All articles in Military
1st November, 2016 in Military
Rupert Brooke’s Royal Naval Division friends on the Somme, 1916
On 5 May 1916 four Royal Naval Division officers met up at London’s Charing Cross station, from where they were waved off on the cross-Channel train by a small group which included the Prime Minister’s wife, Margot Asquith. The four men, who had met in 1915, had shared difficult…
1st November, 2016 in History, Military
Writing Love and War in the WRNS
Nine days after moving her into sheltered accommodation, my mother had a stroke and died. It was heartbreaking to begin the gargantuan task of re-packing and sorting all her possessions again so soon after we had ‘got her straight’, as she would have said. There were a few boxes…
28th October, 2016 in History, Military
The signing of Armistice
Armistice Day is commemorated every year on November 11 to mark the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany at Compiègne, France, for the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front. The Armistice was signed at 5.12AM on 11 November but, for tidiness…
28th October, 2016 in Military, Women in History
Nursing during the last days of the Somme
The Somme offensive ended on November 18, 1916. However, the staff at the Order of St. John field hospital in Etaples, France, had much to contend with, from communicable diseases to aerial bombardments, before the war would finally be won. By November 1916 snow and freezing…
26th October, 2016 in Military
Ask the author: Andrew Ferguson on Ghosts of War
Combining his interest in the First World War and his admiration for war poets, author Andrew Ferguson has produced Ghosts of War: A History of World War I in Poetry and Prose. Numerous accounts of the Great War are written from an Anglo-centric viewpoint but Ghosts of War includ…
19th October, 2016 in Military
The secret language of espionage
In the world of intelligence-gathering, jargon acts as a much needed veil of secrecy. Nigel West reveals some of the professional techniques employed in the international espionage business. E ENGINEER A particularly skilled bomb-maker will often be referred to by his…
18th October, 2016 in Military
10 things you didn’t know about the Zulu Army
The British Army’s worst defeat of the Victorian era came at the hands of the Zulus at Isandlwana in 1879. But what sort of people were the Zulus? Here are a few of the less well-known facts about them. 1. In the war of 1879 the Zulus had more guns than the British. Unfortu…
13th October, 2016 in Military
The Sweny brothers & how they both met Napoleon
Although there must be a number of cases where brothers fought at Trafalgar and Waterloo, there cannot have been many instances of both brothers having also met Napoleon. However in the case of the Sweny brothers this is exactly what happened; one meeting him on the high seas and…
12th October, 2016 in History, Military
The Bayeux Tapestry in numbers
The Bayeux Tapestry famously depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England, concerning William, Duke of Normandy (later known as William the Conqueror) and Harold Godwinson (the last Anglo-Saxon king of England), culminating in the Battle of Hastings. Recounting…
12th October, 2016 in Military
Hastings 1066: The Battle
The Battle of Hastings, without any doubt the most important battle ever fought on English soil and arguably the most historically significant in English history, was not actually fought there. A modern visitor to Hastings will on enquiry be directed seven miles to the northwest…
3rd October, 2016 in History, Military
Battle of Hastings history timeline
In 1066 the most significant battle on English soil took place. A king would die on the battlefield and a new dynasty would be established. The timeline below charts the key moments in the build up to the battle. From Egbert to Alfred 802 — Egbert becomes King…
28th September, 2016 in Military, Society & Culture
10 things you didn’t know about Britain’s black community during the World Wars
Britain’s black community played an important part in the First and Second World Wars. Here are 10 facts you might not have known. 1. During World War I King George V wanted to show the world a united empire in wartime so, in October 1915, the British West Indies Regiment (BWIR)…