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All Quiet in the Western Suburbs: WW1 – Letters home to Chiswick and nearby districts
John Grigg

Millions of letters were written home by soldiers and sailors in the First World War and the men from Chiswick, West London, were every bit as prolific as their companions from elsewhere. Most of the letters in this book were sent to the Rev. Oldfield in Chiswick and he sent them on to the Chiswick Times, but there are others are to relatives, friends and employers and the Chiswick Working Men’s Club, and there are interviews and reports from journalists in the Chiswick Times and the Acton Gazette.
This is a unique record of the experiences of servicemen from the district who served all over the world. They describe the horrors of the war, writing of ‘Jack Johnsons’ ‘Rum Jars’ and ‘Coal Boxes’ (all nicknames for enemy shells and bombs) although often with feigned indifference, but many do not touch on the horrors at all - perhaps to protect relatives and friends from anxiety. The war was not confined to the European Western Front and this book includes letters and reports from other parts of the world: India, Africa, Egypt, Palestine, Greece, Mesopotamia (present day Iraq), and the Dardanelles. There are even letters from Russia where British forces were engaged against the Bolsheviks after 1918.
Published: June 2018
Extent: 460 pages
Paperback: £14.99
ISBN: 9-781912-419319
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John Howard Grigg was born in Feltham, Middlesex in 1935. He has lived in West London all his life apart from two years in Nottingham with relatives during the Second World War, and two years National Service with the RAF. He retired from the Midland Bank in 1987 and has always denied he was ever a bank manager. He served as a local councillor in Hounslow from time to time between 1958 and 1990. He is an amateur local historian specializing in local social and political history.
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