The Archives of Manitoba will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the First World War and Remembrance Day with a public reading today of letters written by Manitoba soldiers who served in the First World War.

During the war, letters were the main form of communication between soldiers and their family and friends back home.

Soldiers wrote letters from the trenches, from hospital beds and from training barracks, sending them to family, friends and sweethearts.

Many collections of letters from the First World War have been donated to the Archives of Manitoba. Culture Minister Ron Lemieux calls them a powerful record of individual soldiers' thoughts and feelings.