Chapter One, ‘Contexts’, is the starting point for these colonial journeys from New Zealand, South Africa and the West Indies. What it was like to be a young man in Wellington, Cape Town or Kingston in 1914? The chapter explores the cultural ‘baggage’ the newly enlisted men brought with them: their expectations for the conflict and what service to the empire meant, to think about how this would influence their representation of their encounters. This chapter acts as touchstone for the rest of the book in explaining how New Zealand, South Africa and the West Indies got involved with the war, how they recruited and who they sent. The intricacies of racial restrictions on the service of men of colour are explored, from those demanded by the South African government, to later decisions made about the combatant status of the British West Indies Regiment which help to understand the structural framing of the encounters the men experienced.