Bristol in the Great War - Softcover

When war was declared in 1914 the people of Bristol erupted in patriotic excitement - but what was it like when the cheering died down? This book tells the city's unique story during those grinding years, when women risked their lives filling shells with mustard gas, factories turned out chocolate and cigarettes for the troops, Shirehampton's fields were full of war horses, and Filton's nascent aeroplane industry took off. Also described are the lives of the women who waited at home for news of their men at the Front, the long shop queues and blackouts, the bone-shaking military vehicles that rumbled past their homes, and the kindness shown to the traumatized refugees from Belgium. Jacqueline Wadsworth's extensive research brings Bristol's story to life using contemporary accounts and high-quality photographs, many of which have never been published before.

How the experience of war impacted on the town, from the initial enthusiasm for sorting out the German kaiser in time for Christmas 1914, to the gradual realization of the enormity of human sacrifice the families of Bristol were committed to as the war stretched out over the next four years. A record of the growing disillusion of the people, their tragedies and hardships and a determination to see it through.