A new BBC news online story focuses on the importance of letters to servicemen fighting the war in places far from home. Titled “World War One: How did twelve million letters a week reach soldiers“, this story explains that the authorities recognised that communications from family and loved ones played an important part in sustaining the morale of soldiers. The government made arrangements with the General Post Office for an effective postal service to supply those soldiers with frequent deliveries of mail and to carry their letters back to Britain.

One of the BBC’s new interactive guides tells the same story but in a different format. It makes smart use of graphics, images and video to expand the narrative and include additional material such as discussion of censorship.

Letters to and from soldiers now form important assets for library, archives and museums services around Britain, as they give fascinating insights into the views of the people who fought and the people who endured the war from back at home. Their individual testimonies and stories are information sources of value to historians and educators, and many are now being digitised and made available online for any interested user.

A good example: The National Museum of Scotland online resource “Letters from the trenches” utilises personal letters to tell the story of one officer in the Royal Scots.