"I am having rather a busy time of it. I consider however I am performing a national service, and I know also there are others who are having worse things to face in performing their part, so am thankful."

Daniel MacMillan experienced the Great War entirely from the home front: his farm in the tiny community of Williamsburg. His moving diaries reveal the terrible cost of the war and its aftermath on him, his family, his farm, and his community. In entries written between 1914 and 1927, MacMillan describes the hardships of running a farm in the face of an acute labour shortage and the anguish of losing relatives and friends in battle.

His insider's account shows rural people struggling to supply men, equipment, and especially food â not just for the troops, but for the whole country â and the post-war results of such sacrifice.