'I do think I have lost my eye'

These desperate words are written on the page of an address book by a wounded soldier in WW1.

George Payne 14796 lies in hospital with his head heavily bandaged. He cannot speak.

'Got half my face off'

What follows are pages of scrawled messages, as he tries to communicate with those around him. He describes what happened to him - 'Loos on 25 Sept was a cake walk to this'.

His mate Shearer was killed. And tragically, he believed it was their own guns that hit them.

'we were getting knocked out by our own guns'

The full text of this wounded soldier's message book is now on my website.