Peace, war and afterwards 1914 to 1919

Brian Wade left South Africa in February 1915 to join the British Army so as to serve the Empire during the First World War. After enlisting in King Edward's Horse as a private, he. trained at Bishops Stortford and the Curragh in Ireland. He was later commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 7th London Regiment, served mainly in the transport section and saw action in the Somme and Ypres. Due to illness he was medically discharged in February 1918 and returned to South Africa. He subsequently performed colonial service in the former German territory, Tanganyika (present day Tanzania). During his military service and the first seven months he spent in Tanganyika, he kept up a regular correspondence with his mother he regarded his weekly letter to her "as a sacred duty" and these letters eventually resulted in Peace, War and Afterwards. As there are only a few personal accounts by South Africans of their experiences as soldiers during the First World War (and even fewer have been published) Peace, War and Afterwards is a most welcome publication. Through Wade's letters to his mother the reader gets to know him as a young man who initially takes a rather light-hearted view of travelling to England to join the British army. His decision to enlist was motivated by a " spirit of adventure " rather than " the lure of patriotism", and and he anticipated " a nice sea voyage lasting about a fortnight, then once in London we will go about a bit and see things. Then when our funds begin to run too low we will enlist in Kitchener's Army." However, Wade soon experiences the harsh reality of military life: rising at " ...5 a.m. on a horribly cold morning in a biting wind ...."; the drudgery of the daily military routine; the extreme discomfort oflife in the muddy trenches on the Western Front. This made him long for the war to end and for