About History Bookazine All About History Heroes of the First World War third edition Back Issue

World War I was barely two months old when The Times published a poem, written just weeks into the conflict by Robert Laurence Binyon, entitled ‘For the Fallen’. Its solemn stanzas would come to encapsulate not only the devastating loss of life caused by the war that was supposed to be over by Christmas 1914, but also the way that we remember those who served in it. Not all of those featured in this book fell in WWI, and not all of those who fell in WWI are featured in this book – yet they are all worthy of remembrance. Whether they returned home to fight another day or their remains lie forever in some foreign field, the men – and women – of the armies, navies, air forces and support staff on both sides of the greatest war the world had then seen, all displayed the kind of courage, selflessness, determination and tenacity that is worthy of only one word: heroism. For the past century, we have answered that heroism with the promise that Binyon made in his poem, a pledge to never forget, so that the suffering and sacrifice of these heroes was not in vain:

“They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.”