Ewhurst in the Great War

August 2014 marks the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War.

I am researching what happened in Ewhurst and how it affected local people and I am planning to report events chronologically in the form of monthly posts on this web site.

To many the war must seem like ancient history, but it is not so long ago since the last veteran died and many will remember parents or grandparents who lived through it. Our perceptions of the war change as ‘fashions’ in the teaching of history changes, but by going back to the original source material we can see how people saw it at the time. Local newspapers, school log books and parish magazines are all useful sources.

As the story unfolds month by month we can appreciate the time scale of these momentous years.

The lives of the men of Ewhurst who fell in the war have already been researched and their stories told on the excellent web site www.ewhurstfallen.co.uk and I shall, with Andrew Bailey’s permission, be drawing on this material, but I also want to show how the war affected those on the home front and how it affected everyday life in Ewhurst.

Janet Balchin

Chairman, Ewhurst History Society

August 2014.