Search | The Western Front Association

Uncle Ben

By David Britton Uncle Ben, (self–published by David Britton, £7.15, Amazon, pb) is one of a number of memorial volumes received for review in the past four years. Essentially, the formula for such works published during the Great War, and early after, comprised juvenilia, letters home and fulsome family tributes. While the commemorative qualities…

21 May 1917 : Capt. John Wilson Tailford M.C.

/on-this-day/21-may-1917-capt-john-wilson-tailford-mc/

His parents were Robert (a Tynemouth Engineer) and Sarah (née Wilson) Age 8 in 1901 John was at home in North Shields. His mother kept a boarding house. At the time of the census there were his mother, two older sisters, a domestic servant and three boarders in their 60s. John was educated in West Sussex at Christ’s Hospital, Horsham …

1 June 1918 : Captain Hewson Street MC & Bar

/on-this-day/1-june-1918-captain-hewson-street-mc-bar/

His parents were George Street (the local blacksmith) and Eliza Dixon Street (née Thorpe) Hewson was raised in Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire. At the 1901 Census, age 7, Hewson was at home living on Witham Road, Woodhall Spa with his parents, older sister and two younger siblings Gwendoline and Brenda, his grandmother and a blacksmith apprentice …

Remembering Grandad’s war : Sergeant James Fleming

/world-war-i-articles/remembering-grandad-s-war-sergeant-james-fleming/

For many people interested in the First World War, initial enthusiasm can often be traced back to an old sepia photograph. What did ‘dad’ or ‘grandad’ do? It is a similar story for many members of this Association, and their research has provided some captivating first-hand accounts over the course of our 40-year history… In 2015 one of our Lancas…

In Which They Served by Richard Cullen

/world-war-i-book-reviews/in-which-they-served-by-richard-cullen/

£25.00, Unicorn, London, 2020, 336pp hardback, ills throughout, 9 maps. Notes sources and index. ISBN 978 1 9134 9103 1 [This review first appeared in the July 2021 issue of Stand To! No.123]. This unusual book is about five very different people told through the story of their medals. The author started collecting medals as a schoolboy, but…