Introduction

We tend to remember the dead of the First World War by neat white headstones and memorials. We can forget that they were ordinary young men, many of whom would not have travelled outside Northamptonshire. Like us, they would have been a mixture of good and bad in varying proportions. We also can forget the many who came back were changed mentally or physically, or both.

In these short biographies I have tried to sketch in a little of their lives before and, for many, after the Great War. Official documents only give the skeleton of the men’s lives and we see in the accounts which include family pictures and reminiscences, how much more of the person we see.

There is some repetition in the stories because I have tried to make each chapter stand as a separate piece. If a reader does follow through them all, I hope that they will gain a broader view of the war and the conditions that the men endured. These young men, many of whom would not be granted the right to vote until 1918, should be remembered by us all.

We should see ordinary men asked to undergo conditions that no human being should be asked to suffer.

I have written of these men, knowing that for most it is far from the final word. I hope that other records will come to light and families will add their own stories to help this process of gratitude and remembrance.

David Ball

October 2020.