Fascinating view from the other side

But David Lovatt of Ellerdine has a fascinating account from an unusual source - a British woman who was in Germany during the early part of the conflict.

Her name was Miss Annie Winn, but apart from that the details about her are scarce, and David would love to find out more.

"We know her birthday, which was September 11 - but we don't know the year. She was probably one of my wife Margaret's grandmother's friends from Southlands teacher training college in London, where Margaret's grandmother Averil Jennings went from 1911 to 1913. It was either a friend from there, or a friend from the area around St Day in Cornwall, which is where she came from," he said.

"We found it in Margaret's mother's house at Knock in Cumbria. After Margaret's mother died we were clearing the house and we found a box of letters that Margaret's grandfather sent to Averil during the First World War together with this document. They were all in a box tucked away in the bottom of a wardrobe.

"It's amazing that someone from an enemy country, as it were, could live openly among the enemy, certainly for the first part of the 1914-18 war. She seems to have been on good terms with everybody, but the tone changed completely. I find it a fascinating document to read. I wish there was more of it. I have no idea at all what happened to her."

Fate saw Annie in Germany as war clouds gathered.

"On July 2, 1914, I went to Dresden, thence to Leipzig, and finally to my old quarters in Wallichen, where I was idling and reading to my heart's content," she says in her account.

"There were rumours of war being possible as the result of the murder of the Crown Prince and Princess of Austria, but nobody, not even the pessimists, thought it probable; the reasons against the probability being the fact that we were living in the 20th century, and that war had threatened before and been averted."

By July 28 the newspapers were full of grave reports and Annie was unsure what to do. If she returned to Oppeln, she thought - she must have been there previously - she might be going into danger as the town lay on the borders of Poland and would probably be invaded by the Russians. (Oppeln is now Opole, a city in southern Poland).

"Eventually I decided to return, feeling that even if I were in safety in Wallichen, the inaction at such a time would get on my nerves, and in Oppeln the fact of being useful would lessen the sense of danger.

"Then, too, I felt that as an Englishwoman I must not be a coward whatever happened, and however frightened I might be."

The journey was long and difficult, with the rail passengers all expressing the opinion that the war would be over in three months.

"Occasionally one would hazard a speculation as to whether England would join in the fray because of her agreement with Russia and France, but this was always strongly vetoed as impossible. England knew better. England had no quarrel with Germany. It would be far better for England to side with Germany for together they could defy the world. And so on."

Her arrival at the house Oppeln, where she stayed with the Friedlaendar family - the document does not reveal what her role was in the household but it seems likely she was a nanny - was unexpected. News that England had declared war came shortly afterwards, and the Germans were stunned.

"Their hatred developed, and they declared continually that England had betrayed their love for her and therefore was much more to blame than France and Russia, their natural enemies."

Annie engaged in work for the Red Cross. She made shirts for wounded soldiers but increasingly got the feeling that she was being frozen out. Those who had at first been friendly to her began to blank her in the street.

There was a continual fear of the Russians, and particularly the Cossacks, which were on some occasions only 15 to 20 miles away. She was ordered to report to the police twice a day, although it was applied sympathetically and in a lax manner.

Her hosts, while fond of her, became tactless, being rude to this English woman in front of guests and allowing them to be discourteous to her. All the time Annie had to be careful about what she said in case she was accused of being a spy.

She had convinced herself that she had to stay in Germany, but in December 1915 discovered that English women were being allowed to leave. Her decision to go was resented by the Friedlaendars.

But, after spending a year and nine months of the war in Germany, she was able to leave, through neutral Holland and then by boat.

She left a Germany which was becoming weary and feeling the effects of rationing.

"One soldier made the same remark to me which was often made in Oppeln: 'Tell the English people we are tired of the war and ask them to stop it.'"