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04 November 2009: Mike Roper on "Home Fires Burning: supporting the soldiers of the Great War"

Home Fires Burning: supporting the soldiers of the Great War

Speakers: Professor Michael Roper, Dept of Sociology, Dr Rachel Duffett, Dept of History, University of Essex
Date: Wednesday 4 November
Time: 7 – 8pm
Venue: Ivor Crewe Lecture Hall, University of Essex,
Wivenhoe Park, Colchester CO4 3SQ

What did home mean to British soldiers and how did it help them cope with the psychological strains of the Great War?

While the traumas of warfare took their toll on British servicemen, the battle to support soldiers was waged as much within the home as within the trenches. Families wrote letters, sent food parcels and knitted warm clothes. These links with home helped soldiers hold themselves together amidst the violent percussion of heavy shelling and the sight and smell of dead and dying comrades.

Talks by Professor Michael Roper and Dr Rachel Duffett will provide rare insight into a secret war of survival in the trenches.