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21 November 1917 : Pte George Wilson
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George Wilson was born in Steeton in 1894. He worked on his father's dairy farm at Bank House, Steeton before the war. George enlisted into the West Riding Territorials in January 1915 and was sent overseas to join the 62nd Division on the Western Front in February 1917. After taking part in the Battles of Arras and the Hindenburg Line, he was...
23 November 1917 : Pte Joseph Hoole
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Joseph Hoole was born in Preston 1892, the son of Edward and Mary Ann (neé Hodson). At the 1891 Census, ages 2, Joseph ('Jos') lived at home (44 Bow Lane, Preston) with his parents, older brother Frederick and a lodger (his mother's brother). Both parents worked in a local cotton mill. His father died in April 1897 when Joseph was still only f...
021: Winter 1987
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022: Spring 1988
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054: January 1999
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055: April 1999
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056: September 1999
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Friends are Good on the Day of Battle: The 51st (Highland) Division During the First World War
Review by Bob Wyatt. Friends are Good on the Day of Battle, an important evaluation of the 51st (Highland) Division, is the is the latest of several books about the formation which began with in 1920s with the substantial and quite reliable History of the Highland Division by Major Bewsher and culminated in Campbell’s Empire of Destruction in 2...
10 September 1918 : L/Cpl John James Clegg
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John James Clegg was born in Burnley, Lancashire in October 1888, the son of John (a cotton weaver) and Sarah.
At the 1901, age 13, along with his older sister and father, John was working as a cotton weaver. Ten years later John was living with his mother at 100 Robinson Street, Burnley.
The area has been run down for some decades.
John Cle...
8 December 1917: Pte John William Sugden
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John Sugden was born in Silsden, Yorkshire in 1885, the son of William Sugden (linen draper) and Eleanor (née Booth) The five children, two boys and three girls grew up together and were still living at home well into their twenties. With a successful business they moved from a terraced house on Bolton Road, Silsden, to a larger detached house...
109 : June/July 2017 Special Edition
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113: October 2018 Special Edition
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'Cambrai' with Ross Beadle
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This month the branch is very pleased to welcome back Ross Beadle who, on this occasion, will speak on the subject of Cambrai. This significant 1917 action was notable for the use of tanks but was also a significant artillery battle that merits further study. Members and guests are encouraged to come along and listen to what will be an informati...
Articles on Tanks in Stand To 1 to 116 (1981 to 2019)
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There are no fewer than 25 articles on tanks featured in Stand To! A popular subject, it has been covered in many different ways, including by 'The Camera Returns' on three occasions and more than one on 'War Art'. All of these articles can be readily found by Western Front Association Members through their Member Login with access to the Stand...
Placing the Battle of Messines Ridge in context by Peter Simkins
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This is the Foreword to Ian Passingham's Pillars of Fire. The Battle of Messines Ridge June 1917 by Peter Simkins For the British Dominion divisions serving on the Western Front under Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, 1917 was a year of transition and mixed fortunes. In the collective folk-memory of Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand the...
The Camera Returns No.101 : Cambrai, 9 October 1918
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By Bob Grundy and Steve Wall [This article first appeared in Stand To! Issue 119 October 2020. Members receive Stand To! three times a year, along with our member magazine Bulletin three times a year]. Like everyone else the Camera Returns team were deeply shocked by the sudden death of our friend and mentor Jon Cooksey. We had worked with Jon...
In Haig’s Shadow: The Letters of Major– General Hugo De Pree and Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig (editor) Gary Sheffield
Greenhill Books £19.99, 217 pages, including 2 appendices ISBN 9781784383534 Some might think that there is little left to say about Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig. Lionised by his brothers–in–arms in the 1920s, Haig’s reputation was systematically demolished in the 1930s to the point where, for many, he came to represent something of a pantom...
William Leslie Wain: VC The Tank Corps at Cambrai 1917 by Dr Jonathan Hicks
£12.99, Y Lolfa, Talybont, 271pp 154 photographs, 6 maps. ISBN 978191263126 1. Every November the fallen of the Tank Corps are commemorated at the CWGC Cambrai Memorial at Louverval near Cambrai in a moving ceremony, usually led by Philippe Gorczynski, that indefatigable guardian of the history and memory of the Tank Corps at the Battle of Cam...
24 April 1917 : Pte George Kemp
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George Kemp was born on 30 October 1889 at Drainie, Morayshire. He was the third son of Peter Kemp (a farm manager) and Isabella (née Sellar) and one of five boys and two girls. George was Police Constable in the Lanarkshire Constabulary before the war. He enlisted in July 1915 and served in France and Flanders from June 1916. He was acting a...
Stereoscope images from the Western Front and elsewhere
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Having just published the initial batch of stereoscopic images on The Western Front Association's website, it is perhaps a good time to pick out just a handful of these to show the kind of images that are available. There is no 'science' to the selection of the following images, it is merely a selection of some that have caught my eye as being o...
Riding through the ruins of war on the Circuit des Champs de Bataille
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In April 1919, barely six months after hostilities had ceased, the toughest bicycle race in history was staged across the former battlefields of the Western Front. It was an event that proved so hard it would never be staged again. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of The Western Front Association we have been dipping into the archives; what fo...
