ABSTRACT
The individual stories in this chapter focus upon specific traumatic events particularly the death of loved ones. These comprise:
s THELOSSOFACHILDANDANOLDERSIBLINGTHROUGHARMEDCONmICTANDDISEASE s THELOSSOFANINFANT s THELOSSOFAPARENTDURINGCHILDHOOD
The chapter explores the construction of these events and their psychosocial influence on the identity and emotional state of siblings and potentially future generations. All the family networks I describe in this book have lost children – in infancy and childhood but also as young adults in war. They have this in common with most other family groups whose ancestors lived through global conflicts. The First World War, whose centenary has now been marked, took the lives of a generation of (mostly) young men. This in turn influenced the lives of their female contemporaries’ marriage prospects as well as the psychosocial heritages of siblings, nephews and nieces.
