The Great War Diary
As seen through the eyes of one Anzac.

Read here the complete day to day diaries of
# 2063 Lance Corporal/Sapper William Dalton Lycett,
4th Field Ambulance & 15th Light Railway Operating Co. A.I.F.
See biography below.

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Will Lycett in 1910, at the age of twenty migrated to Australia from Middlesborough in the County of Durham with his parents, five brothers and one sister. He had served his apprenticeship as a boilermaker alongside his father in the Railway Workshops at Crewe in Cheshire. Four years after his arrival here war was declared and he enlisted on 12th September 1914.
Of all the A&NZ troops who left these shores for the 'Great War' one in five (80,000 of them) were never to return. So it was with the Lycett family - five served and only four came home. Photo

Will's diary is the perspective of one man, just one small cog in the gigantic machine of war. It offers students a day to day description of the 'adventure' which so many volunteers sought at the time.
Here there are no expressions of outrage at the numbers of slain or wounded nor is there any comment on the sheer tedium of life in the service or even expressions of jubilation at the cessation of hostilities.
These things are left for the reader.

I am indebted to Will's grandson, Tim Lycett for access to this diary.

John Woods.
Editor.