a pivotal event during rose's term as editor was the first world war (1914–1918). "the witness" reflected both its editor's strongly pro-british stance and the widely held position that this was "the war to end all wars" in its august 1914 headline, which proclaimed “nations in arms together – great britain and france face the crisis side by side”. at first it was possible for the paper to carry a photograph of each of the local boys who had signed up and it was only in october 1914 that it carried tidings of the first death of a local in the war – namely that of lieutenant j. r. shippey.