Shell Shock – Legacy of the Trenches #WW1 | Judith Barrow

The First World War ended with the deaths of a generation of young men. But the devastation of the conflict didn’t end with that last blast of a howitzer. Thousands of soldiers went home still re-living their horrific experiences of the battlefields for many years. Their lives were damaged by shell shock, a condition many had suffered from during their military service. And, throughout Britain, doctors were baffled by this …

Source: Shell Shock – Legacy of the Trenches #WW1 | Judith Barrow

Christmas 1914: ‘A man playing a penny whistle’ Chandos Hoskyns

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  Chandos Hoskyns at Winchester College

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  Lieutenant-Colonel Chandos Hoskyns

Today I’m commemorating my maternal grandfather Lieutenant-Colonel Chandos Hoskyns. This is a letter he wrote to his family in December 1914.  I suspect what’s being describing the start famous ‘Christmas Truce’.  

2nd Bn Rifle Bde.
25th Inf Bde.
8th Divn.
Brit. Exp. Force
[Xmas 1914]

Darling all!

I hope you got my Xmas letter all right only I hear Grannie sent it on, the one thing I did not want done as I particularly wanted you all to get it together on Xmas day.

I am sending you the IVth Corps Xmas Card – rather a crude drawing I’m afraid but you’ll find it rather interesting as it has on it all the signatures of the other company officers. It will be rather nice to keep won’t it. E P Watts 53rd Sikhs (FF) is attached to us as second in command of the company. He is a topper. He is in the Indian Army (FF = Frontier Force) & as hard as nails.

I got a topping letter from Mr Gilbert at the same time as your last one. Just after I got it a frantic [?] note came from HQRS “Stand to arms at once!! this was in the trenches. Apparently an aeroplane of ours had been reconnoitring & had seen masses of G’s troops concentrating behind the village in front of us. Great excitement. That night patrols went out to find out what they could. One came back saying the Germans were cutting their own barbed wire entanglements to get through preparatory to making an attack. However nothing happened. On our right some miles away the line was heavily attacked. Later on a funny thing happened. A patrol went, (trembling in every limb) got quite close to the enemy and actually heard — (another thrilling instalment in our next issue) a man playing a penny whistle & man singing!

I got a topping letter from Mr Gilbert at the same time as your last one. Just after I got it a frantic [?] note came from HQRS “Stand to arms at once!! this was in the trenches. Apparently an aeroplane of ours had been reconnoitring & had seen masses of G’s troops concentrating behind the village in front of us. Great excitement. That night patrols went out to find out what they could. One came back saying the Germans were cutting their own barbed wire entanglements to get through preparatory to making an attack. However nothing happened. On our right some miles away the line was heavily attacked. Later on a funny thing happened. A patrol went, (trembling in every limb) got quite close to the enemy and actually heard — (another thrilling instalment in our next issue) a man playing a penny whistle & man singing!

Well there is no more news to tell. We are resting now after 6 days running in trenches. By Jove the dirt – One almost walks about without meaning to.

Much love to all

Your loving

Chan

Lieutenant-Colonel Chandos Hoskyns
1885 – 1940
Lest We Forget

Chan [pronounced ‘Shan’] also fought in the Second World War taking part in the Seige of Calais in 1940 where he was badly wounded. He was transferred to a hospital in Dover and was expected to live by the doctors but he was too concerned about the men under his command still fighting, which hindered his recovery. His death had such an enormous impact on his wife, Joyce Austen Taylor who had already lost her only brother in the First now loses her husband and is devastated. It had a particularly bad effect on my mother, his daughter. It never left her and shaped many of her choices in life. There are more forbears in the wider Hoskyns family who dealt with loss in both wars as with families all over the world.

Sarah Vernon © 11th November 2020

Palace of pain: Netley, the hospital built for an empire of soldiers | Art and design | The Guardian

An aerial photograph of the Royal Victoria Hospital at Netley, Hampshire, in the first world war. Click here to see the full image. All photographs courtesy Marion Ivey

A hospital orderly, wearing what resembles a butcher’s apron, poses with an equally ominous-looking trolley. Ward maids, country-looking girls, pose in utilitarian overalls designed for dirty work, rather than the pristine starch of nurses’ uniforms. A handsome stable hand, straight out of War Horse and proudly holding a pair of equine charges, looks hesitantly into the camera’s lens. A quartet of stretcher-bearers wait on a dockside to…

via Palace of pain: Netley, the hospital built for an empire of soldiers | Art and design | The Guardian

Modern criticism of Winston Churchill is fake history – it’s based on quotes taken out of context

Some welcome sanity from historian Andrew Roberts.

British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill (1874 – 1965) in the garden at 10 Downing Street, London, circa 1943. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

by Andrew Roberts

The movie Darkest Hour, in which Gary Oldman won an Oscar playing Winston Churchill, has garnered many plaudits, and deservedly so. It introduced a new generation to Churchill and the inspiring story of 1940, reminding them of how Britain stood alone for a year against the might and fury of Nazi Germany.

