A question constantly debated is 'How did the Great War change women's lives'? The author sets this question in the context of debates on the way the war has been interpreted over time and the ...difference between contemporary and retrospective accounts. This is the story of the wartime experience of the women in one family. The author's main source is a series of letters circulated by Peg, her grandmother, to her grandmother's brothers and sisters, which were passed to the author's mother and then to the author herself. Peg was part of an Edwardian middle-class family, and her daughters were brought up with traditional gender roles between family members. In the last two years of the war both her sons and her son-in-law were killed and three grandchildren were born to her daughters. The letters tell the story of this recurring experience of death and mourning, new life and hope. Interspersed is her account of the struggle to cope with the challenges of life on the home front, including an excursion into combat territory in France to visit her son in hospital. The author considers the post-war consequences of the war for Peg and her daughters and its significance for the question above.
