Filling in a form can be a boring and complicated task, and irksome if you need to gather ‘evidence’ too. However, Army Form W5080, first issued in 1919, would have been unwelcome primarily because of its painful reminder of the loss of a loved one in the Great War. Over one million soldiers of the British Empire had been killed in that war. And those deaths had a huge impact. About three million Britons were directly touched by the death of a close relative, and millions more had lost a distant relative, such as a cousin or uncle, or a friend. The Government, unlike USA and France, had banned
