In Soldiers' Songs and Slang of the Great War, Pegler reveals how common words and phrases such as ‘bumf' and ‘having a chat' originated in the trenches. Drawing on his interviews with a number of First World War veterans conducted in the 1980s, he recalls how the men were overwhelmingly positive about their experiences – they made friends for life, and the camaraderie they shared was something that many never experienced again.
Here, writing for History Extra, Pegler details 10 words and phrases circulated during the war that still remain in use today:
The subject of the First World War evokes many images, many of which are used repeatedly nowadays in film and TV, but they tend to concentrate on the drama and the misery of war. The reality was that it didn't rain every day, the trenches were not knee deep in mud all year round, and soldiers were not subjected to shelling and death every day of their lives.
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