Whanganui woman's World War I story told as part of 100 Days project

Jayne Workman with an old council map showing where "Alton Villa", where Mag Wilson once lived, may have been.

The tale of a Whanganui woman who lived during World War I is to be told as part of a global writing initiative.

Whanganui-based writer Jayne Workman was chosen as one of 100 writers around the world for the 100 Days project, in which one piece of writing will be published every day for the 100 days leading up to November 11 - the day WWI ended 100 years ago.

Workman is one of three New Zealand writers participating in the project. The other two are AUT advertising lecturers Paul White and Jane Berney.

A new form of writing, called a centena, has been created for the project. Pieces must be 100 words and start and finish with the same three words.

"I decided I wanted to write about somebody from Whanganui," Workman said. "That was the first sort of decision really and I wanted to write about a woman because I thought that would be interesting."

After research in Wellington and Whanganui, Workman found a number of interesting stories but chose the tale of Mag Wilson after she discovered a pile of her letters.

Most of the letters were sent to Wilson by her brother, Arthur, while he was on duty in Europe.

"It just had a huge emotional connection, holding the letters in my hand. It must have been Mag's personal collection of stuff because there were letters and there were also telegrams from her fiancé telling her when he was coming back.

"At that point something really appealed to me about this sort of invisible, quiet story of life here away from the noise of the war. She was possibly less visible, in a way New Zealand was less visible, and I just really wanted a reason to explore that more."

Wilson's brother Arthur died in the last 100 days of the war and Workman said she found one moment between brother and sister particularly tragic.

"One of the most poignant things that Arthur wrote I think was just saying 'I looked for you in the crowds' when he was sailing off on the ship from Wellington.

"I hadn't even thought about that ... soldiers would have been there and there were crowds and crowds on Wellington harbour but they wouldn't be able to see their own family probably.

"I just thought 'gosh that's so sad' and that would have been the last time she would have seen him."

Workman described her centena as a tale of "everyday life."

"The immense distance from the horror of the battlefields, from the bombs and gunfire, from brothers, sisters, husbands and fathers, punctuated by long overdue letters, heavily censored news, rolls of honour, casualty lists and telegrams, the dreaded telegram runner's knock, its own quiet tragedy."

Workman's centena will be the first New Zealand-based centena released. It comes out on Sunday, September 2 (UK time). It will be accessible here.

Workman discovered Mag Wilson was the youngest of six children and her parents were Scottish immigrants. Wilson was a tailor and lived in Westmere, St John's Hill and on Guyton Street at some point.

Workman said there were a number of letters addressed to Wilson at an "Alton Villa" believed to be around 12 to 16 Brassey Rd. Workman is still looking for information about Wilson.

• If anyone has any information about Alton Villa or Mag Wilson, they can contact Jayne Workman at jayne.workman@hotmail.co.uk.