How does the memory of lives lost in past wars shape communities and the next generation
of soldiers? We use newly collected geolocated data on British servicemen to study the
legacy of the Great War mortality shock on local communities and the behaviour of soldiers
in WW2. We find that community-wide fatalities in WW1 increase the numbers of deaths of
the next generation in WW2 and the likelihood that these soldiers receive military honours.
To explain these findings, we report that WW1 deaths had promoted civic-oriented and …

What drives soldiers to risk their life in combat? Using individual-level data from over 4
million British war records, we show that the legacy of WWI deeply affected local
communities and the behaviour of the next generation of soldiers. Servicemen from localities
that suffered heavier losses in WWI were considerably more likely to die or to win gallantry
awards for valour in WW2. To rationalise these findings, we show that the mortality shock
increased communities' civic capital in the inter-war period: Great War deaths spur the …