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Following on from the previous article, I got my first lead regarding tracking down the identity of Violet, of 'Violets Chronicle of Fashion', in the form of letters written by Thomas Moore Emmanuel Ward (1895-1947). Ward was a Lieutenant in the 12th Battalion (Pioneers) Sherwood Foresters as well as a contributor to …
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With thanks to Chris Galley for taking the time to answer my questions. Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) — the number of infant deaths under the age of one per thousand births — is a useful indicator of both the health of a population and of its supporting health infrastructure and welfare (discussed in brief in parts 2 and …
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Private Richard Collins, 12th (Bermondsey) Battalion East Surrey Regiment Service Number: 12906 (Later 12234, 1st Irish Guards) Born: 9 August 1899, Brentford, Middlesex Died: Unknown Enlisted, at the age of 19, in August 1915 with the 12th (Bermondsey) Battalion East Surrey Regiment, earning the qualification of 1st …
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Corporal Gontran De Tournoüer, 11th Field Artillery Brigade, Australian Imperial Force. Service Number: 109 Born: 27 August 1885, Vendome, France. Died: 13 July 1929 (aged 43), Queensland, Australia. Content: This article contains a cartoon, a product of the time, which includes negative stereotypes of a people and its …
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The Wipers Times, Tatler, and the Identity of ‘Violet’ from Violet’s Chronicle of Fashion: An Exposé
The Wipers Times — its story and humour immortalised in a 2013 BBC film of the same name, based on the stage play by Ian Hislop and Nick Newman — is one of the most famous of trench journals to appear during the First World War.1 However, there exists a mania around these publications, that began as soon as they first …
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Lance Corporal Gilbert Tom Webster 26th Battalion (Bankers) Royal Fusiliers Service Number: 19799 Born: 17 July 1886, Bilston, Staffordshire Died: 21 June 1962 (aged 75) Tom Webster by Howard Coster, National Portrait Gallery, Public Domain. Better known as Tom Webster, and one of the more well-known names to …
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![Soldier-cartoonist: Private Charles "Chas" William Holt, 16th Sherwood Foresters [Unconfirmed]](/post/2023-04-13-soldier-cartoonist-private-charles-chas-william-holt-16th-sherwood-foresters-unconfirmed/images/Blighty%201916-08-23-11.jpeg)
Private Charles "Chas" William Holt, 16th (Chatsworth Rifles) Battalion, Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire) Regiment Service Number: 26643 Born: 7 February 1880, St Mary, Nottingham Died: 14 January 1954 (aged 73) A son of a wheelwright, on 9 September 1914, aged 34, Holt enlisted for three …
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Figure 1. The Outpost, 1 March, 1918, p.175, British Library This is the first entry in an ongoing series documenting soldier-cartoonists of the First World War, including those who had contributions published in the magazine Blighty, those who contributed to Trench Journals and Unit magazines, and those who kept …
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Figure 1. Blighty, 14 June 1916, p.1. Blighty: A Budget of Humour From Home, was a charitable ‘soldiers-newspaper’ that ran between May 1916 and March 1919 (and later became a short-lived mainstream publication until its bankruptcy in 1921). In the foreword for the first issue, the origin of the magazine was …
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From my search to track down First World War soldier-drawn cartoons for my dissertation, and the route through which I acquired items, I ended up with quite a collection of war-related ephemera (which is still growing). It seems a shame for it to just sit in boxes so I thought I would try and do something interesting — …
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