Odds and quads

Surviving combat reports and logbooks fill in the details of the experiences they shared.

The soft toy forms part of the Liddle Collection, an archive held by the University of Leeds since 1988. Its founder, Peter Liddle, began to collect material from Great War veterans and their descendants in the early 1970s when he was a history lecturer at Sunderland Polytechnic.

His goal was to document the personal experience of those involved in the First World War, whether on the battlefield or at home, and to promote research drawing on their letters, diaries, photographs and recollections, together with official papers and artefacts they treasured.

In almost every case, all the material deriving from a particular individual is housed together under their name, enabling the memory of some 6,000 people to be preserved.

Send suggestions for this series on the treasures, oddities and curiosities owned by universities across the world to: matthew.reisz@tsleducation.com.