When Britain went to war with Germany in August 1914, Canada and the rest of the British empire followed without question and without being asked. By the time the Great War finally ground to an end in November 1918, 619,636 Canadians had enlisted in the struggle. One of them was Percy Willmot.
Percy wrote frequently to his sister, no matter where he was or what was going on and he was a gifted writer, whose sparkling personality still clearly emerges more than eighty years later.
Willmot's letters tell us much about the experiences of thousands of soldiers: progress of the war and daily experiences of the men, sometimes pointing out the contrast between the beauties of nature and the unspeakable horrors of modern warfare. They remind us of the intense intimacy of the shared experience of the trenches, perhaps especially for someone like Percy, serving in a unit with many comrades from his own community.

BRIAN DOUGLAS TENNYSON, PhD, is Professor Emeritus at Cape Breton University, where he taught history for many years. He is the author of several books, including Percy Willmot: A Cape Bretoner at War (CBU Press), Historic Mahone Bay (with Wilma White), Cape Bretoniana: An Annotated Bibliography, Guardian of the Gulf: Sydney, Cape Breton and the Atlantic Wars with Roger Sarty, The Canadian Experience of the Great War: A Guide to Memoirs and Merry Hell: The Story of the 25th (Nova Scotia Regiment) Battalion 1914-1919 (editor).

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