Anyone with a link to Grimsby should read this book, as should anyone familiar with the Humber estuary. Grimsby in the Great War plays a valuable role in ensuring that the privations, sacrifices and exceptional achievements of a now long-departed generation are remembered not just in the context of the Western Front and other theatres of war, but also from the perspective of a hugely restructured and sometimes traumatised and destabilised home front.

Western Front Association

Stephen Wade uses many different sources to illustrate the unique local nuances that are lost in the national narrative.
The voices of Grimsby people can be heard once again in this account, and the issues and hardships they faced during the Great War are brought to the fore so that we can understand something of the war they experienced.

Society for lincolnshire History & Archaeology

‘Grimsby In The Great War’ is a worthy book. When the Great War broke out, Grimsby and Cleethorpes, exposed to the North Sea were vulnerable to the threat of the German Baltic Fleet, and ships would be exposed to the threat of torpedoes from U-Boats and mines.

This book also covers both regiments of Grimsby Chums and other regiments involving Grimsby men. Stephen Wade does not neglect the home front either. There was a local shell factory staffed almost entirely by women, a Women’s Emergency Corps and the War Hospital Supply Depot.

This book’s great strength is not only Stephen Wade’s thorough research but also his empathy for the subjects he writes about; he brings them to vivid life. A book with an appeal beyond the people of Grimsby.

Destructive Music

More examples of how the women of Britain stepped up to take on the work of their menfolk as they signed up to fight in the trenches. Stephen Wade's book is testament to the courage and tenacity of the people of Grimsby as they went about their daily lives during the conflict. Superb.

Books Monthly, May 2016 - Paul Norman

As reviewed in

Lincolnshire Life Magazine

As featured in

Lincolnshire Echo