‘If I should die, think only this of me: That there’s some corner of a foreign field that is for ever England.’
That, as generations of Britons have come to know, is the tingling opening line to Rupert Brooke’s The Soldier, which he wrote in the early days of the First World War.
Now, 107 years on from the end of the devastating conflict, Brooke’s verses and those of dozens of other acclaimed war poets have been paired with hugely moving images that reveal two different sides to the war.
The painstakingly restored photos, from the archive of the Daily Mail, were taken both on the Western Front and back in Britain, where millions of women took up vital jobs that had been vacated by men who had been sent to fight.
In one, a Tommy kisses a smiling woman under mistletoe at Christmas time.
In another, a group of soldiers beam as they pose in a wrecked hansom cab that has been cheekily marked up as ’10 Downing Street‘.
Back home, women are seen hard at work as nurses, London Underground guards, munitions workers and road menders.
As well as Brooke, the likes of Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Gibson and Robert Graves feature alongside the Mail’s images in A Corner of a Foreign Field: The Illustrated Poetry of the First World War.
A new book, A Corner of a Foreign Field: The Illustrated Poetry of the First World War, has paired famous poetry with stunning wartime images from the archive of the Daily Mail. Above: A Tommy kisses a woman under some mistletoe at Christmas on the Western Front
A British soldier stands with a bomb destined to be dropped on enemy forces at the Rhine
‘Tar women’ expertly mending the roads back in Britain. Millions of women who took up roles in the absence of men proved that they were more than capable
The lines of Wilfred Owen are among the most compelling of the group.
In Dulce Et Decorum Est, his most famous poem, he exposed the horror of a gas attack, writing: ‘Dim through the misty panes and thick green light / As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.’
The poem’s heartrending, chilling final stanza is one that generations of schoolchildren have learned since the First World War.
It ends: ‘…My friend, you would not tell with such high zest to children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.’
Owen was killed on November 4, 1918, just a week before Germany surrendered.
His mother was told of his death in a telegram that she received on Armistice Day itself.
Also in the anthology are poems written by women, including Nina Macdonald’s Sing A Song of War-time and Jessie Pope’s War Girls.
They give a different perspective to the male soldier-poets, many of whom wrote of the mass death and destruction they witnessed first-hand.
Soldiers mock up an old hansom cab with ’10 Downing St’. They all seem to hugely enjoy the joke amidst the carnage of war
A wounded soldier is given a helping hand by two comrades to cross over a trench
Soldiers celebrate Christmas in 1916 in a shell crater. Despite their travails, many are smiling as they enjoy the temporary relief
Soldiers walk past a heap of dead horses in the aftermath of the Battle of Pilckem Ridge, August 1917
Canadian troops smile triumphantly from the back of a truck after a successful attack on Vimy Ridge
Their verses touched on the extent of women’s contribution to the war effort, as many stepped into industrial roles vacated by men who had been sent to fight.
Macdonald wrote in Sing A Song of War-time: ‘Mummie does the house-work / Can’t get any maid / Gone to make munitions / ‘Cause they’re better paid / Nurse is always busy / Never time to play / Sewing shirts for soldiers / Nearly ev’ry day.
Pope’s poem similarly highlighted the indispensability of women to British victory.
‘There’s the girl who clips your ticket for the train / And the girl who speeds the lift from floor to floor / There’s the girl who does a milk-round in the rain / And the girl who calls for orders at your door.
‘Strong, sensible, and fit / They’re out to show their grit / And tackle jobs with energy and knack.
‘No longer caged and penned up / They’re going to keep their end up / Till the khaki soldier boys come marching back.’
Two female London Underground guards are seen in their smart uniforms as they walk side by side
Nurses practice fire drills to ensure they are prepared for all eventualities
Two female munitions workers are seen making shells in a British factory in 1915. in the munitions factories 1915. More than 700,000 women became ‘munitionettes’
Nurses are seen tending to wounded British soldiers in an English hospital
Former prisoners of war are seen shortly after arriving back in Britain from captivity
Many of those who served were not legally old enough to fight. It is believed that more than 400,000 underage soldiers signed up to ‘do their duty’.
