On a recent 'Pals' Pilgrimage to the Somme, we made the unfortunate error of booking with 'Sea France' Dover- Calais and reverse, for the second time in one month.

On the outward journey, we were delayed by 1. hour 30 minutes, the ‘predictable’ excuse being given as ‘gales in the channel.’ On the return leg on Thursday 23 October we duly arrived at Calais Docks at 4pm to catch the 5pm ferry and were told that ‘Due to gales in the channel’ the crossing would be delayed until 6.30pm. We were then kept waiting on the Quayside at Calais, when the Sea France reps told us we were delayed until 7.30pm. Then 8.30pm. We eventually sailed at 9pm. A delay of five hours. This is unacceptable and is the second time in one month this has happened. We noticed that P & O Ferries sailed as normal. There were no gales in the channel.

The short of all this is, that Sea France will not sail until there is enough cars to go on the Ferry and then it is packed. They cancel the previous sailings until it is financially viable to sail with a full load. Not only is this a shabby trick from a shabby company, they are totally incompetent and are sublime liars, as only the French can be. We will never use them again. Not only are they dishonest, the Ferries are filthy and the service extremely poor. The crews are surly and lazy and give appalling service. The whole useless lot should be sacked from the lousy management down and the company rolled up. The Channel would be a better place without this lot!

Learn from our mistakes! Do not use Sea France. Sail with P&O!!

Anthony Spagnoly R.I.P.

Tony was 81 and had been housebound with his 'dodgy hip' for sometime. He accompanied the Pals on many battlefield trips from 1993 to 2005. He was undoubtedly, since the passing of Rose Combes, the greatest knowlege of the old Western Front of 1914-18 and knew the whole area like the back of his hand. Tony served in the Royal Navy during the last war and after, on HMS Belfast. He was an early member of the Western Front Association and a friend to many. He was also the author of several books 'Salient Points' on the Battlefieds. He will be sadly missed. God bless you, mate.

Rising out of the plain above the little French town of Arras is Vimy Ridge. Wind sweeps up the grassy slope and through the forest towards the gigantic marble monument to the fallen Canadian soldiers of the First World War. The monument, while in France, is actually on Canadian soil. The land was given to the Canadian government by the French government as an honour for the sacrifice of its citizens in the defense of France. As a Canadian traveling in France, the Vimy Memorial is a warming reminder of home. Often, when we venture far from home, we long for something familiar, something to remind us of where our home is, and in northern France, I was in desperate need of this.

France is a beautiful place. It's regional diversity gives a traveler the feeling of being in a few different countries. My journey in France began in the north and quite honestly, did not prove to be the most enjoyable experience. Making my way from Belgium I hitchhiked along the highway towards where I knew Vimy Ridge was. As a history student I knew I had to see the Monument first and, having hitchhiked rather easily in Holland and Belgium, I figured my fortune would continue in France. However, this was not the case. I spent hours standing on the side of the road, in different places and different spots, trying to get a lift. When I was just about to give up, a kind French gentleman saw me, gave me a shocked look like he was supposed to pick me up and caught himself before he drove past, and took me in. He didn't speak English and my French stopped at grade 11 but we understood each other well enough. I told him I wanted to go to the memorial and he drove me right up to the top of Vimy Ridge.

At the Ridge I was overwhelmed by the sheer size and beauty of the memorial. The artistic design of the statues, the weeping lady, the angels, portrayed a sensitivity to the spirit of sacrifice that men underwent to defend a country they really had very little if any connection to. The forest leading up to the monument has a tree for each man killed and the grave sites around the Ridge bear their tombstones. I as pleased to find Canadian university students like myself working as guides at site. I quickly struck up a conversation with one and within a few minutes I was offered a place to stay for the night. One of them gave me a tour of the trenches and tunnels and when the day was over, I hopped in their van and we headed into the village. Tourism Canada had set these guys and girls up with a nice flat where I bunked on the couch and we had pasta dinner (which I much welcomed since I hadn't eaten much of substance for a few days). After dinner we went out to a local pub, played cards and drank Guinness, and played pool. Having been on my own for much of my trip around Europe I felt a warm comfort and peace about my trip that I hadn't felt since being in Europe.

