"Swindon - Remembering 1914-18" by Mike Pringle

[Moonraker]

This is an excellent study of Swindon in the Great War. A century ago the town was a major rail centre, with the Great Western Railway Works employing 10,000 men and a main GWR line crossing the Midland & South Western Junction Railway that connected the south Midlands with the army camps of Chisledon and Tidworth and thence Southampton.

Skilled men from the GWR works formed the bulk of the Wilts (Fortress) Royal Engineers, who built a bridge spanning 180ft over the Canal du Nord. The works also greatly contributed to the war effort, producing locomotives for use overseas, specialist wagons (including those forming ambulance trains) and munitions. Swindon also provided men for D Squadron, Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry, the 4th Wiltshire Regiment and 1st Battery (Wilts) Royal Field Artillery, all of whose war service is recounted.

The influence on the town of Chisledon Camp five miles to the South East, is described – the camp itself already having been the subject of a specific book by David Bailey published in 1998.

Details of increases in the cost of living are very well presented, as is the story of post war re-construction

Swindon was one town to witness riots in 1919, when angry townsfolk, said to be mainly ex-serviceman, burnt down a Peace flagpole alleged to have cost £250. The riots ran sporadically for several days.

A thoughtful conclusion summaries the war's legacy, mainly in terms of remembrance, but also telling how today's generation is informed about the sacrifices of a century ago.

There are excellent illustrations.

The design – presumably common to all the History Press's "Great War Britain" titles – has the outside margins of the book's pages given a weathered, creased look to give the impression of an old book.

ISBN 978 0 7509 5610 9 160pp £12.99