Three Sons for the Kaiser

This is the story of a German family's sacrifice in the Great War. Philipp Gercke and his three sons all served, but only Philipp survived. He had been a rising star in the Imperial Navy and a close associate of the Kaiser. Though alcoholism ended any hopes of becoming an admiral himself, he joined a circle of admirals working in Berlin.

Hazel Strouts learnt early in life to listen to losers. Born in Kent during the Second World War, she had an English Father and a German Mother. While her English family was rooted, the German side brought a certain angst for they, like her, belonged to both sides. Her Grandfather, a U-Boat captain, was killed in 1918, while her Grandmother, an Englishwoman, spent her widowhood in the fiercely anti-German world which was London during the Second World War. She taught her granddaughter that honour does not belong exclusively to the victor. Attending school briefly in Hamburg but mainly in Kent, the author read History at the University of Cambridge. She became a journalist and spent most of her working life in Canada but retired to Kent, where she now lives. In 2014, she edited, jointly with Ernest Pollard, the First World War Diaries of Royal Flying Corps officer, Captain Collingwood Ingram, published as Wings over the Western Front. She has published several articles on local history and architecture.