BBC Learning English
Words in the News
World War 1wills
30 August 2013
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The last wishes, thoughts and concerns of more than 230,000 soldiers who died in World
War I are to be made available online.
The BBC's Martin Vennard reports:
The wills and letters that accompanied them give a picture of the lives and loves of the
some of the millions of soldiers who served in the First World War.
They tell of the family and friends that the men at the front had left behind.
The following are extracts from those written by Privates Harry Lewis Lincoln and Joseph
Witchburn:
Private Harry Lewis Lincoln:
My dearest Clara, I have been expecting a letter from you. I expect you thought I might
not get it. But you can always write to the last address. It will always find me, dear Clara.
Private Joseph Witchburn:
If I get killed in active service there will be a medal for me somewhere, and I hope you
will try to get it and keep it for the boy to wear when he grows up.
Historian Peter Simkins described his emotion on locating, through the archive, the will
of his great-uncle Frank Hill, who went missing on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey in
1918.
Peter Simkins:
I was staggered that this, not only at the speed at which it was located and sent to me
but also by the fact that here was something I thought I'd never see.
The British troops kept their wills tucked in their uniforms inside their pocket service
books.
Once the men died the wills were collected by the military authorities.
Now, the first batch of some 230,000 of the surviving documents have been digitised
and put online.
Among other wills that have been made available are those of a professional footballer
and the grandfather of the musician Mick Fleetwood.
The wills, which belong to the British state, are being digitised in time for next year's
centenary of the start of World War I.
Words in the News © British Broadcasting Corporation 2013
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Vocabulary and definitions
wills documents which say what a person wants to happen
to their money and property after they die
the front places where armies face each other and fight
extracts short sections taken from longer writing
in active service while fighting in a war (for an army)
locating finding
peninsula a long piece of land that sticks out into a lake or sea
staggered very shocked and surprised
tucked stored safely in a small place
batch group (of similar things)
digitised changed into a digital form so it can be stored on a
computer
centenary (day or year) 100 years after an event
Read and listen to the story and the vocabulary online:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2013/08/130830_witn_wwi_wills.shtml
Related story:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-23861821
Words in the News © British Broadcasting Corporation 2013
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bbclearningenglish.com