The scope of the sacrifices made in the Great War are hard to comprehend. Comparing names with those of the 2014 England FIFA World Cup squad provides a snapshot of the fate of men from across the British Empire. Of the total 35 men discussed here, 15 were killed in action (four on the Somme alone) or died at war - either from wounds or illness - and a further five sustained significant injuries. While it is difficult to trace the fate of the men who served in the merchant marine because no records of individual merchant seamen and women survive for the Great War,if it is assumed they survived (and that is an optimistic assumption), this still gives a casualty rate of 20 out of 35, or 57.14%, approaching two-thirds of those who served, an even higher rate than for the Great War as a whole.
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