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Diaries and Letters

It is easy to forget the individual when dealing with the Great War.  The size of the armies and the scope of the slaughter often overwhelm the researcher.  With a conflict where empires collapse, revolutions succeed and millions perish, we can lose sight of the personal stories that make up the whole.  This was a time of mass literacy when people regardless of class or rank put pen to paper.  Through diaries and letters we can glimpse the life of people, families and communities.  We can gain insight into a time and place and a world that was rapidly changing.   The writings run from the mundane to the profound, from the poetic to the pedestrian.  The pages reveal hope and fear.  Weather it is a journal kept at the front or a letter home to mother, it is often an unfiltered moment in time. 

The material in this and other sections is taken from the collections of University of Saskatchewan Archives and Special Collections and has been divided into six sub-categories:

 

Nursing Sister Brock

George Collinson

The Elliott Brothers

Samuel Ralph Laycock

John Mitchell

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