The youngest soldier to serve overseas was 13-year-old Private Sidney Lewis, of 106 Company, Machine Gun Corps, who saw action at the Somme.
Because of his age, his family later did not believe his story that he had served until his medals were found after his death in 1969.
Many underage soldiers distinguished themselves in battle, including Private Jack Pouchot, who won the Distinguished Conduct Medal aged 15.
Private George Lewis, of the Cheshire Regiment, received the same accolade aged 16 after helping the wounded in No Man’s Land in 1915.
By the time of Armistice Day, on November 11, 1918, nearly 900,000 members of the British forces had been killed.
Many survivors returned home carrying physical wounds ranging from minor to grotesquely severe.
Hundreds of thousands more – though they had escaped with their lives – were left with mental trauma that would never leave them.
Troops on the eastern front are seen wrapped up against the cold as they eat their rations
Wounded troops lie on stretchers at a field dressing station after the Battle of Messines, June 7, 1917
A soldier tends to the graves of recently buried Canadian troops. More than 60,000 Canadian soldiers died in the First World War
A soldier standing in front of a damaged church is poignantly photographed through a stone window frame
Soldiers pose for a photo while standing in a flooded trench. Soldiers had to constantly guard against the threat of Trench Foot
Horses struggle to pull a cart carrying munitions through the mire. The mud on the Western Front was notorious
Soldiers stand by as a horse pulling a carriage struggles in the mud
Some wounded veterans went on to find solace in making poppies to wear as tributes to the fallen.
The practice now so familiar to Britons was the brainchild of American academic Anna Guérin and French teacher Moina Michael.
They had been left deeply moved by Canadian John McCrae’s verses in his 1915 poem In Flanders Fields.
It is the opening poem in the new collection, which has been compiled by author Fiona Waters.
Its first verse reads: ‘In Flanders fields the poppies blow / Between the crosses, row on row, / That mark our place; and in the sky / The larks, still bravely singing, fly / Scarce heard amid the guns below.’
In 1921, when poppies were first sold, around nine million poppies were bought.
The money went to support the estimated 1.7million soldiers who had been left temporarily or permanently disabled as a result of their war service.
The Daily Mail’s report of the memorial services at the Cenotaph in London’s Whitehall movingly recalled the ‘vast crowds’, with ‘nearly every man, woman and child in the dense gathering’ wearing a ‘bright red splash of colour – the scarlet poppy of Remembrance Day.’
A British soldier keeps watch from his trench on the Western Front
Soldiers are seen on the Somme battlefield in France. The Battle of the Somme was fought in 1916. Nearly 20,000 British troops were killed on the first day of fighting
Soldiers seek the warmth of a fire as horses and carts go by behind them, January 1918
The apocalyptic scene after the conclusion of the Battle of Verdun, December 15 1916
British troops march down a road at Verneuil alongside a flock of sheep, May 29, 1918
Mounted troops make their way across a newly constructed bridge
The famous Christmas truce between British and German troops in 1914 continues to be the subject of fascination.
The unprecedented pause in fighting saw wearied soldiers climb out of their trenches to exchange makeshift gifts and express hope that the mass slaughter would soon be at an end.
Many accounts of British soldiers’ interactions with the ‘enemy’ were published in the Daily Mail at the time.
One incredible letter written by a Scottish officer described how, on Christmas Day, soldiers from opposing sides ended up competing to chase a hare which had ‘burst into view’ between the trenches.
Describing the scene as ‘like a football match’, the officer said the ‘game’ was ‘won by the Germans’, who ‘captured the prize’.
A Corner of a Foreign Field: The Illustrated Poetry of the First World War, edited by Fiona Waters, is published by Fiona Waters.