But a trawl through the names on Newtown's war memorial shows just how global the conflict was, with the town's casualties falling in places as diverse as East Africa and India, Malta and Palestine.

And while many of Montgomeryshire's sons fell on the Somme and other famous battlegrounds, the Turkish coast proved to be the final resting place for many.

Newtown Local History Group has been researching a project which tells the stories behind the names on the town's cenotaph – a book will be released in the spring.

But members of the group allowed me to read their work in progress, and it's a sobering look at the 179 men lost.

It's arranged in alphabetical order – so the first casualty is Edward Alfred Astley.

The 27-year-old ironworker was posted missing in action in the Dardanelles in August 1915 while serving with the 6th South Lancashire Regiment.

Turn to the next page and you realise the tragedy that was the Great War. Lance Sgt Thomas Frederick Astley, aged 30, Alfred's brother, killed on May 5, 1915.

Two brothers killed within months. One somewhere in Turkey, the other – like so many – place of death unknown.

A letter from Fred to the Express dated May 4, 1915, read: "I was a sniper and my pal and I used to go out at night in front of our own trenches. I was made Lance Corporal in charge of the snipers and then a full Corporal in charge of a section, and now I have been made a sergeant."

The first Newtownian casualty was Lieutenant Eric Talbot. The 30-year-old from Llanllwchaiarn was killed near Ypres on October 23, 1914. He would prove to be the first of many during the conflict.

Many Newtownians joined the 7th Royal Welsh Fusiliers, and found themselves fighting the Ottoman Empire.

141,113 Allies and 195,000 Turks died in the Gallipoli campaign which lasted nearly a year. The fight for the Dardanelles straits began in February 1915, but it was a failed offensive in the brutal August heat at Suvla Bay in 1915 which cost many Newtownians their lives.

Lance Corporal Arthur Charles Brock – a member of St David's Church Choir – was initially reported as wounded. But the 23-year-old had been killed carrying dispatches at the Suvla Bay battle.

Suvla Bay also claimed the life of Private John Edward Williams, a wood turner from Newtown who was aged just 24 and left a wife and two children when he met his death on August 10, 1915.

One casualty, initially reported dead, was later reported wounded.
The County Times reported: "The news that he is still alive came as a great relief to his mother, who had with great confidence entertained hopes that better news would arrive."

However, Private Richard Ernest Williams was actually dead. A letter to the County Times the following week read: "I see that Ernie Williams of Newtown is reported as not being killed, but lying wounded in an Alexandria hospital. Well, this is quite untrue, because while taking cover behind a hedge, Ernie Williams was shot in the head by a sniper and died in a very few seconds. He was buried the very next morning."

The Dardanelles was also the final resting place of Sapper George Ernest Davies. On landing he had a narrow escape on day one. "They were shelled when landing, and to make matters worse, the transport mules became restive under fire and one kicked over four boxes of ammunition, which exploded, killing and wounding several.' Later that year he was hospitalised with dysentery.

He survived the illness, but died within days of returning to the front line.

The news of Lance Corporal Bertie Jordan's death in 1915 arrived in Newtown the same day as news of three other Newtownian's in the same battalion, all killed on the coast of Asia Minor.

The fighting was just one of the battles fought. Lance Corporal William Hames Price, 22, succumbed to typhoid in the Dardanelles, Lance Corporal Thomas Osborne Price contracted dysentery.

Private David Charles Sapple had lied about his age in order to join the army.

Having signed up to the Fusiliers, he died in the Dardanelles aged just 17.

Sergeant John Ewart Breeze, better known as Jack, was called up at the outbreak of war. He'd been injured at Gallipoli and after leave returned to Egypt, before being killed at Beersheba, Palestine.

Beersheba also claimed Capt Thomas Burdett. He'd also survived Gallipoli 'where he experienced great hardships, but was not in hospital a day'. He died a glorious death.

Capt Burdett's men were told to attack on November 5, 1917, and he was in command of a company which gallantly led the fight deep into enemy position. He was posthumously awarded the Military Cross.

Sergeant John Henry Jarman was awarded the DCM for bravery.

The London Gazette wrote: "During an attack by his battalion on high ground his company was held up by machine-gun fire, his captain and another officer becoming casualties.

"He at once took charge of all men he could collect, and brought them forward under heavy fire, capturing five machine guns and 30 prisoners, afterwards gaining his objective some 1,000 yards ahead."

