All articles in Military
6th November, 2018 in Military
The art of remembering: The WWI memorials of Morris & Alice Meredith Williams
When in June 1916, after more than a year in training, Lt Morris M Williams left for France with the 1st Glamorgan Bantams (the 17th Battalion), the Welsh Regiment, he took with him a supply of pocket-sized sketchbooks. Over the next three years, this art school-trained illustrat…
1st November, 2018 in Military, Women in History
A first act of remembrance: The Red Cross Pearls
The Red Cross Pearl Appeal came to completion at the same time as the Armistice in 1918. The auction of the 41 necklaces made of donated pearls at Christie’s was one of the first post-war acts of remembrance. Although there was great relief that the fighting was over there were m…
31st October, 2018 in Local & Family History, Military
The Middlesbrough Ambulance
One of the most remarkable events to occur in Middlesbrough during World War One was the story of the Middlesbrough Ambulance. This legendary tale, only recently brought to light, reads almost like a ‘boys-own adventure.’ When the British Red Cross called for more ambulances for…
31st October, 2018 in History, Military
The Armistice and its aftermath in photographs
A century ago World War I seemed to come to an abrupt end on 11 November 1918 with the signing of the Armistice. The time was marked with both joyful celebrations in the streets of the United Kingdom and the far more sombre tasks of clearing battlefields and creating cemeteries f…
31st October, 2018 in Entertainment, Military, Society & Culture
How British theatre raised funds in World War I
If you were fundraising for a good cause in Great War Britain, where was your first port of call? More than likely it was a local playhouse, variety theatre or music hall where a matinee might raise large sums in an afternoon. No sooner had war been declared than West End stars,…
30th October, 2018 in Biography & Memoir, Local & Family History, Military
A Gloucestershire Lad in World War I
‘That means good luck’ – so said Arthur Stanley Bullock’s mother as Arthur stumbled while ascending the stairs from his sister’s basement. His leave had been curtailed and he was summoned to France, to serve in the most terrible war the world has ever known. His mother’s pr…
10th October, 2018 in Military, Society & Culture, Women in History
World War One: Fashion Revolution
A century seems a long time back in history, but for those enduring the four years of the Great War it was lived as present tense – a daily reality. This was not a history lesson or a nostalgic retrospective, it was immediate and modern. Clothes of the wa…
28th September, 2018 in Military
Breaking the Hindenburg Line: The capture of St Quentin Canal
The St Quentin Canal had been incorporated within the defences of the German held Hindenburg Line. Known as the ‘Siegfried Stellung’ to its German defenders it was considered an impregnable series of fortified redoubts, machine gun positions and fields of thick wire entanglements…
26th September, 2018 in Local & Family History, Military
Hull in the Great War
When I come home, and leave behindDark things I would not call to mind,I’ll taste good ale and home-made bread,And see white sheets and pillows spread.And there is one who’ll softly creepTo kiss me ere I fall asleep,And tuck me ‘neath the counterpane,I shall be a boy again –When…
24th September, 2018 in History, Military
How to make money from the Enigma machine
2018 marks the centenary of the invention by Arthur Scherbius of the Enigma machine. Enigma was probably the most famous of the mechanical cipher devices used in World War Two, its fame assured by the feats of code-breakers at Bletchley Park who devised ways to uncover which of t…
10th September, 2018 in Aviation, Military
The other Battle of Britain Day
As the high summer cloud cleared to reveal a fine and sunny morning, nobody knew that Sunday, 15 September 1940 would be a pivotal day in the Battle of Britain. The two main Luftwaffe attacks of the day, one in late morning and the other in early afternoon, for once met with over…
7th September, 2018 in Military, Women in History
The history of the Auxiliary Territorial Service
The history of the Auxiliary Territorial Service – the ATS – really began in the middle of the First World War. As early as 1916, in the face of heavy casualties on the French battlefields, the British government was forced to acknowledge that women were needed in the army to tak…