The Old TinTrunk: A Collective Memoir 1909-1920

This story is based on memories found in an old tin trunk belonging to Edith Hazard, my grandmother, and abandoned for many years in the box room of the family home in Guatemala. It yields diaries, letters, photographs, pictures and documents, which tell the story of her dedication to God, King and Country and of her undying love for her family. She tells of her pre war life as mistress of Castle Court, and of her war time life as she attends classes on nursing and rides the ambulance, works in a hospital and teaches first aid. There are letters and journals from her sons in Africa before WWl, “The war to end all wars.” After war was declared, Edith tells of the anguish of waiting for news, and the courage of carrying on, as, one by one, her sons join the British Army and leave to fight in the trenches on the Western Front in Belgium and France. Her diaries end on Dec. 30th 1917 with this entry, “The year closes in depression, but the darkest time is just before dawn.” Other documents, in the old tin trunk, continue to follow the remaining members of the family through 1920.