Everyday Life

Photograph of C H Digby Seymour taken at Stobs Camp, 1914. (DUL ref: Misc Photo Album 1)

It is quite easy to get the impression that once a soldier arrived on the Western Front he spent all his time in the trenches waiting to be sent over the top. However, this is not the case. Not every soldier was sent to the front lines and those that were did not spend every day there. Rather the soldiers were moved about, spending some time in the trenches before being moved back to the reserve lines and beyond for rest and training. We’ve managed to find a number of sources which show different aspects of everyday life. Find out more by reading an officer’s account of waiting to go to the front line, how men spent their free time, the feeding arrangements made for officers, how soldiers were dressed and an account of growing vegetables whilst waiting behind the lines.