As the newspapers told of the murder of some Duke and his wife in a far-off Eastern European city, the adults around the two classmates speculate on the likelihood of a big war, and whether it would all be over by Christmas that year, in 1914. As the same scene was repeated in cities, towns and villages across Great Britain, Jack and Albert thought it would be such an adventure to run away to join up for the Western Front. But their relatively sheltered background could never have prepared them for the next five years, or thereafter.