The Labyrinth and the 6th Seaforth Highlanders

The Labyrinth and the 6th Seaforth Highlanders

The Labyrinth was a maze of trenches at the southern end of the Vimy Ridge, north east of the villag…

Read More
John Duxbury of 'The Miners Battalion'

John Duxbury of 'The Miners Battalion'

Many local organisations were motivated to assist the war effort. They did this by recruiting men wh…

Read More
The Cavalry at Monchy-le-Preux

The Cavalry at Monchy-le-Preux

The Battle of Arras started on 9 April, Easter Monday,  1917. The most famous action in this battle …

Read More
The Search for Daniel Lightfoot

The Search for Daniel Lightfoot

The search began with the war memorial on the wall of a former pub, the Dog & Partridge, 5 Hot L…

Read More
The first French observation balloon of the Great War shot down

The first French observation balloon of the Great War shot down

October 9,1915; 7am on the Somme-Suippe-Perthe, Marne, Part of the champagne region. 20th co…

Read More
Holzminden ‘Colditz’ of the First World War?

Holzminden ‘Colditz’ of the First World War?

The Second World War is probably more associated with escape exploits of prisoners of war, but there…

Read More
Those 48 hours of torment

Those 48 hours of torment

James William Thornton was born in Bethnal Green London in 1895 and worked initially as an indoor me…

Read More
A German cemetery in the Vosges battlefield

A German cemetery in the Vosges battlefield

In the early days of the war, burials in the Vosges battlefields often took place in the forests whe…

Read More
The Accrington Pals’ ‘Dug-Out’ of Distinction – Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Wilmot Rickman

The Accrington Pals’ ‘Dug-Out’ of Distinction – Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur W…

On 16 October 1925, 51 year-old Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Wilmot Rickman had alighted from his car i…

Read More
Devils in Skirts: The Story of George Findlater VC

Devils in Skirts: The Story of George Findlater VC

The tradition of pipers leading soldiers into battle was not a Great War phenomenon. It had develope…

Read More
The Sinking of the RMS Falaba, 28 March 1915.

The Sinking of the RMS Falaba, 28 March 1915.

The RMS Falaba was sunk by a German submarine on 28 March 1915. This incident, and that of the sinki…

Read More
A Family at War

A Family at War

One of the most persistent and annoying heresies about the past is that it was much simpler than the…

Read More