According to my photos app, 18 years ago today I was on the Somme visiting the grave of the American nurse who tended to my mortally wounded Great Uncle Jack. He died of wounds sustained at Langemarck, she died of liver failure, possibly caused by breathing gas soaked into her patients’ uniforms.

A letter home shares some news at the front. Cigarettes. Sausages. And death. In a letter home to a friend. 18thbattalioncef.blog/2026/02/14/a...

To the Unknown British Soldier in France https://www.wikiart.org/en/william-orpen/to-the-unknown-british-soldier-in-france-1921

Registration is open!! Do come to PEI this June! lmmontgomery.ca/upcoming-con...

It's been too long -- but new post is up "Fierce Fighting in a Wood." behindtheirlines.blogspot.com/2026/03/fier... #FWW #poetry #WW1

110 years ago, my great-grandfather sent this home. “It’s cold. And when we are in the trenches, outside at night, it will be even worse. We leave for 8 days. On our right, at Verdun, it has been non-stop. I’m sending you a photo 👇 it will be a memory for me after the war. #WW1 #OnThisDay

@wherrypilgrim.bsky.social Poetry by an 18th Battalion CEF soldier to a VAD nurse.

Mairi Chisholm born #OTD 26 February 1896, famous with Elsie Knocker for treating wounded in the front line 1914-18, seen in 1913, age 17, London to Exeter motorcycle run. They met before the war during motorcycle events & went to the front as ambulance drivers. Source: Hulton via Ancestry.co.uk

The remarkable story of the YMCA’s Jewish service in the First World War, now on my Substack:

Chicago Tribune #OTD Feb 23 "show the various devices used for overcoming barbed wire entanglements ... The allies are using a small cannon for firing a drag anchor hitched to a cable, over the wire entanglements. This is then dragged through the entanglements by a windlass. bsky.app/profile/this...

Remember, even if someone is technically correct when they assert that a bookshelf with a rolling ladder “won’t fix you”, they are forgetting one simple, unassailable truth: It certainly can’t hurt.

War memorial plaque. St. Nicolas Church, Kings Norton, Birmingham, West Midlands. Commemorating the employees of the Kings Norton Metal Works who gave their lives in the Great War. #LestWeForget

My new book "For King and Country: The Role of Patriotism in Mobilisation in the First World War" is available now @penandswordbooks.bsky.social 'A fascinating read' Professor Richard Toye @richardtoye.bsky.social author of Lloyd George and Churchill: Rivals for Greatness

Valentine's Day 💕 How many soldiers died & left a family bereaved on that day? 626 French soldiers died on 14th Feb from 1915-1918 338 - 1915 134 - 1916 90 - 1917 64 - 1918 How many 315e? 2 Below 🧵on one, warning he was no sweetheart Eugene Albaud: Fusillé pour l'exemple

A charming love poem from the First World War: behindtheirlines.blogspot.com/2016/02/a-ki... #ValentinesDay #FWW #poetry #lovepoem

Remembering Sarojini Naidu, a "lyrical voice of women's empowerment," political activist, and poet, born 13 Feb 1879. Here is her #FWW poem "The Gift of India": behindtheirlines.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-... #poetry

#CFP for 'The Military Medicine and Welfare of the First World War: preparations, evolutions and legacies' symposium, 10-11 April 2025. Submit your abstracts and bios to the organisers at [email protected] by Friday 14 February 2025. militarywelfarehistory.com/other-events/.

30% off INTERNATIONAL POETRY OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR (40% off ebook) on Bloomsbury's website. Sale ends Sunday, Feb. 16. www.bloomsbury.com/us/internati...

Nothing says "I love you" quite like poetry does! Sign up for our newsletter by tonight, Monday, February 10 for the opportunity to send romantic verse to someone special! t.co/tzm6Hp2Q7Z

I absolutely love and empathise with this medieval jug, spotted in Winchester City #Museum

Todya's badge - a rare one for the Better 'Ole soldiers social club in Paris. The badge date must be post-1915 as the famous Bairnsfather "Better 'Ole" cartoon wasn't published till late 1915. In all the years I have been collecting, this is the only example of this I have seen #WW1 #FWW

War memorial tablet. St. Mary's Church, