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I mentioned in the Staff, Suspects and Witness post that I was at something of an impasse regarding researching Dorothy Violet Hall. While I had fragments of information, there wasn't really enough to form more than a fragmented sentence here and there. I received an email in October 2023 from Richard Sheppard, a …
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Private Alfred Edmeades Bestall, Army Service Corps Service Number: DM2/112832 Born: 14 December 1892, Mandalay, Burma Died: 15 January 1986, Porthmadog, Wales (Aged 93) I am the type of person, who when visiting an art gallery, bowls past the information desk, brushes off the tour guide, and boots the audio-headset …
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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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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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