A Soldier's Diary

Content Editor

From the tragic and frightening to the mundane and boring, diaries and letters are the true histories of the First World War. Told with pathos and humour, wartime diaries allowed the authors a rare moment to think of home and life beyond the trench. Lance Corporal Walter Vicery Wright, whose mother lived in Dubbo at the time, recorded his experiences of the frontline while serving at Gallipoli. Filled with genuine, and, at times raw language, the diaries show the individual behind the history.

Despite the privations and hardships, Wright kept his sense of humour, with numerous digs at the men who commanded him and the many mundane tasks the war seemed to provide: “Nothing doing, digging dug-outs all day for someone else . . . all spare time devoted to swearing and commenting on the wonderful organisation of the army . . .”

Walter Wright’s writings are a reminder that even with the distance of time, the men and women who served in this conflict were people just like us.