"WW1 through the eyes of ordinary people" is how ITV's Sunday docu-drama 'The Great War: The Peoples' Story' is described. This is compelling television where actors give life to the words contained in letters and diaries. Historians will know the value of these sources and how reciting extracts this way adds dimension to the words. In Episode 3 (broadcast 24 August 2014 but available on the ITV Player for a month) the Reverend Andrew Clark of Great Leighs in Essex was featured. His diary from the Home Front, his observations of troops in the village, of Zeppelin air raids, and of the families who had lost loved ones, was published a number of years ago in greatly edited form as 'Echoes of the Great War'. It was this title 'echoes' that The Revd Andrew Clark penned in the opening lines at the beginning of the war. The book is bedside reading, and will be over the next four years.
2 comments:
In referring to Andrew Clark could writers please use the correct English (not American) form and write The Revd Andrew Clark or the Revd Mr Clark or even Andrew Clark but please, not 'Rev Clark'. AS the man who discovered the diaries and edited them I would be most grateful, as would Andrew Clark. James E.B. Munson, M.A., D. Phil. (Oxon.)
Thank you for your e mail. Firstly I apologise for the error which will be corrected.
Principally the reason for a response is to thank you for what, to my mind as an amateur Essex local historian, is a most interesting realisation of the great work of Andrew Clark. It’s discovery remains a major contribution to the understanding of the Great War at home and, when put alongside other diaries – e.g., Revd Reeve of Stondon Massey (in the Essex Record Office) - and books such as ‘First Blitz’ by Hanson and ‘The German Air Raids… ‘ by Captain Morris, builds a fascinating record and eye witness account. It is particularly interesting that ITV’s ‘Great War. The People’s Story’ (I have recently bought the book) and the BBC’s ‘Britain’s Great War’ should, in the former case, bring Clark back to life through the words of an actor, and, in the latter case, speak of the Rector of Great Leighs, and visit the war memorial as typical of those erected in the wake of war. The ITV programme chose to quote the Zeppelin raid of 31 March 1916, which has particularly resonance with the place I live. After dropping bombs on Braintree “the several explosions in the south” came from Blackmore, where Reeve reported a number of bombs were dropped in fields which are not half a mile from the village of Blackmore. In St Laurence Church there is a painted window giving thanks for protection from the air raid that night.
My wife and I visited the Village Hall at Great Leighs, on 3 August 2014, where local people as well as the British Legion held an exhibition to remember the commencement of hostilities. The short biography of Andrew Clark refers to the 3 million words in 92 volumes devoted to the Great War, and the commemorative plaque placed below his memorial tablet in the Parish Church which reads ‘Compiler of Diaries of Gt. Leighs Life August 1914 – June 1919’ placed there after publication of your book in 1985. I have seen some of Clark’s transcripts in the Essex Record Office and recall how small his writing was. Editing this work must have been quite a feat.
Congratulations are therefore due to you for your work, a second-hand copy I managed to obtain about six years ago. I do hope that it is republished sometime.
With best wishes
Andrew Smith
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