They Did Their Duty

'They Did Their Duty' is a book with three themes. Firstly it tells the story of Essex Farm and Calvaire (Essex) two First World War cemeteries in Belgium that will forever bear the Essex name. Secondly we give an overview of the Essex Regiment in the First World War. In the third part we look at the home front through the eyes of the local press, criss-crossing the county, to see what readers were given by way of news. It has to be remembered during the First World War there was no radio, no television and of no course no internet or social media. Even telephones were a rarity. 'They Did Their Duty' is not a comprehensive history of the First World War or a detailed account of the Essex Regiment. However we do try and give concise background to the momentous events of the time and to the best of our ability hope our facts and summaries are accurate. World War One, or the Great War, was the war described as the war to end all wars. It began on 28th July 1914, when Austria declared war on Serbia, and lasted until 11th November 1918, when an armistice with Germany was signed in a railway carriage at Compiegne, France. At 11am on 11th November 1918 - the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month - a ceasefire came into effect, the guns fell silent and the killing stopped. In four years the total number of deaths was estimated at eight and a half million which included over 900,000 from the British Empire, with a further two million wounded and 150,000 taken prisoner or listed as missing. During this war no part of the United Kingdom escaped the grim death toll. In some cases the menfolk of complete communities were slaughtered. The war impacted on all parts of Essex and Essex itself has left its own permanent reminders in Belgium. Just to the north of Ypres or Iepere (in Dutch) in West-Vlaanderen, Belgium is Essex Farm. It is a First World War cemetery alongside the medieval Yser Canal. The area around Ypres (or the Ypres) salient, as it became known, was the scene of some of the fiercest fighting and worst carnage...