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In 1914, Gustav and Mrs. Roedde started on an extended trip to Europe, beginning in Germany. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time, to say the least. Caught there at the outbreak of war, it was only because of Mrs. Roedde's British nationality that she was able to arrange their escape to Holland. They eventually reached Belgium and made an uncomfortable return to Canada on a cattle boat.

Back in Vancouver, their allegiances came under scrutiny because of their German ancestry, despite the fact that Gustav Adolph Jr. and William ("Bill") Roedde both went off to fight for Canada as part of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Mrs. Roedde encountered prejudice from the congregation at her church, and Mr. Roedde went so far as to hire a Canadian-born floor manager to take his place at the bindery, just in case the anti-German sentiment became a detriment to his business.

There was strife within the family as well. Gustav, German by birth, found it difficult to accept that his son was fighting alongside the British against the German army. In fact, Gustav Jr. was nearly disinherited because of it.

World War I lasted from 1914 to 1918. It was originally called "The Great War," not because it was glorious but because it involved more countries than any previous war. It also put new technologies on the battlefield, such as machine guns, tanks and flamethrowers. These weapons caused destruction on an unheard of scale.

More than 65 million men fought in "The Great War," and some 8 million of them were killed. This "total war" involved the mobilization of entire nations, not just armies, and nearly 9 million civilians died from starvation, disease, artillery fire and air raids.

When the war ended, Britain, France and their allies placed all the blame for starting it on Germany. As with most conflicts, the factors that led to this war were much more complex than the public might have realized. In fact, all the wartime governments had used propaganda to affect public opinion.

The war affected everyone. Fathers, sons and brothers went away to fight for years. Some never returned home, or came back physically or mentally broken. Women from many European countries served at the front as nurses or volunteered in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps of the British Expeditionary Force. Even at home, with husbands off to fight, women had to carry on with their normal work as well as manage family affairs, raise the children and cope with ration books. Gwen Varcoe and Kathleen Haugh, Gustav Roedde's two granddaughters, moved into Roedde House because their own father was serving in the Navy. They helped their grandmother knit wool socks to send to the soldiers off in the muddy trenches. They must have made a lot of them, because when Gwen heard the armistice had been signed the first thing she said was, "Good, now I don't have to knit the other sock."

Once "The Great War" was finally over, many people were certain that it had been "the war to end all wars." However, as terrible as it was, it created tensions that led to an even greater catastrophe only two decades later. After the 1939-1945 war (World War II), the "Great War" of 1914-1918 war would be called World War I.

William Roedde assembled a large collection of war photographs, although it is not known if he was the actual photographer or whether he gathered the photographs from war correspondents. To see Bill Roedde's photo album of World War I, click on the box camera.