LETTER TO AN UNKNOWN SOLDIER

A new kind of war memorial, made by thousands of people. Artists Neil Bartlett and Kate Pullinger invite YOU to contribute to a UK-wide project commemorating WW1 by writing a letter to the unknown soldier www.1418NOW.org.uk/letter

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All of our words have made a tree.

OAK has taken the words in our letters to the unknown soldier and turned them into a piece of art.

You can browse the 21000+ letters here.

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The scenes across the London as those who fell during World War One are remembered

© WPA Pool/Getty Images

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WE PASSED 20,000 LETTERS!

There's still a few hours left to submit your letter!

Letter to an Unknown Soldier is creating a digital memorial for World War One by asking people to submit letters to the unknown soldier in Paddington Station.

The project will be live for four years, and then it will be given to the British Library to be archived and studied.

SUBMISSIONS CLOSE AT 11PM (BST) ON 4 AUGUST!

Read Letters | Add Your Voice | Learn More

[letter1418]

Letter to an Unknown Soldier is creating a digital memorial for World War One by asking people to submit letters to the unknown soldier in Paddington Station.

The project will be live for four years, and then it will be given to the British Library to be archived and studied.

SUBMISSIONS CLOSE AT 11PM (BST) ON 4 AUGUST!

Read Letters | Add Your Voice | Learn More

[letter1418]

We're open until 11PM tonight! Submit now!

[letter1418]

Dom Agius's Letter to an Unknown Soldier

[plantbasedpotential]

[letter1418]

Dear Tommy,

I know not if that is your real name, but just that like my Grandfather, Walter, you joined up and enlisted in the British Army. You may know of him as you shared a long ago photograph before you embarked for France nearly 100 years ago. Perhaps you were his friend or work colleague?

I know not what you did whilst serving your country, but I note from your uniform, you were a signaller and Corporal. But you look so young, so innocent, almost scared. What were you really thinking and feeling behind those youthful eyes?

I know not if you came back to these shores like my Grandfather, Walter, whether you were wounded, traumatised or even killed. Perhaps just a name forever lost to me on some faraway war grave or memorial plaque.

What I do know is that you fought for my future all those years ago, and for that I will always remember you, my Grandfather, Walter and all of your comrades, whatever their end.

Lest we forget. James Robertson, Droitwich Spa

James Robertson's Letter to an Unknown Soldier | Submit Yours (last day to submit!)

[georgy-konstantinovich-zhukov]

A British soldier bids farewell to his child before heading off to war. Unlike the Continental powers, the United Kingdom had never relied on conscription to fill the ranks of her army. The all-volunteer force was generally considered to be the best trained - man-for-man - of the forces at the outbreak of war, but while both her allies and opponents could quickly mobilize reserves of millions who had already been trained, the UK had to rely on its small existing army of 250,000, a Territorial Force of only slightly more than half that, and volunteers (Who would take months to train and deploy). At the outbreak of war, only seven divisions, totally some 150,000 men, were available for the British Expeditionary Force.

(IWM)

[letter1418]

14th August 1917

My Darling Harry

In less than a month we will have been married three years. I wish there was an end in sight for this terrible war. It seems forever since you were last home on leave and I miss you so dreadfully much.

Mother had a letter from our Fred yesterday, he is as well as can be expected. She is a little worried though as she hasn’t heard from our Bill for a few weeks but knowing how the post is several letters will all arrive at once.

Our Polly sends her love

I think I may be coming down with something, although it is beautifully warm and sunny outside I feel chilled and cannot seem to get warm today.

I will finish now and get this letter in the post to you.

I pray for God to keep you safe Your loving wife Fanny x

Susan Walton's Letter to an Unknown Soldier | Submit Yours (only 1 day left!)

[lostsplendor]

"No Mans Land, Flanders Field, France, 1919" via The Library of Congress on Flickr Commons

[letter1418]

Letter to an Unknown Soldier is creating a digital memorial for World War One by asking people to submit letters to the unknown soldier in Paddington Station.

