family

Marienbad

Every Christmas growing up my family received a greeting card from the Stingl family.  I knew that my grandmother, mother,…

2 years ago

War Souvenir

My father did not bring much back from his six years of war. He would have had his demob suit…

3 years ago

Coastal Command

My uncle Lawrence Holford was killed by a Bristol Beaufighter. Maybe two.  My father worshipped his older brother Laurie, and…

5 years ago

My Life Among the Spirit People

The Background One evening in the spring of 1919 a soldier in his uniform appeared at the front door of…

5 years ago

The Pentrich Martyrs and Peterloo

I was intrigued when I discovered that I am distantly related to the last person beheaded in England. The year…

6 years ago

Two Years Hard Labour

My uncle - Geoffrey Nicolls - served with the 16th West Yorkshire Regiment in WW1 and in the same week…

6 years ago

The Darkest Hours -1940 and 2018

1940 has been well served by blockbuster movies this past year. Last summer there was Dunkirk as legendary saga and…

7 years ago

Song of the Dark Ages

Song of the Dark Ages We digged our trenches on the down    Beside old barrows, and the wet White…

8 years ago

My First and Last Poppy: Evermore and Nevermore

In Memory of Lance Corporal Frank Herbert Sims. Royal Army Medical Corps who died on 28 January 1919 Age 34 Son…

12 years ago

“And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds”.

Ninety years since the end of the First World War. Passengers at Paddington station on Armistice Day, 11 November 1919.…

16 years ago