Isle of Wight in the Great War

M. J. Trow

feb 2015 · Pen and Sword

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The Isle of Wight went to war in August 1914 along with the rest of Britain. German waiters were arrested. The tourist trade slumped. Foreigners were denounced and lads from all walks of life flocked to the Colours. Then came privations, losses, hospitals full of the sick and crippled. After conscription was brought in tribunals were set up to catch draft-dodgers. Thousands of pounds were raised for the war effort and lectures, rallies and the local press all did their bit to keep morale high. There are no official figures for the Island's war dead, but 300 of the Isle of Wight Rifles fell on one day at Gallipoli in August 1915.The original plan to commemorate the dead was to erect a cross in Winchester but that changed so that every Island parish had a memorial of its own. Ex-Islanders from as far away as Australia and Canada volunteered to fight for king and country in this war to end all wars.

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M.J. Trow has written highly praised historical biographies as well as studies of true crime. He is also a very successful novelist.

Among his recent publications are lives of Boudicca, Vlad the Impaler, Kit Marlowe, the hero of the Charge of the Light Brigade, Captain William Morris, War Crimes: Underworld Britain in the Second World War and The Cato Street Conspiracy.

He has produced several best-selling accounts of criminal cases, in particular volumes on Derek Bentley, the Wigwam Murder and Jack the Ripper, but he is perhaps best known for his many novels which include the Lestrade and Maxwell series.