The project will be live for four years, and then it will be given to the British Library to be archived and studied.

SUBMISSIONS CLOSE AT 11PM (BST) ON 4 AUGUST!

Read Letters | Add Your Voice | Learn More

[letter1418]

Dear Friend, I have always called myself a pacifist, and have yet never found a reason not to be. The Quaker Peace Testimony is deeply embedded in my heart. But I know that it is not an easy path and requires a lot of earnest thought and deliberation; and I am a lucky one who has never been called to arms, my country has never been threatened during my lifetime, so I have not had my beliefs put to the test and who knows how I would respond.

You are fighting in the most horrific war, my Friend. I don’t know if you volunteered or were conscripted (the reason is actually immaterial) but you have ended up on the battlefield with a gun in your hand. I can’t begin to imagine how you are feeling but know, 100 years on, I send you love and courage.

I hope, my Friend, that sometimes in the madness of your experience you might be able to find a moment of stillness and peace within you.

I will hold you in the light forever.

With love, my Friend

Bonny Landsborough

Bonny Landsborough's Letter to an Unknown Soldier | Submit Yours (only 1 day left!)

[scrapironflotilla]

Canadian Highlander during bayonet training with a dummy. 

I especially like the large waxed moustache on the dummy.

[atlanticinfocus]

From World War I in Photos: The Western Front Part II, and Armistice, one of 45 photos. A soldier of Company K, 110th Regt. Infantry (formerly 3rd and 10th Inf., Pennsylvania National Guard), just wounded, receiving first-aid treatment from a comrade. Varennes-en-Argonne, France, on September 26, 1918. (U.S. Army/U.S. National Archives)

Today’s entry is part 9 of a 10-part series on World War I, which will be posted every Sunday until June 29.

[asyayay]

letter to an unknown soldier

I am just posting on my blog, but the idea comes from this project, which is wonderful and interesting and also on tumblr here. 

I chose to write a letter to an unknown soldier who is not entirely unknown. This is an ancestor of mine who was killed during the Gallipoli campaign in 1915. He would have been my great-great uncle. Most of my ancestors involved in the First World War were there, for obvious geographic reasons. Those who survived would have been part of ‘clean up’ and then sent to other fronts. If you are curious or confused by anything, do not hesitate to ask because I know there is not as much understanding about the Ottoman experience of the war. I will try to answer anything that I am able. I have proofread, but apologise for mistakes in English. Just a note to add… my ancestors and I would barely have a common language spoken (as it had changed so much). He would have completed a few years of school and unlikely to read or write. Though this is my letter, anyway.

Read More

[mapsontheweb]

Food shortages in Europe after World War I, 1918.

There was a long electric fence and border patrol put between Belgium and the Netherlands by the Germans that stopped movement from one side to the other.

Bulgaria’s economy was mainly agrarian. It’s main exports were tobacco and grain, so it had both money and capacity to feed it’s population. The stalemate at the Macedonian front helped, in that it prevented a large breach of territory and subsequent destruction of farmland and populations.

[bobbycaputo]

Haunting Series Documents Painful Reminders of the First World War

One hundred summers ago this year, the First World War began, setting of a chain of battles that would claim some 16 million lives over the course of four years. For Fields of Battle, Lands of Peace 14-18, photographer Michael St Maur Sheil returns to the Western front, cataloguing its landscapes as they exist today. In contrast to the vast majority World War I photographs picturing renowned generals and bloodied soldiers black and white, Sheil presents a topography healed in part by the passage time and a century’s growth of verdure.

Though lush and luminous, the countryside reveals itself to be irrevocably scarred by events long past; deep trenches and unexploded yet fatally dangerous shells form pocks over the terrain, reminding us of those tragic things which cannot be erased in time. Extending from Swiss territory to the North Sea, this now peaceful Western Front saw the deaths of approximately 8 million young men and millions of horses over the course of a four year stalemate between the French and German troops. New technologies like poisonous gas, tanks, and aircraft allowed for unparalleled fatalities.

(Continue Reading)