Life on the Edge of the Trenches

(This is a picture of the couple just
before Aloys went off to war.)

While sent to the village of Poelcapelle to report on the progress in the village, I came across a small farmhouse. In this farmhouse lived Elise and her husband Aloys Geerts, although Aloys has been sent fight in the war. As farmers they are great assets to the war going on around them, food is a main priority to be sent to the town of Yepres, which is the main town where most of the battles are taking place. What they wear on a day to day base is rugged, with patches sewn on. Elise has to make her own clothes; the war has changed woman’s fashion to a huge extent. To make it easier for Elise to work on the farm the hemline of her shirts and dresses have been raised to ankle length. The clothing of Elise is mainly brown, white, green and sometimes blue although Elise had to get the blue ink out of pens to dye the fabric blue. The fabric was mainly cotton, linen and wool. Elise wear’s mainly a white cotton shirt with a brown linen skirt. When I spoke to Elise about how she felt about the war she replied; ‘Wir versuchen, ein glückliches possitive aproch zum Leben zu halten und nicht dann lassen den Krieg auf uns wirken.’ Which means; We try to keep a happy possitive aproch to life rather then letting the war affect us. When walking into the house i sometimes wonder how she can be so happy, its so minimal. Bare wooden floors which are quite rough to walk on, stone walls with nothing on them. Just copper pots and pans sournding the kitchen whith a simple wooden table and chairs. The bedrooms are very basic too, with a simple metal framed bed, and one chest of draws, plain mirror and a stool. All she had to keep warm was a fire in the living room. And she only has a bible to read and two armchairs to sit on. Two things caught my eye while being in the farmhouse, the first was a manel of what to do if a the village is invaded. And also a copy of the wipers times, while reading through the wiper times I was very amused by the fact that they were putting adverts to sell land on Hill 60. They also do the weather report which made me giggle 5 to 1 Mist, 11 to 2 East Wind or Frost, 8 to 1 Chlorine.




Elise has to hire help with tending the farm now her husband has gone to war, with what little money they get from selling their produce. The farm only produces vegetables now for the surrounding towns, because they had to kill off their live stock to sell for meat. Elise still keeps one cow to produce milk for herself. On the last night of my stay Elise made me a wonderful vegetable soup, made with all the vegetables and made the milk she produces into cream to thicken the soup up; it was delicious considering what little she has to work with. I was quite sad to have to say goodbye to Elise and her farm. I wished her well and prayed that her husband would return safe. Unfortunately shortly after I returned to London, I received some upsetting news informing me that Elise’s husband had been killed in action.


I still am in contact with Elise, she is coping quite well considering all she has been through, I think after what I have experienced me and Elise will always be in contact. I have learnt a lot from my time in Flanders, I will never forget the people I have met, the friends I’ve made and the things I’ve seen and the incredibly hard life that people have on the ‘edge of the trenches.’ 

(Elise’s Kitchen)