Each one of the millions of fighting men who marched through the town and down to the waiting boats on the harbour on their way to the Western Front between 1914 and 1918 would have gone down The Slope, as it was then known.
At the top of the hill they would have heard the order Step Short, an instruction to shorten their stride in order to negotiate the gradient safely.
That road is now Folkestones Road of Remembrance.
Eight books containing the signatures of thousands of soldiers who passed through Folkestone to go to fight in World War One will be going on public display. There are over 42,000 names of soldiers, nurses and others who passed through the town and signed the visitors books.
Two of the signatories are Winston Churchill and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Some visitors added their regimental numbers and some comments and poems. The books were kept in the harbour canteen where troops would drink their last 'cuppa' before boarding the troop ships for France.
Other signatories are Mjr Gen Hugh Trenchard who helped establish the RAF, he signed on April 5 1918 four days after the new airforce was set up.
The books are due to go online in January 2014.
See the Step Short project on line .........
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