When the Whistle Blows: The Story of the Footballers’ Battalion in the Great War by Andrew Riddoch and John Kemp
Haynes Publishing, Yeovil, £19.99 (price in 2011) 336pp, 87 ills, 3 appendices, bibliog, source notes, index. ISBN 978 1 84425 656 3 [This review first appeared in Stand To! No.90 December 2010/January 2011] Haynes Publishing - the extraordinary publisher of car maintenance manuals - Andrew Riddoch and John Kemp, football, the Great War - a st...
Stand To ! No.123 July 2021
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The latest issue of the journal of The Western Front Association is out today. There are ten carefully researched and richly illustrated articles and eight extended book reviews which follow a new format to reviews, including content from one of the authors. Contents Communication Lines 2-3 Somme, March 1918: Bridgehead defence and a fateful...
123 : July 2021
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With a Machine Gun to Cambrai by George Coppard
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188pp., paperback. £3.95. Macmillan/Papermac. [This 'review' first appeared in Stand To! No.17 Summer 1986] Originally published in 1969, this is a reprint of the revised edition of 1980. An excellent first- hand account of the life of a machine-gunner on the Western Front. George Coppard 25 January 1898 to 17 February 1985 George Coppard was...
The Evolution of Victory - British Battles on the Western Front 1914-1918 by Andy Simpson
1995 Hardback Publisher T.Donovan 152pp £17.95 ISBN 1 87108519 5 [This review first appeared in the September 1996 edition of Stand To! No. 47] The fighting on the Western Front means different things to different people. For the majority of the population, it is a terrible, apparently senseless event, essentially outside normal history; a pheno...
‘The Life and Last Words of Wilfrid Ewart’ by Stephen Graham
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Wilfrid Ewart, journalist and author, served in the Scots Guards 1915-1919. A prolific writer, he kept a notebook with him at all times. Conveniently (for us) he was injured badly enough to return him home twice during the war during which time he wrote numerous accounts of his experiences ‘under a different name every time’. (Graham, 1924, p.14...
Ep.268 – Richard Aldington and the Great War – Dr Viv Whelpton
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Dr Viv Whelpton talks about the life and service of Great War poet Richard Aldington. Aldington (1892-1962) was an English writer and poet who is best known for a semi-autobiographical novel the Death of Hero published in 1929. Your browser does not support the audio ele...
"The Battle of Cambrai : There Was More To It Than Tanks' with Ross Beadle
We welcome Ross Beadle who is well known among the branches of The Western Front Association. Ross will be speaking to us about the Battle of Cambrai and how it was more than just about tanks. The battle lasted 13 days, but the tanks, which made the battle famous, had little role to play after 2pm on the first day. He used new artillery silent...
'Henry Hugh Tudor and the Plan for Cambrai. Tanks, shooting off map and smoke' by Ross Beadle
Our February branch meeting once again will turn attention to Cambrai in 1917. Over the years we have studied aspects such as tanks and artillery at Cambrai and this month's talk is entitled 'Henry Hugh Tudor and the Plan for Cambrai. Tanks, shooting off map and smoke'.
The speaker will be branch member Ross Beadle and we can be sure of a well...
Five into four does go
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For his book, The Kaiser’s Battle, Martin Middlebrook did some analysis of the British Expeditionary Force’s (BEF) casualties on 21 March 1918, the opening day of the German Offensive. He estimated that about 21,000 men were reported missing that day, with more suffering a similar fate over the coming days as the offensive continued. Some downwa...
Ep.292 – The 6th Div in the GW – Dr Peter Hodgkinson
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Historian, clinical psychologist and author Dr Peter Hodgkinson talks about his recent book A Complete Orchestra of War. This is a history of the 6th Division on the Western Front during the First World War. Your browser does not support the audio element....
Of No Earthly Use. The 2nd Line Territorial Force Divisions and the Western Front 1914–18 by K W Mitchinson
(Helion, 2021) £29.95, paperback, 301 pages inc maps, index, notes and refs. plus 18 pages full colour photographs. ISBN 978–1–914059–95–7 Buy a copy now > https://bit.ly/3OpHctp Since 1995, Bill Mitchinson has been producing meticulously researched books on some of the less fashionable units of the British Army in the early 20th century, es...
From Cambrai to Crimea - a talk by Stuart Crawford
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Stuart Crawford is an author, writer and broadcaster specialising in defence analysis. He was commissioned in to the 4th Royal Tank Regiment. During his twenty-year military career he served with his Regiment around the world, including operational tours with the UN in Cyprus and as a staff officer in the Headquarters British Forces Middle East...
What's in a name? The story of Captain A M C McReady-Diarmid, a Cambrai VC - with Graham Adams
Allastair Malcolm Cluny McReady- Diarmid was an officer with the 17th (S) Battalion, The Middlesex Regiment when he was awarded his Victoria Cross for his actions over the night of 30 November/ 1 December 1917. He however was killed in action during this engagement and has no known resting place, his name appearing on the Cambrai Memorial to the...
‘Hades’ Henchmen: The Australian Tunnelling Companies and ‘Alphabet Company’: 1916-1919’ by Damien Finlayson
(This article was originally published in Stand To! No.83 (August/September 2008) pp.6-13. It is made freely available as key material for the online course The Imperial Western Front created in conjunction with the University of Kent). Introduction By mid-1915, ten specially formed British tunnelling companies were already on the Western Fron...