William Hughes from Bow Street, Ceredigion, volunteered for the army in 1914 and served with the Royal Engineers. His movements during the war, and his thoughts and feelings, can be traced due to a series of letters he wrote to a childhood friend, T I Rees. After training in Porthcawl, Abergavenny and Winchester, William was posted to France, where he was wounded by a German bullet in late 1917.