ONLINE LECTURE
‘St. Eloi - Village of the Craters’'
By Chris John
A look at the life of Sir John Norton Griffiths,- African para military adventurer, gold and diamond miner, civil engineer and founder of the Tunnelling Companies of the Great War. A look at the first British concerted use of mines in the Action at St Eloi June 1916 and the Magnus Opus of the tunnelling war, the Battle of Messines June 1917 with 19 huge mines exploded on a 10 mile front. Who were the "Moles" and what was "Kicking on the Cross” with a "Grafting Tool"?
Chris John is Vice-chair of the Birmingham Branch WFA. A badged battlefield guide of the Guild of Battlefield Guides, he has a long interest in the Great War and has led many branch and other trips to the Western Front. He has an interest in the less well known aspects of the war.