They dreamt of love, marriage and children. But, as a new book reveals, the Great War robbed two million women of the men they would have married, leading many into relationships which could only be whispered about… One hazy morning in 1917 the senior mistress of Bournemouth High School For Girls stood up in front of the assembled sixth form and announced to her hushed audience: ‘I have come to tell you a terrible fact. ‘Only one out of ten of you girls can ever hope to marry. This is not a guess of mine. It is a statistical fact. ‘Nearly all the men who might have married you have been killed. You will have to make your way in the world as best you can. ‘The war has made more openings for women than there were before. But there will still be a lot of prejudice. You will have to fight. You will have to struggle.’ Long terms statistics show that 35 per cent of women failed to marry during their ‘reproductive’ years Sitting in the assembly hall among her shocked and silent schoolfellows was 17-year-old Rosamund Essex. She was never to […]