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First World War
From 1914 until 1918, British forces fought against the Central Powers in the First World War. Conscription, censorship and large numbers of women joining the workforce changed society, and Zeppelin and aircraft raids altered the landscape of towns and cities.
Use the links below to explore the stories of the First World War through the places that English Heritage cares for and the people and events commemorated by blue plaques.
Life at War
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Scarborough Shelling
Learn of the first time civilians were targeted on English soil during the First World War, and how ‘Remember Scarborough’ became a rallying cry.
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Fortress Dover
Discover how Dover Castle was transformed into a command and control centre and took on a vital role in the defence of Britain.
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Stonehenge Aerodrome
Find out why an aerodrome was built at Stonehenge, and what pilots thought of training on the grass runways near the famous stones.
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Wartime stories from country houses
Explore the profound changes wrought by war on the people knitting, nursing, training and falling in love at English country houses.
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Diary of a Soldier
Private Arthur Roberts’ diary of his military service shows us his journey from raw, wide-eyed recruit to a man coming to terms with the full horror of trench warfare.
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Letters from the Front
How John Glasson Thomas’s letters to Gertie Brooks offer a very special record of one man’s Great War, from training at Pendennis Castle to the front.
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Conscription and Conscientious Objection
Conscription was introduced in 1916 and 20,000 men in Britain appealed for exemption from military service. Discover their stories of defiance and faith.
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Wrest Park Hospital
Wrest was used first as a convalescent home and then a base hospital. Explore its story via family scrapbooks compiled in the 1930s.
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Whitby at War
Discover how Whitby was attacked by a German battlecruiser firing twelve-inch shells in 1914, and later repaired.
First World War Memorials
The dead of the First World War seldom came home. English Heritage cares for some of the poignant memorials created to give mourners in Britain a focus for their grief.
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Remembering the Fallen
Discover different approaches to commemorating the dead at six of central London’s finest First World War memorials, some of which reflect their creators’ wartime experiences.
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A Gardener at War
War drastically altered lives and landscapes. Learn about Ernest Johnson, gardener at Osbourne House, who was drafted into the Navy and later commemorated at the garden he once tended.
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Edith Cavell
Nurse and matron Edith Cavell enabled hundreds of Allied soldiers to escape the German occupation. She was caught and executed, and became a symbol of sacrifice and forgiveness.
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The Cenotaph
Learn how the Cenotaph in Whitehall took a pre-eminent place as the nation’s main place of commemoration of its war dead.
Listen to a Podcast
Listen to discover more about the First World War at our sites and the collections and people associated with them.
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Voices from the Walls
Explore stories behind some of the thousands of graffiti inscribed on the walls of a cell block, many of which were left by conscientious objectors.
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The History of Poppy Day
Learn how the red poppy became a symbol of those who gave their lives in conflicts and how and where the commemorative poppies are made today.
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A Blast from the Past
Explore the explosive history of English Heritage’s artillery collection and the conservation work to ensure that rare guns and cannons survive.
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Berwick Barracks
Learn about Berwick Barracks and how the story of one First World War soldier who lived here has been immortalised in a painting.
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Nursing the Nation
Hear stories of the nurses who worked at Wrest Park military hospital, what the soldiers did to keep their spirits up and the disaster that forced it to close.
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A Flying Visit
Discover why Stonehenge was used as an aerodrome and if there is any truth to the story that the stones were used for target practice!
Famous First World War Figures
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Hertha Ayrton, physicist
Leading physicist Hertha Ayrton invented the Ayrton fan, a device used in trench warfare for dispelling poisonous gases
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Enid Bagnold, nurse & writer
Enid Bagnold’s frankness about her wartime nursing experience got her fired but HG Wells considered her book ‘one of the most human’ written about war.
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Vera Brittain & Winifred Holtby, nurses & writers
Vera Brittain and Winifred Holtby were nurses during the war. Brittain’s novel, Testament of Youth, dealt with the devastating blow dealt by the First World War to their generation.
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Mansfield Cumming, head of the secret service
Sir Mansfield Cumming was the first Chief of the Secret Service Bureau and created the network ‘La Dame Blanche’, which reported on enemy troop movements.
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Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, artist
Henri Gaudier-Brzeska was an avant-garde artist who wrote from the trenches to the Vorticist magazine Blast about war and carving a broken gun into a sculpture.
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Harold Gillies, plastic surgeon
Harold Gillies sought to repair the terrible damage done to soldiers’ faces during the First World War and in so doing, revolutionised plastic surgery.
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Victor Horsley, neurosurgeon
Horsley volunteered for active service and fought to improve care for wounded and diseased troops in the military hospitals near Baghdad.
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Maud McCarthy, nursing director
Dame Maud McCarthy was responsible for the entire nursing operation on the Western Front, from the English Channel to the Mediterranean.
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Henry and CRW Nevinson, writer & artist
Henry Nevinson accompanied the first Friends Ambulance Unit to reach France. His son, CRW Nevinson, was a medic and an official war artist.
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Arthur Pearson, philanthropist
Sir Arthur Pearson was secretary of the National Relief Fund, and in 1915, he established a charity for blinded servicemen, which became Blind Veterans UK.
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Siegfried Sassoon, solider and writer
Sassoon’s exceptional courage earned him the Military Cross and the nickname ‘Mad Jack’. His war poems and memoirs are his best-known works.
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Short Brothers, aeronautical engineers
Britain’s first aircraft manufacturers, Horace, Eustace and Oswald Short built aircraft for the British military. A Short seaplane dropped the UK’s first air-launched torpedo.
First World War Places to Visit
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Brodsworth Hall and Gardens
Learn about Brodsworth’s role as a hub for the community to make thousands of garments in short supply for troops.
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Carlisle Castle
Visit Carlisle Castle, where 23,000 recruits passed through training to prepare for service overseas.
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Dover Castle
Explore the recreated anti-aircraft battery, a reminder that Dover was subject to the first German bomb to fall on Britain.
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Old Oswestry Hillfort
Discover the archaeological remains of trenches dug to train servicemen for what they would face in combat.
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Pendennis Castle
Discover the role of Pendennis Castle as the first port of call on the English Channel and the story of Fortress Falmouth during the First World War.
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Richmond Castle
Richmond Castle was occupied by the northern Non-Combatant Corps. Explore their stories and how they left their mark.
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Stonehenge
Visit the Airman's Cross memorial dedicated to two very early airmen, a poignant reminder of the brave pioneer flyers who trained nearby.
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Wrest Park
Explore the first country house to be turned into a hospital during the war and learn about the lives of nurses and soldiers.