But it has also produced a vicious backlash against Churchill and all that he stood for and unleashed an avalanche of vitriolic abuse, much of it ahistorical and ignorant.

It says more about our modern “fake history” culture than anything about…

via Modern criticism of Winston Churchill is fake history – it’s based on quotes taken out of context – The i – iWeekend #28

easter egg, handmade | Imperial War Museums

easter egg, handmade © IWM (EPH 641)

Physical description
A carved wooden Easter egg, in two halves, depicting on one side a painted rural scene with cottage, fields, trees and a blue sky, on the other side are large letters in gold…

via easter egg, handmade | Imperial War Museums

“Frankly, I enjoyed the war.” Totally crazy story of Victoria Cross hero

Wiart in Cairo, Egypt in 1943

“We’re going to have to ditch, sir, prepare for a landing on water!” was the last thing that the “Unkillable Soldier” Major-General Adrian Carton de Wiart VC heard from the cockpit of the Wellington bomber that was supposed to be…

via Frankly, I enjoyed the war. Totally crazy story of Victoria Cross hero who tore off his own fingers, lost an eye, was shot in the head & still went back for more

Concluding Thoughts 1: | First World War Hidden History

President Woodrow Wilson addressing Congress before the US Declaration of War

A decade ago when we first took up the challenge of Professor Carroll Quigley from his seminal works, Tragedy and Hope and The Anglo-American Establishment to look for evidence of the secret cabal [1] and how they grew into the Secret Elite we were stunned by…

via Concluding Thoughts 1: | First World War Hidden History

October 1, 1918 Lawrence of Arabia – Today in History

I have been in hospital for two weeks, hence the gap in transmission.

Lawrence tried to convince his superiors that Arab independence was in their own best interest, but found himself undermined by the Sykes-Picot agreement, negotiated in secret between French and Br…

Source: October 1, 1918 Lawrence of Arabia – Today in History

Revolution in Russia 1: Understanding Influences | First World War Hidden History

The First World War drained Russia, literally and metaphorically. By January 1917, after two-and-a-half years of mortal combat, six million young Russians had been killed, seriously wounded or lost…

Source: Revolution in Russia 1: Understanding Influences | First World War Hidden History

The ‘First’ Blitz | London Historians’ Blog

A guest post by LH Member Suzie Grogan. This article first appeared in London Historians Members’ Newsletter from November 2013. Before 1914, the idea that war could be waged in the air was b…

Source: The ‘First’ Blitz | London Historians’ Blog

L/Corporal Herbert James Francis Walsh – 1887 – 1918 – A 102 year tribute – A Poem “Tommy”. | Smorgasbord – Variety is the spice of life

My grandfather was in the army for about five years as a boy soldier and came out in 1907 as a trained carpenter. In 1914 he rejoined the Royal Engineers and served throughout the war. Wounded thre…

Source: L/Corporal Herbert James Francis Walsh – 1887 – 1918 – A 102-year tribute – A Poem “Tommy”. | Smorgasbord – Variety is the spice of life

Merian C. Cooper, extraordinary life of a hero of 2 nations and King Kong | Pacific Paratrooper

Merian C. Cooper was born in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. He was the youngest of his siblings and at the age of six, he started to dream about exploration and adventures, a common dream am…

Source: Merian C. Cooper, extraordinary life of a hero of 2 nations and King Kong | Pacific Paratrooper

Remembered: The Battle of Passchendaele | Heritage Calling

Allied Australian troops walk through the remains of Chateau Wood, Passchendaele 29 October 1917. © IWM E(AUS) 1220.

Today – 31 July – marks one hundred years since the start of the Battle of Passchendaele (Third Battle of Ypres, 31 July – 10 November 1917), Britain’s major offensive against German forces in the Flanders region of Belgium.

The ultimate aim was to liberate the occupied Channel ports to the north of Ypres, neutralising the U-boat threat to North Sea shipping and take the pressure off…

Source: Remembered: The Battle of Passchendaele | Heritage Calling

How red poppies came to be given out on Memorial Day | The Cotton Boll Conspiracy

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below. W…

Source: How red poppies came to be given out on Memorial Day | The Cotton Boll Conspiracy

Leigh’s Motor Ambulance & The Red Cross – GM 1914

This article first appeared in the Leigh Chronicle in August 1915 and provides an insight into the valuable work of the Red Cross during the war. Including supporting motor ambulances. 

‘The motor ambulance for wounded soldiers at the Front subscribed by the people of Leigh, at the instigation of the Mayoress ( Mrs.Ashworth), was on exhibition in Leigh on Friday. The van was…

Source: Leigh’s Motor Ambulance & The Red Cross – GM 1914