I left the next morning with the sun shining out across the plains of northern France and a better confidence that the rest of my time in Europe would be a great adventure. I had a much better feeling about France. The people hadn't changed but I realized that the people were not the problem. People are people anywhere you go. I just needed to adjust my outlook and come to terms with the fact that I was alone in a foreign land and it was up to me to make the most of my travels. What being with other Canadians gave me was a dose of home and that dose was enough to carry me through.

Aaron Rowe is a writer and high school teacher in Langley BC. See more at http://adrowe.wordpress.com

He has a passion for European travel and you can learn more about the countries of Europe at http://www.learnabouteurope.com

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This video was made by Rick Lomas using the images from the current photo album. You will find this all over the internet thanks to the wonderful video submission tool Traffic Geyser.

Moderne Hotel, Arras

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Hampstead Pals Tour May 2009

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At In the footsteps BATTLEFIELD TOURS we occasionally receive enquiries about how to trace the records of British soldiers who served in the 1814-18 Great War. We do our best to help when such a request is made, but our resources are limited and we are conscious that our best is often very slow and not always that conclusive. To help those wishing to research records of British Soldiers who served in the 1914-18 Great War we thought that it would be useful if we put together some notes on the basics of how to research this information.

During the Great War of 1914-1918 Britain's Regular Army was tiny by European standards and was quickly supplemented initially by Reservists and the Territorials. Kitchener's Army of volunteers were rapidly trained and sent to the front and by 1916 it was necessary to introduce Conscription to make up numbers.

The casualty lists continued to grow at an alarming rate largely because of the very nature of trench warfare. The modern military innovations and communications that we know today simply did not exist and the 1914-18 Great War had developed into one of attrition. As a consequence, the British Army sustained massive fatal casualties averaging around 450 officers and men per day.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC)

The first place to begin your search is the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC). They have the most complete record of soldiers (and others) that died in the 1914-18 Great War. This record is available on-line in their ‘Debt of Honour Register’ at http://www.cwgc.org/.

The information contained in the Debt of Honour Register includes the location of the soldier’s grave (or his commemoration, if he has no known grave). It will usually give details of his service number, rank, unit, date of death (if known) and place of burial or commemoration. Other information may be available, but this is dependent on material supplied (or not supplied) by relatives during and after the war. It should also be noted that whilst the CWGC make every effort the Register is not entirely free of errors.

The 1921 Compilation – Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914-19

An excellent resource for locating those who died in the war is Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914-19. Originally published in 1921 the compilations consist of 80 volumes for the soldiers with a separate volume for officers. Each volume deals with individual Regiment or Corps, and lists those who died, giving dates, locations, army number. It is not 100% accurate, but an excellent record that was based on regimental records.

These volumes give information that the CWGC does not for example, place of birth, place of residence, place of enlistment and any former regiment being the most common.

A full set of the Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914-19 is available for the general public to reference in the Birmingham Central Library. Other Central and/or Reference Libraries may also hold copies, but check before going as they often only have the volume relating to the local regiment.

This work can also be obtained from the Imperial War Museum as a searchable CD-ROM and is also available from the Naval Military Press. The CD-ROM has the advantage that the casualties can be searched and sorted, which is a great benefit if you are researching a unit or what happened to a group of friends. Inevitably it does contain some transcription errors - but then again the originals have errors too. Overall, this is an excellent though very expensive resource. Many branches of the Western Front Association have a copy, as do some libraries - including the one at the National Archives.

Genealogy Websites

Military-Genealogy.com the Naval & Military Press’ website for military historians and family history researchers has computerised these records, along with similar records relating to the Second World War, and offer a pay-per-view service to search them. These works are also available as a searchable CD-ROM, published by the Naval & Military Press.

Another pay-per-view service is provided by findmypast.com that has made it possible to search for soldiers who died in the 1914-18 Great War on-line. It is also possible to access the registers of war deaths via their website. In addition to their pay-per-view service they operate a voucher system whereby vouchers can be purchased from UK stockists or mail order, see their website for details.

