The Great War of 1914-18 was among the bloodiest of the modern age and was soon dubbed 'the war to end all wars'.
The University of Glasgow is set to launch an online roll of honour to commemorate all those associated with the institution who served in the Great War of 1914-18.
Using photographs, press cuttings, magazine clippings, personal letters and rolls of honour, the new site will make the university’s vast archives available to researchers across the globe.
"Next year is the 60th anniversary of the end of WWII, which reminds us that many people do not have the chance to spend Christmas with their family," said Lesley Richmond from the University of Glasgow Archives.
"5,000 members of the university community served in WWI, and 700 promising young people did not come home to their families, but they will be forever remembered by their alma mater," she added. "Importantly, the resource will enable young people to learn about WWI soldiers and their experiences."
The online resource will record not only those who died, but all members of the University of Glasgow community who served in the First World War.
Due for launch next year, the new website is said to be a unique initiative that will digitally honour and recall the lives of those who served their country.
Some 5,000 members of the University of Glasgow community went off to serve in the Great War. Courtesy University of Glasgow.
The site will commemorate graduates such as William Ebenezer Maitland, who like many of his generation headed to France in 1914, but never came back.
William studied medicine at Glasgow, graduating in March 1913. On Christmas Eve 1914, aged 25, he was wounded fighting with the Third Seaforth Highlanders and subsequently died.
Members of Glasgow University Officer Training Corps remembered him fondly and his obituary stated "whatever honours and new titles came to him, to his old college friends he was always and always will be "Teddy", one of the kindest-hearted and most genuine of men."
However, the archives don’t just tell the tragic stories of those who didn’t come back; many of those who survived are also remembered.
When war broke out, Glasgow University graduate Archibald Allan Bowman applied for leave of absence from his position at Princeton University to join the British Army.
The appalling conditions and horrific violence of the Great War took its toll on a generation of young men. The 1st / 4th East Lancs in a sap-head at Givenchy, January 28, 1918. © IWM.
Serving with the Highland Light Infantry he was taken prisoner at the Battle of Lys in April 1918, but after repatriation returned to Princeton where he taught Philosophy.
Following his wartime experiences, Bowman became a strong supporter of the League of Nations, delivering lectures to further international peace, and in 1926 was appointed to the Chair of Moral Philosophy at Glasgow. There he remained until his death in 1936.
The letters he exchanged with his family during the war are now preserved in the archive, including a note sent to his wife on Sunday December 24 1916:
"Christmas Eve has always been so sacred to me, such a sacred name, & now that the date is hallowed by our wedding it becomes a day of all days," he wrote. "How different, Dearest, to-day is from that Christmas Eve four years ago that made us man and wife.... I'm sorry for the poor Germans, to whom Christmas is so much a festival. This will be a sad Christmas for them — as indeed it will be for so many of ourselves."
As well as school children, researchers, teachers and historians, the new site will offer relatives of university graduates help compiling a family tree.
Staff hope to have the site ready and live by summer 2005 when commemorative events to mark the end of the Second World War will be going on all over the world.
For more information about the Uiversity of Glasgow archive, pay the institution's website a visit.
