Our author manages to write several letters to Reid during the war. Chances are you and your family have old war letters or other family artifacts. But by the end of the war, November 1918, over 5000 people were involved in censoring letters sent back to the home front. The letters presented by this online exhibit would have received approval from the military. Many members of the armed forces were immigrants or the children of immigrants and they were more comfortable communicating home in their native language. [ Richards, Anthony.] The writer is likely writing the letter with the wife to ensure self-censorship. 1916. The letter is brief and avoids using details about the soldier and/or his wife’s wellbeing. Myron Fox is a past vice president of the Military Postal History Society, a group that studies the mail that is sent to and from soldiers. In nations where literacy was well-established by 1914, letter-writing was critical to the emotional well-being of soldiers and their families. They confiscated them; they didn't send them back. [Richards, Anthony. ] "Many men were also reluctant to share the full extent of their feelings under the eyes of their superiors.Green envelopes were the solution for those who wanted to limit the amount of censorship subjected to their letters.It ensured their words would be sent to be read instead by an outside officer, unconnected to their unit.A far quicker device was also introduced to avoid the need for censorship altogether.The Field Service Postcard became a kind of social media status update for its time, with soldiers able to choose between a few descriptions to describe their health (from "I am quite well" to "I am wounded"), confirm receipt of a letter or parcel, or report a breakdown in communication.While the messages were impersonal, they were gratefully received by those desperate for news of their loved ones and remain among the fascinating elements of First World War communication passed down from generation to generation.The lasting treasures, though, remain the longer letters detailing the human experience of every element of the conflict, right up until the final shot was fired before the German Empire surrendered.Read today, the hopeful words of soldiers like Brasher Clarke are loaded with poignancy.Writing to his father on November 11, 1918, Armistice Day, imagining the celebrations back home, he said: "May history record that this was the war that ended war and God grant that such madness be never unleashed upon the world again. Canadian Censorship In Canada, letters received and send by soldiers were read and censored before reaching their destinations. During World War II letters were censored by military personnel and post office workers to protect sensitive information being leaked to the “enemy aliens.” Censorship occurred in Canada, England and other allied countries. First of all, one method was the field postcard. With censorship concerns among the allied countries, it became common practice for people to write carefully. "The night seems the worst. Letter censorship on the front line Keeping the Home Front posted, with millions of carefully censored letters zipping between soldiers and loved ones, was vital for maintaining morale He is an expert on United States military and civilian censorship in World War I and World War II. "Though he offered a brief description, he went on: "You will have to wait until I come home for experiences and news in general.
Civilians sent letters and parcels to the front. The letter suggests the soldier is injured, dead, or missing. Soldiers were encouraged to not write about their mental state to hide shell shock. Material held by Army Medical Services Museum, Keogh Barracks. On Sunday, June 25 1916, Arthur Seanor wrote a letter to his girlfriend and his mother. "Now prized documents, the letters to and from the First World War frontline were the only means of contact with the British servicemen in action between 1914 and 1918.A staggering two billion letters and 114 million parcels were handled during the conflict by the British Army postal service, which was forced to quickly adapt to the feverish demand for communication.The coordinating London Home Depot soon became the largest wooden structure in the world as it expanded under the weight of 1,050 tonnes of mail per week.The UK operation also became a huge employer of women, with 35,000 recruited to cover the roles of the men who had gone off to fight.At its height, 12.5 million letters were transported to the Western Front by the mail service, which also ran all the written coordinations between the frontline units.A vast network was established, with a coded system of addresses to deliver to locations that needed to be kept secret from the enemy.The correspondence now forms an extraordinarily detailed diary of events from the conflict, brought to life by messages like the one pilot Bernard Curtis Rice sent back to his father in November 1915.Thanking him for the "excellent supply of apples" that had just arrived, in return he giddily reported his experiences in the burgeoning era of combat planes to give his father "some idea of what it is like flying over the (enemy) lines".But how could the servicemen describe the events in the air and on the ground without endangering themselves and their units?Beyond the extraordinary war-time distribution of letters was the enormous undertaking of censorship.Each letter was subject to a strict checking process to prevent vital information - innocently shared - being intercepted by spies.For frontline soldiers, that careful screening was the duty of their unit officers.It meant men like Ralph McGuire, writing home to "his princess" from Greece in 1916, could only hint at the horrors he had witnessed after three journeys to the frontline. "I am just on the eve of going into the greatest battle the world has ever known," he began.Arthur was due into conflict the next morning and knew the words he was carefully putting down on paper would only be read in the event of his death.He did not know it then, but the next day's fighting at the Somme would be delayed by bad weather, fate that would keep him alive in the trenches of France for one more week.Then, on the morning of July 1 - Arthur's 28th birthday - he shook hands with his superior and went over the top.He was gunned down by German soldiers within 200 yards on what became - and remains - the bloodiest day in the British Army's history.Some 19,240 British troops were slaughtered on the first of 141 days of gruesome battle at the Somme.Arthur's body was seen in the bog on the battlefield but never recovered.More than a century on, his final letter to his "own darling mother" is treasured by his family on Merseyside.Among his concluding words, he wrote: "I've done my duty best and stuck to everything I had to.