Julie Phillips has always been interested in the past; particularly people, places and how their environment, national policies and sociology affected everyday life. Her fourteen year career as a nurse also piqued her interest in nursing and the VAD involvement in the war. But it wasn’t until she read a 1918 postcard, and letter written by her husband’s Great Uncle Fred to his sister, Gertie, that she knew she had to discover more about the people who fought in the First World War and their families who stayed behind, fighting their own battles in their own way.