The perception of the First World War shaped by the war poets was of a futile bloodbath but oral historians have found that veterans reject the status of victims.

‘There was one young boy, his face was bandaged, and I was taking him to Fulham Eye Hospital. I was trying to cheer him up. I said, “I know this hospital, it’s a splendid one. They’ll do you wonderful good.” And he just said in this hopeless voice, “It’s no good Sister. Both my eyes are out. And I’m only 19.” And he gave this terrible cry.’

This memory, recorded in the 1970s, lives on in my mind as an indelible image of the Great War of 1914-18. Of the six million soldiers who served in the British Army…