Myfanwy Thomas: Hard Times of World War I My name is Myfanwy Thomas. I live in Great Britain with my wonderful, lovingmother, Helen Noble Thomas, and my two siblings. My mother is going through a verydifficult time right now because it has only been two years since the death of my father.It is April 9, 1919. Today in school we talked about the war that went on forseveral years. It was difficult for me to talk about because of my fathers death.My teacher told us that in October of 1914, the French army attempted to attackthe German forces on the Western Front. They moved through Arras and Lens. TheFrench army was forced to withdraw because of a German counter attack. The Frencharmy was able to keep Arras, but lost Lens to the Germans. This was called the battle ofArras. Arras is where my father was killed only two years ago. We studied many otherbattles too.My mother began keeping a diary when she found out my father, EdwardThomas, enlisted in the British army. Today I came home from school and told mymother that we learned about the battle that my father was killed in. She decided to shareher diary with me. As I opened the little blue book I read:Dear Diary, Summer 1915Today Edward went to London looking for work. I received a telegram from him. I will never forget that moment. The telegram said he had enlisted as a private in theArtists Rifles. I knew this wasnt going to be easy, but I tried to prepare myself for it. Iremember reading the telegram and crying to myself, no, no, no, not that. But deepdown I knew it had to be this way and it was the only right thing to do.I never realized my mother was so upset about my father going to fight in the war. I knew I would miss him, but I always thought he would be back. I knew that it would behard, but I always thought I could handle not having a father for a few years. I continued:Dear Diary, Summer 1915At work today, at Bedales boarding school, I told my co-workers of ...
