• A Soldiers Cemetery – John William Streets

    Behind that long and lonely trenched line To which men come and go, where brave men die, There is a yet unmarked and unknown shrine, A broken plot, a soldier’s cemetery. There lie the flower of youth, the men who scorn’d To live (so died) when languished Liberty: Across their graves flowerless and unadorned Still scream the shells of each artillery. When war shall cease this lonely unknown spot Of many a pilgrimage will be the end, And flowers will shine in this now barren plot And fame upon it through the years descend: But many a heart upon each simple cross Will hang the grief, the memory of its…

  • Albert Ball, VC, DSO and 2 Bars, MC – Britain’s Ace Fighter Pilot

    Born in Nottingham on the 14th August 1896, Albert Ball was one of three children, two sons and a daughter, of plumber Albert Sr and his wife Harriet (nee Page). Albert Sr was later to elevate his status to that of Lord Mayor of Nottingham and received a knighthood. Young Albert was educated at a variety of schools, Lenton Church school, Grantham Grammar and Nottingham High School before going to Trent College, at the age of 14. Deeply religious, Albert was also fond of all things mechanical and electrical, spending a lot of time in his private retreat in the garden shed, fiddling about with engines and such like. He…

  • Phoebe’s Favourite Badass – Lt-Gen Adrian Carton de Wiart VC, KBE, CB, CMG, DSO

    I read ERs article on her favourite badass with interest. Theodore Roosevelt does seem to have been a leading man in the world of Politics and indeed his moves to re-vitalise the United States were ambitious and ground-breaking. He was definitely a man of the people, and perhaps worthy of the title. But, for me, having a military background, it only seems natural for me to turn my attention to an area that I feel I am close to, whilst choosing my favourite badass. War. But who to choose? So many worthy men to choose from. Doge Enrico Dandolo? Marcus Cassius Scaeva? Xiahou Dun? What did all these men have…

  • Coco Chanel – The Icon, the spy and the little black dress.

    Born to an unmarried woman, Eugenie Jeanne Devolle, who worked as a laundry assistant in a convent poorhouse on 19th August 1883, Gabrielle was Jeanne’s second daughter, her older sister Julia having been born almost a year before. Following her birth, in Saumur, France, Jeanne’s family contributed all the money they could raise and gave it to the girl’s father, Albert Chanel, as a bribe for him to marry their mother. Chanel was a travelling salesman, somewhat of a vagrant, selling cheap clothing to the working class. The couple had several more children, three of whom – another daughter and two sons – survived. The family lived in a one…

  • The Christmas Truce

    When war broke out in 1914, the general consensus was that it would “all be over by Christmas”. Borne out by the initial campaign medals which were struck with the year 1914. Alas, following the disaster of Mons, and the failed siege of Antwerp, it soon became abundantly clear that the hostilities would be continuing into the foreseeable future. Trenches were dug into a front line stretching some 450 miles, and men settled in for the long haul. In December high volumes of rainfall and persistent shelling had turned these lines, particularly around the areas now known so well for their association with the horrors of war, Fromelles, Armentieres, Ypres,…