Kirjahaku

Every one of the Leicestershire Regiment's active service battalions; Regular, Territorial or Kitchener's Army served on the Western Front. From the battle of the Aisne in 1914 to the breaking of the Hindenburg Line in 1918, the 'Tigers' were present at every major battle. Here we begin with mobilisation and finish with the last bloody skirmish at Cheval Blanc crossroads in November 1918. This is the story of the Leicesters' war of trenches, wire and mud, seen through their eyes and told in their words: from diaries, letters home, and the memoirs of the Tigers themselves and those who saw them in action.

This is the history of the 5th Northern General Hospital and its satellites during the Great War. Mobilised in 1914, this unit of the RAMC took over an old asylum (now Leicester University) but within weeks had grown in influence to administer dozens of other hospitals and convalescent homes in several adjacent counties. To the locals in Leicester and the surrounding county it was almost always 'the Base Hospital'; a focus of generous charity and a tangible symbol of their and the nation's sacrifice. This is a story of courage and of pain; of bureaucracy and imagination, hard work, generosity and loss. It is a story told in the words of those who served, or suffered and were made whole again. It is told through eyewitness accounts and archive images. The story of Leicester's Base Hospital may be applied to all the mainland hospitals: what was true of Leicester during the Great War was repeated throughout the kingdom.Every aspect of life in the hospital is examined. There are chapters on the staff of the hospital, RAMC and nursing, as well as the VADs (both men and women), its patients and facilities. There is a detailed account of the growth of the buildings and an exhaustive tour of the site, as well as chapters on the North Evington War Hospital and other satellite hospitals and convalescent homes.