The “Great War” of 1914-1918 affects Berkhamsted in many ways. An officers’ training camp is set up near Berkhamsted Castle by the Inns of Court Regiment, and thousands of young men pass through the town on their way to war, many never to return. Around 200 men and boys from the town itself are killed in action and are interred in the large battlefield Cemeteries of Belgium and France. Some return home to Berkhamsted and die later as a consequence of their wounds; others fall victim to the 1918 Flu Pandemic. A Red Cross military hospital is set up on Kings Road, with an makeshift flu ward in the St Peter’s Courthouse.