Later that day the Newtown tailor was shot in the head by a single bullet.

The infamous Battle of the Somme claimed its fair share of local victims.

The stories of so many show the horror that was the Somme. Soldiers missing presumed dead. Bodies never found, lost among the carnage during the heavy fighting.

Soldiers like Private David Charles Bevan, a bricklayer from Newtown, who left a wife and two children. Soldiers like 26-year-old Lance Corporal Henry James Crank, who never saw his own daughter. Soldiers like 19-year-old Private Ritchie Cyril Jones, wounded in the Dardanelles and sent to France to die. And soldiers like Private William Bennett Davies from Tregynon.

On leave during Christmas 1917, Private William Richard Evans from Kerry told family of 'his last big battle and experience in no-man's land. Although stuck several times with shrapnel, and wading through mud up to their middle, he and his comrades succeeded in gaining their objective." He died on August 23, 1918.

Newtownian Lieutenant Harold Jones' parents received a letter informing them of their son's death.

"He and I came into the line together. A few minutes later he heard that the CO had been hit, and he hurried off to the scene. I heard nothing of him for an hour, so sent out the search parties.

Not until daybreak was he found in a field about 70 yards off a road, hit in the legs, and dead."

Some soldiers nearly made it through to the war's end.

Lance Corporal Thomas Beadles died on September 8, 1918. He'd survived being taken prisoner of war at the Battle of Aisne in 1914, survived fighting in Egypt, and survived being gassed. But three days after leaving hospital the miner was shot. 'Died soon after he was hit, suffered no pain, and was buried by his pals'. His brother-in-law had died two weeks before him.

On October 10, 1918, Second Lieutenant Clement Edgar Norton, whose family home had been on Milford Road, Newtown, succumbed to malaria while serving out in Palestine.

On October 31, 1918, Private Walter Harold Watts died in France. He'd celebrated his 21st birthday on the Mount of Olives earlier that year before his transfer to the Western Front.

On November 4, 1918, Guardsman John Pryce Evans died aged just 19. A son of Manafon, he'd joined the army at 16 and his death in France was reported as 'another eleventh hour casualty'.

And on November 7 – just four days before the ceasefire – Private David Pryce Bound, 26, a gunner with the Royal Field Artillery, died at a casualty clearing station in France.

Behind every fallen soldier was a story. Lieutenant Hilary Evan-Jones was en route to Cyprus to wed Nancy Bolton when war broke out. His regiment was recalled, and the wedding never took place. Lt Evan-Jones, who was born in Llanllwchaiarn, died at Ypres in 1915.

Some soldiers died in captivity. Sergeant Charles Denley Bennett died in Jogerkasern Hospital, Mittau. He'd been captured at Marne and eventually succumbed to dysentery.

His diary read: "It is hard to lie here waiting for the end, when a little effort on the part of these people could save me." He added: "I am the only Englishman here among the lot."

Some soldiers wrote of near misses – only to run out of luck.
Corporal Hugh Thompson Davies from Berriew was one such soldier. On November 1, 1914, he wrote: "Up to the present I have had two narrow escapes. One day we were digging trenches when some of the enemy appeared. I was one of the few told to down tools and open fire at them.
"The place where I was standing was not deep enough, we being so tall, and I said to the fellow next to me 'I am going lower down'. I had only just shifted, and another fellow went into my place, when a shell burst close by and killed the poor fellow.

"Another time I had to bob down, so I shifted my pack over my head as I bobbed. A good job too, for a piece of shell cut through my canteen. It would have lodged in my head if I had not shifted my pack. I still have the piece with me. I will bring it home if I can some day." He never did and he died on May 16, 1915.

And it wasn't just men who died. Hilda Jessie Downing was a 28-year-old civilian nurse. Having already been ill, she returned to duties but caught influenza and died in 1918.

Not all the death were related to the trenches and the battlefields. For example, Lance Corporal Thomas Harold Harper died when his boat was torpedoed in the Aegean.

And some, such as that of Private Harry Price, aged 40, were just complete accidents.

Private Price, in the words of his captain, "was on duty when he met his death, guarding Government stock on this side of the docks. It was a pitch dark night and blowing very hard.

"He had only just been left by another sentry, when he fell over dock-side. Whether he tripped over a rope or was blown in is not known. He was given a full military funeral."