Anthem for Doomed Youth

Writers and Literature of The Great War, 1914-1918

One French Family

a photo of Georges Houzé who fought in the French Cavalry in the Great War, and grandfather to Annick Houzé, French Cataloger here at the Lee Library.

photos of Léonard Weus, sergeant in the French Army in the Great War

Léonard Weus turned this brass shell-casing from a French 75mm into a piggy-bank for his daughter Renée. (During and after the war, letter openers, ink wells, and the like were often crafted out of old shell-casings, and pieces of shrapnel.) Renée is the mother of Annick Houzé, the French Cataloger here at the Lee Library.

a photo of sergeant Weus with his wife Angèle Defossez, and daughter Renée — the one for whom he made the shell-casing piggy-bank.

Special thanks to Annick Houzé for lending these family photographs and coin bank.