THE secret life of Bournemouth during the First World War is laid bare in a new book which tells the story of the town through one woman’s memorabilia collection.

Former Westbourne Library manager Jenny Young has amassed a wealth of objects and items relating to Bournemouth during war-time and decided to track down their stories.

Therefore readers can lean about the theatre and entertainment during the early ‘teens’ of the last century, through an old theatre programme, the doomed love of a young Moordown soldier, and the work of disabled soldiers through a pair of bookends.

Jenny said: “In the section referring to the theatre programme the first thing you notice is that they had often had a struggle getting enough men, because they’d all gone off to fight.

“And there were issues around people getting to the theatre in the blackout, as well as the question as to whether it was too frivolous for the time or was it good for morale?”

Some people, she said, disapproved but others thought performances were good for the injured and recovering troops.

One chapter is centred around a set of postcards between a soldier an his sweetheart.

“As you read them you can see the tone changing,” she said.

“At the beginning it’s very formal, then they start using nicknames but sadly he gets killed and so there is that poignant aspect to it all.”

The book also looks at a prayer card which belonged to a man who was billeted in the town, a ration book belonging to a Moordown family and the importance of faith and religion at the time.

Jenny’s research has previously established that 1,222 men who died in the Great War had direct links with Bournemouth. She began researching the subject in 2014 after realising there were many names missing from Bournemouth council’s book of remembrance.

  • Bournemouth and The Battlefields: World War I Memorabilia and Its Connection to the Town is on sale through Amazon.