape after 90 years begins to bring some perspective to what it must have been like. To visit the Menin Gate and witness the Last Post played in front of almost 55,000 names to the missing is a very moving experience indeed.