The First World War brought about dramatic changes in the role of women in British society. Suffragettes gave up their militant protests to support the war effort, and from the moment war broke out women were ready to help. As increasing numbers of men left to serve overseas, their duties were taken over by women, who took jobs as postal workers, tram clippies, delivery drivers, land workers and others.

Postcards sent by men on the front, and to them by their families, are among the most numerous, and most telling, surviving artefacts of the Great War. They tell us much about attitudes towards the war, and provide a great insight into men’s lives, and into the thoughts and emotions of those left behind. Very different in their illustration, and in their writing, between the beginning of the war and the end, postcards provide a social history of the war in microcosm. Illustrated with a wide range of postcards, this is a fascinating look into the response of the British people to the horrors of the war.