Bettany
There were obvious difficulties creating and preserving records during World War I, but despite them, the documents are extensive and detailed - and I don't just mean the lists of recruited men and their supplies. We can piece together the story of individual battles from these records and that's why I have come to see William Spencer at the Public Record Office. He is a Falklands veteran himself, but he is also interested in the soldiers of the 16th Highland light Infantry and their attack on two German trenches in November 1916.

William
We have the infantry brigade war diary, which in this case has a map which shows us where the individual units were meant to be. We have the position of the 16th Highland Light Infantry here, the 11th battalion border regiments here, and their objectives - the German first line, Munich trench, here and the German second line, Frankfurt trench, further on.

After attacking the Munich trench, they moved on to Frankfurt trench but because of various failures to mop up, ie to clear out the Germans from Munich trench, certain members of the 16th HLI became isolated here in Frankfurt trench. The Germans were still here in Munich trench, so the isolated party were attacked from the Germans still in their front line, the Munich trench, and also from the south, from the north and again coming over from the east. An individual from the 11th battalion border regiment, one other rank, managed to break out of Frankfurt trench and get back to the British lines and he reported that the trench, Frankfurt trench, was being held by 3 officers and 60 other ranks each of the 11th battalion border regiments and the 16th HLI. So there you have 126 men, probably the majority of them wounded, defending a position surrounded by several hundred Germans.

Bettany
More than 500 men made the assault on Munich trench. At the end of the battle, no more than 50 came out of Frankfurt trench alive.

Eton College. This school has been through a lot of wars. Founded in 1440, when boys started coming here the battle of Agincourt was recent history and England was about to be torn apart by the Wars of the Roses. But the reason I'm here is World War I. Two of the senior boys, Dominic Ruck Keene and Rupert Stone, are interested in finding out more about one of Eton's war heroes.

Rupert
His name is Vere Bennet Stanford and he was at Eton from 1907 to 1911.

Dominic
It's a family story that he was gassed because he gave his gas mask to his sergeant. And that this brought on his death, but he died of TB, I think something like 1922. So what we are going to try and do is see if we can find out some more about this story of the gassing. And you know, more about his war generally.

Bettany
Etonians who were old enough to fight flocked to France at the beginning of the war. They had no idea they would face machine guns, barbed wire, mud, rain and gas. Eton's MacNaughten Library is a memorial to them.

So all these books are to do with the First World War?

Dominic
This is the book of the House, book of photos, and this is 1909, so a few years before he left. We are not entirely sure which one he is yet, but its probable he is one of these as they are the more senior boys.

Bettany
Right, so he would have been what?

Dominic
Fifteen.

Bettany
A few days later Rupert and Dominic got an afternoon off and travelled down to Norton Bavant in Wiltshire. They had heard that this was where the Bennett Stanfords were buried. They found a memorial to Vere which made it very clear that the family thought Vere's military Cross was for saving his sergeant's life.

Dominic
"By his heroic action during an attack in the Great War in France, in giving up his gas mask to his sergeant, he contracted the illness from which he died, for which act he was awarded the Military Cross."

Bettany
So is this a family legend? The fantasy of a family struggling to come to terms with their loss. Or was there some truth in it? Dominic and Rupert are off to Brighton, where Vere's grandmother lived. We'll catch up with them later.

Today, we take the army for granted. Its part of the establishment. If there's fighting to be done we assume we have an army to do it. But this wasn't always so. What about the early Middle Ages, when wars were fought by kings and knights and their tenants? No money exchanged hands, and it would take centuries to develop conscription, so what was the deal? This is the 12th century Red Book of the Exchequer and the arrangement seems to have revolved around land.

Dr David Carpenter
The great barons held their land from the King in return for performing the service of so many knights. They had to bring along so many knights of the kings army, the Earl of Ferrers here had to bring along the service of 60 knights. And how did he actually perform that service? Well he granted, or his ancestors were granted, land to tenants and they'd said you tenants must come whenever the King summons with the service of so many knights. So you see them all listed there.

Bettany
But how well did this system work in practice?

David
Well we can answer that best when we get to the early 13th century when we have got real information about armies and who was in them. And this document is an amazing close roll for 1220-1221, but what its got is virtually all the government orders written out in chronological sequence.

Bettany
Only six years earlier King John had signed the Magna Carta, granting extensive new rights to the barons of England. By 1221 King Henry III faced a changing world. The barons no longer regarded their land as being on loan from the Crown and a lord with his own small army could garrison a castle and refuse to fight for the King.

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Content last updated: 03/04/2006

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