CAPTURED MEMORIES 1900-1918 Across The Threshold Of War

Peter Liddle pioneered the recording of memories of personal experience in the First World War and in the social background of those who lived through those years. Later he did the same thing with men and women for whom the Second World War was the formative experience of their lives. In this volume he has chosen memories which take the reader back to the Victorian era of sailing ships, a Hebridean boyhood, Suffragette action, pre-1914 working class life and work in the North-East of England, city life in London, service in the Boer War, pioneering a settlement in Manitoba, Canada, and the Army’s experiments in the use of man-lifting kites, airplanes and balloons.
The main focus of the book is upon the First World War with The Western Front battles, the Gallipoli Campaign and the Battle of Jutland prominently featured. Liddle also represents the Mesopotamian and East African theatres and women nursing under particularly difficult circumstances. Several Victoria Cross award winners and a fighter pilot ace appear, as do those whose distinction was to come later in their lives like Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, Sculptor Henry Moore, Labour politician Emanuel Shinwell, bouncing bomb inventor Barnes Wallis and band leader Victor Silvester. There is an interview with the first conscientious objector to be court-martialed and sentenced to death before commutation of the sentence. This book is a veritable treasure trove of the past.