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Finding Private Uttley: A Soldier of the Great War
Finding Private Uttley examines the causes of the Great War and life on the Western Front, asking four questions:
What was life like on the western Front?
Why did the soldiers at the time take part – and then carry on?
How did they survive for so long?
What would I/you have done?
The guns of the Great War, the war that was supposed to end all wars, were silenced on 11th November 1918 and the names of the great battles of Loos, Somme, Ypres, Arras and Passchendaele began to pass into history. But those battles are not just names from the past – they were fought by millions of ordinary, amateur soldiers who died, suffered and did their best in the filthy, violent, heartbreaking carnage of the trenches.
Private JW Uttley was one of those millions who volunteered in 1914 to do their duty. This book is about him, but most families in Britain could easily find their own relatives with similar, poignant and moving stories to tell. The First World War touched almost every city, town, village and family in Britain and finding out what ‘Jack’ Uttley did, where he went and what happened to him, helps us recognise what millions of other soldiers achieved. Their stories describe the unimaginable heroism of those in the front line and the horrors of war, and we owe it to those brave soldiers to try to understand why they volunteered and how they fought. The more we know about them, the more likely it is that we will remember the lives that were lost and their sacrifices, which changed our world forever.
Written to commemorate the centenary of World War One, Finding Private Uttley reminds us of the men who laid down their lives to safeguard our country.
What was life like on the western Front?
Why did the soldiers at the time take part – and then carry on?
How did they survive for so long?
What would I/you have done?
The guns of the Great War, the war that was supposed to end all wars, were silenced on 11th November 1918 and the names of the great battles of Loos, Somme, Ypres, Arras and Passchendaele began to pass into history. But those battles are not just names from the past – they were fought by millions of ordinary, amateur soldiers who died, suffered and did their best in the filthy, violent, heartbreaking carnage of the trenches.
Private JW Uttley was one of those millions who volunteered in 1914 to do their duty. This book is about him, but most families in Britain could easily find their own relatives with similar, poignant and moving stories to tell. The First World War touched almost every city, town, village and family in Britain and finding out what ‘Jack’ Uttley did, where he went and what happened to him, helps us recognise what millions of other soldiers achieved. Their stories describe the unimaginable heroism of those in the front line and the horrors of war, and we owe it to those brave soldiers to try to understand why they volunteered and how they fought. The more we know about them, the more likely it is that we will remember the lives that were lost and their sacrifices, which changed our world forever.
Written to commemorate the centenary of World War One, Finding Private Uttley reminds us of the men who laid down their lives to safeguard our country.
135 pages, ebook
First published September 2, 2014
About the author
Roger Smith
10 booksLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
Roger Smith is the headteacher of a large primary school in Warwickshire, and has many years' experience as a school leader, teacher and teacher educator. He is also an experienced author with a wide range of publications in the primary teaching field to his credit.
He is a member of the Western Front Association, an educational consultant on the First World War and he also collects Great War memorabilia.
Roger Smith is the headteacher of a large primary school in Warwickshire, and has many years' experience as a school leader, teacher and teacher educator. He is also an experienced author with a wide range of publications in the primary teaching field to his credit.
He is a member of the Western Front Association, an educational consultant on the First World War and he also collects Great War memorabilia.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 23, 2014
As you may be aware, the First World War began a hundred years ago last month. I was in a talk in the spring and the speaker said that out of all the wars in this century WWI stands out for many reasons but most of all because so many people have a personal connection to the war. He asked the room if everyone who had a family member in the war could raise their hand and almost everyone’s hands went up. Of course, I’m Canadian so that’s not especially surprising.
Roger Smith’s hand would have gone up if he happened to be in that room. His grandfather fought with the British (2/5th Battalion of the York and Lancaster Regiment to be specific) and lost the use of one arm due to a gunshot wound. Smith had the experience of growing up in an area with a small, close-knit population that lost a lot of people in the war and those who came back were often maimed. Even as a child he wondered at these scarred individuals and about the events that no one was willing to speak of.
As an adult he began to trace his grandfather’s role in the conflict and quickly found it was hard to place an individual story into the mayhem and carnage that was that war. As he points out, however, that war was made up of millions of individual stories. It’s easy to lose sight of that when the numbers are so high.
Smith looks at both the war and the place his family has in it as well as the economic and cultural fall-out the war created in England. I found the personal account to be interesting, especially his memories of his grandfather’s friends. It is a short book and obviously does not cover all that could be said on the subject (if any book could), but what it does look at is a unique perspective on the war: a close personal look that will soon be impossible as the years pass.
Two small caveats for this is that it is a personal account so the focus wanders a bit. Smith also uses italics and commas a little more freely than I’m used to, although I have an advance copy so that may change in the final one.
3.5 stars. I would recommend this to anyone with an interesting in WWI, genealogy, or history.
I received a copy through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.
Roger Smith’s hand would have gone up if he happened to be in that room. His grandfather fought with the British (2/5th Battalion of the York and Lancaster Regiment to be specific) and lost the use of one arm due to a gunshot wound. Smith had the experience of growing up in an area with a small, close-knit population that lost a lot of people in the war and those who came back were often maimed. Even as a child he wondered at these scarred individuals and about the events that no one was willing to speak of.
As an adult he began to trace his grandfather’s role in the conflict and quickly found it was hard to place an individual story into the mayhem and carnage that was that war. As he points out, however, that war was made up of millions of individual stories. It’s easy to lose sight of that when the numbers are so high.
Smith looks at both the war and the place his family has in it as well as the economic and cultural fall-out the war created in England. I found the personal account to be interesting, especially his memories of his grandfather’s friends. It is a short book and obviously does not cover all that could be said on the subject (if any book could), but what it does look at is a unique perspective on the war: a close personal look that will soon be impossible as the years pass.
Two small caveats for this is that it is a personal account so the focus wanders a bit. Smith also uses italics and commas a little more freely than I’m used to, although I have an advance copy so that may change in the final one.
3.5 stars. I would recommend this to anyone with an interesting in WWI, genealogy, or history.
I received a copy through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.
Displaying 1 of 1 review