The Great War Archive

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Introduction

The Great War Archive contains over 6,500 digital items contributed by the general public between March and June 2008. Every item originates from, or relates to, someone's experience of the First World War, either abroad or at home. Contributions were received via a special website and also through a series of open days at libraries and museums throughout the country.

Share your stories

The model developed by the Great War Archive has since been used by other initiatives. We are currently working on the Europeana 1914-1918 project to gather further stories and memorabilia from the First World War. Anyone who wants to share their stories or images can do so via the multi-lingual website at http://europeana1914-1918.eu. Public open days are being held across Europe.

The original Great War Archive initiative accepted contributions until June 2008. After that, people have been invited to share images that they have by posting them to The Great War Archive Flickr Group. To post to the group you will need to set up a free Flickr account.

Many thanks to all those who have contributed to this initiative and assisted in our open days.

Editor's pick

Dec 25. The Christmas Truce

Sergeant Bernard Brookes
Sergeant Bernard Brookes was a signaller who spent ten months in Flanders in the beginning of the War before he suffered shellshock and was invalided out of active service. During his convalescence he wrote up the notes he had made during his service, giving a personal, unsentimental account of the appalling conditions in the trenches as well as humorous exploits on and off duty.

Here are two short extracts relating to the famous Christmas Truce 1914:
24 December 1914: "An officer went out (after we had stood at our posts with rifles loaded in case of treachery) and arrangements were made that between 10.00am and noon, and from 2.00pm to 4.00pm tomorrow, intercourse between the Germs [sic] and ourselves should take place. It was a beautiful night and a sharp frost set in, and when we awoke in the morning the ground was covered with a white raiment. It was indeed an ideal Christmas, and the spirit of peace and goodwill was very striking in comparison with the hatred and death-dealing of the past few months."

German signatures and addresses collected
by Brookes during the Christmas Truce at Chappelle d'Armentières
25 December 1914: "The Germs [sic] wanted to continue a partial truce until the New Year, for as some of them said, they were heartily sick of the War and did not want to fight, but as we were leaving the trenches early next morning and naturally did not want them to know, we insisted on the truce ending at midnight, at which time our artillery sent over to them four shells of small calibre to let them know that the truce, at which the whole World would wonder, was ended and in its place, death and bloodshed would once more reign supreme."

You can read more of Sergeant Bernard Brookes’s story on the Europeana 1914-1918 site. These have been shared by his daughter, Una Barrie, under a CC SA-BY licence.

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This post is part of our Advent calendar. New stories are published every day from Dec 1 until Christmas.