Southend on Sea

In 1914, General Horace Smith Dorrien took command of II Corps only hours before the Battle of Mons started; and was not given command of the British army at Le Cateau until after the Battle had started. Yet, so surehanded was his handling of his divisions that he was able to achieve his main objectives in both, despite elementary doctrinal erro...

In the 1880s, control over northeastern Africa was a political minefield into which Prime Minister Gladstone did not want to step - until his emissary Charles Gordon was besieged in Khartoum, and the city became the focal point for war.It was the height of European colonialism. Injustices were administered, bloody battles fought and civilians ca...

Unlike Ypres, which although devastated was close to the channel ports and had its transport links rapidly re-established, visiting the Somme was a far more challenging prospect in the years immediately following the war. Nearly fifty miles across from Amiens to St Quentin and close to thirty miles long from Ayette to the Somme river crossings,...