On the centenary of the Great War, there are now no longer any veterans alive of the six million men who served on the Western Front. Although this means that the Great War as a living history is to all intents and purposes over, the twenty years Richard van Emden spent interviewing and carefully recording the memories of over 270 veterans, makes this extraordinary collection of stories even more poignant.
As well as stories told by the veterans themselves, Richard has also included his own memories of these remarkable men: the remarkable, the sad, the funny, the moving. The book also features an outstanding collection of photographs taken of the veterans as soldiers during the war, together with recent images of almost all of them, taken at home, back on the Western Front or at the final veterans’ reunion.
‘Britain’s Last Tommies’ is the author’s personal tribute to a unique list of veterans, all of whom individually held the poignant title of being the last Gallipoli veteran, the last Royal Flying Corps veteran, the last Distinguished Conduct Medal holder, the last cavalryman and the last Prisoner of War. AUTHOR: Richard van Emden is widely regarded as one of Britain’s foremost oral historians of the First World War. SELLING POINTS: . Originally published to coincide with a two part BBC documentary which is still aired regularly . Written by Richard Van Emden, who has spent the last twenty years interviewing and carefully recording the memories of over 270 veterans, and who was historical consultant to the BBC documentary. . A wonderful farewell to the generation that fought at the battles of the Somme, Ypres, Passchendaele, Arras and Loos.
32 plate section, including 8 pages of colour,70 illustration