Rolls of Honour

Many businesses, organisations, schools and towns created Rolls of Honour after the war. Many of these are now available on-line and can be accessed by searching Google then clicking on the appropriate search result.

In addition to these dedicated Rolls of Honour sites is a particularly good website http://www.roll-of-honour.com/ that is striving to list details of the various War Memorials in the UK. This also has a useful search facility that will interrogate the records they have in their databases.

Soldiers Personal Files

All British soldiers who served in the 1914-18 Great War had a personal file. Around half of these personal files were destroyed in the first German air-raid on London in the Second World War on the night of 7th/8th September 1940. The records that survived the Second World War were released to the UK National Archives: The Public Record Office at Kew in November 1996. Their website can be found at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/. The original documents are now so fragile that only microfilm is available for inspection and whether an individual soldier’s file has survived is entirely random.

Officers’ files had a higher survival rate and about 216,000 were released to the National Archives in February 1998. The criteria for release were that the officer had served in the British Army between 1914 and 1920 and that he had left the Army before 31st March 1922. It is often possible to locate an officer’s file on line, by typing the surname into the National Archives Catalogue accompanied by a record class number. Officers’ files are mostly contained in record series WO 339 or WO 374 (especially Territorial Officers).

The Medal Index and Medal Rolls

Besides a soldier’s (or officer’s) personal file the other major source of information is the Medal Card Index, also in the National Archives. This is the most complete listing of British service personnel in the First World War. The National Archives has now completed the digitizing of the Medal Index.

Most soldiers who served with the British Army in the 1914-18 Great War qualified for campaign medals, normally the 1914 (or 1914-15) Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. The Army Medals Office recorded soldiers’ medal entitlement in lists known as rolls. The Index Card available on line provides the reference to where the soldier is listed on the Rolls, which are organised by regiment or corps. The information found on the Medal Card will include the soldier’s name, rank and serial number, his regiment or corps, sometimes his unit (e.g. battalion or Field Company RE), his date of death (if he died during the war), the campaign medals he was awarded and the reference numbers that allow the soldier to be traced on the Medal Rolls, which are not available on line.

It is important to check the actual Medal Rolls because they can give extra vital information about a soldier, such as his battalion, that allows further research to be undertaken. This is particularly true of soldiers who served in the cavalry, yeomanry and infantry, but much less so for the larger corps, such as the Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers and Army Service Corps.

Unit War Diaries

Once a soldier’s unit has been identified it is possible to find out more about it. All units from battalion level (and the battalion’s equivalent in other corps, such as a Field Artillery Brigade) upwards were required to keep War Diaries on active service. These diaries are preserved in the National Archives: The Public Record Office, Kew, in record series WO 95. War Diaries rarely mention ordinary soldiers, but they do provide a detailed account of the unit’s movements and activities.

Regimental Histories

Nearly all infantry regiments and battalions have published histories. These can usually be purchased through that Regiment’s PRI or through most reputable bookshops. On-line bookshops such as Amazon will also have these available.

We hope that the information contained within this article has been of assistance and will help you trace the records of the soldier you are interested in. If you feel that we can be of assistance please email us at inthefootsteps@btinternet.com and we will try to help. Please bear in mind however our opening paragraph, as our resources are limited and we are conscious that our best is often very slow and not always conclusive.

Ian R Gumm

at Willowmead

20th January 2007

www.inthefootsteps.com

If you are interested in following “in the footsteps” of an ancestor, relative or particular unit we can put together a bespoke battlefield tour proposal for your consideration. The proposal is without obligation as we do not undertake any preparatory work until an order is received.

We also offer a range of commemorative certificates that can be purchased from our website. These decorative certificates are designed to commemorate the military service of service personnel in a readily displayable format, they are not meant to be facsimiles of official documents.

Visit our website at In the footsteps BATTLEFIELD TOURS for further details.

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I am just putting together this Hampstead Pals site for Jon Nicholls of Mixed Feelings.

Jon has been meaning to do this for a while I believe, so good luck with it.

Rick Lomas