Life on the Home Front
Pictou County during the Great War 1914 - 1918

Follow the Great War as it was experienced by people living on the Home Front. The Pictou County blog allows you to relive, day by day over the course of four years, the thoughts and opinions of local Canadians as the nation changed forever.

Pictou County during the Great War 1914 - 1918.

A selection from local newspapers providing a glimpse into the life, times, and thoughts of Pictonians during the "War to End All Wars". Original articles from the "Eastern Chronicle", the "Pictou Advocate" and the "Free Lance" are published 100 years to the day of originally appearing in the newspaper. Posts begin August 4, 2014 (1914) (100 years from the day war was declared) and continue to November 11, 2018 (1918) the day the armistice was signed.

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Special Features

Books & other Resources

Your public library is committed to bringing you a wide range of books, articles, and DVD's about World War One. To make your reading and viewing easier we have provided this list of resources. It will be growing over the next four years so check back often. If you know of a title we have missed, please let us know.

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Our Digital Collections

In addition to print and e-books Pictou-Antigonish Regional Library is also committed to ensuring our local heritage is preserved and presented through NovaStory.ca. With support from the Community Access Program we are building a large collection of online materials. Books, photographs, maps, and more are added monthly.

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Pictou Casualties: the second battle of Ypres

Over the next four years Pictou-Antigonish Regional Library staff will be shining a spotlight on various stories about local people and events during the Great War. We invite you to discover these with us and if you have a story idea please let us know.

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Great War Links

We invite you to explore the following external online resources related to World War One. These links have been selected by library staff for their quality and usefulness in discovering more about the lives and stories of local people.

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Featured Books

Canadians at War: A Guide to the Battlefields of World War I

Ypres, the Somme, Vimy, Passchendaele, Amiens - to thousands of soldiers, now gone, the battles were hard-fought and costly campaigns fraught with danger, pain, and tears. Today, these combat zones are trod by tourists in search of a connection with the past. Canadians at War follows the route of the Canadian Expeditionary Force from its first encounter with German forces at Neuve Chappelle to the site of the 1915 gas attack at St. Julien, from the Somme to Vimy and Passchendaele. In this informative guide, Evans Shaw provides an historical overview of each battlefield as well as maps, photographs, and information on the memorials and cemeteries.

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Warrior: The Amazing Story of a Real War Horse

Unlike the book and film War Horse, Warrior is the true story of the thoroughbred horse Winston Churchill's great heroic friend, Jack Seely, took to France in 1914. They both survived five years of bombs and bullets to lead a cavalry charge in 1918 before returning home where they rode on together until 1938, their combined ages (70 + 30) totalling 100. The book tells how a combination of both the horse's extraordinary character and some unbelievable twists of fate, helped him survive a war which claimed the lives of 8 million horses.

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Faithful Services in WWI and WWII: Veterans of Sunny Brae, Pictou County

Written by local author Clyde F. Macdonald, this book provides a window on the lives of 63 World War I veterans and 37 World War II veterans. Most were either born in Sunny Brae or resided or worked in Sunny Brae.

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The Wolf: How One German Raider Terrorized the Allies in the Most Epic Voyage of WWI

On November 30, 1916, an apparently ordinary freighter left harbor in Kiel, Germany, and would not touch land again for another fifteen months. It was the beginning of an astounding 64,000-mile voyage that was to take the ship around the world, leaving a trail of destruction and devastation in her wake. For this was no ordinary freighter—this was the Wolf, a disguised German warship.

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Walking the Somme

An essential traveling companion for anyone visiting the Somme battlefields of 1916. Walking the Somme brings the visitor not only to the places where the armies clashed but to the landscape of monuments, cemeteries and villages that make the Somme battlefield so moving to explore.

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Merry Hell: The Story of the 25th Battalion (Nova Scotia Regiment), Canadian Expeditionary Force 1914-1919

Merry Hell is the only complete history of the 25th Canadian infantry battalion, which was recruited in the autumn and winter of 1914 - 15 and served overseas from spring 1915 until spring 1919. Author Robert N Clements, who served in the battalion throughout that period and rose from private to captain, wrote the story many years after the war, based on his personal memories and experiences.

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Old Enough to Fight: Canada's Boy Soldiers in the First World War

Between 15,000 and 20,000 underage youths, some as young as ten, signed up to fight in Canada's armed forces in the First World War. They served in the trenches alongside their elders, and fought in all the major battles: Ypres, the Somme, Passchendaele, Vimy Ridge, and the rest. Many were injured or suffered psychological wounds. Many died. This is the first book to tell their story.

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Agnes Warner and the Nursing Sisters of the Great War

Through ear-splitting, thunderous explosions and fearful eerie flashes in the distance, the nurses of the Canadian Army Nursing Service in World War I waited for the inevitable arrival of wounded soldiers. They worked at a feverish pace to give emergency care for the devastating injuries of war. Exploring the many ways in which trained and volunteer nurses gave their time, talents, and even their lives to the First World War effort, Quinn considers the gruelling conditions of work and the brutal realities they faced. Using letters, diaries, and published accounts, he paints a complete picture of the young women who witnessed first-hand the horrors of the Great War.

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At the Sharp End: Canadians Fighting the Great War 1914-1916

Hailed as the definitive work on Canadians in the Great War, "At the Sharp End" covers the harrowing early battles of 1914 - 16. Tens of thousands, and then hundreds of thousands, died before the generals and soldiers found a way to break the terrible stalemate of the front. Based on eyewitness accounts detailed in the letters of ordinary soldiers, Cook describes the horrible struggle, first to survive in battle, and then to drive the Germans back. This recounting of the Great War through the soldiers' eyes is moving, engaging, and thoroughly engrossing.

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Nova Scotia's Part in The Great War

A review of Military Units mobilized or organized in Nova Scotia for service in the Great War. The information was obtained from war records available at the time, as well as personal war diaries and interviews. Extensive personnel lists and a number of portraits of Nova Scotian's who contributed to the war effort. This is one of our NovaStory digital collections.

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Twenty -Third Battery Field Artillery, Active Service 1915 Canadian Expeditionary Force

A digitized booklet describing the Twenty - Third Field Artillery, an artillerly battery for overseas service which represented the maritime provinces within the Canadian Expeditionary Force. This is one of our NovaStory digital collections.

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Life on the Home Front Pictou County during the Great War 1914 - 1918

Pictou County during the Great War 1914 - 1918.

Special Features

Books & other Resources

Our Digital Collections

Pictou Casualties: the second battle of Ypres

Great War Links

Featured Books

Canadians at War: A Guide to the Battlefields of World War I

Warrior: The Amazing Story of a Real War Horse

Faithful Services in WWI and WWII: Veterans of Sunny Brae, Pictou County

The Wolf: How One German Raider Terrorized the Allies in the Most Epic Voyage of WWI

Walking the Somme

Merry Hell: The Story of the 25th Battalion (Nova Scotia Regiment), Canadian Expeditionary Force 1914-1919

Old Enough to Fight: Canada's Boy Soldiers in the First World War

Agnes Warner and the Nursing Sisters of the Great War

At the Sharp End: Canadians Fighting the Great War 1914-1916

Nova Scotia's Part in The Great War

Twenty -Third Battery Field Artillery, Active Service 1915 Canadian Expeditionary Force

Life on the Home Front
Pictou County during the Great War 1914 - 1918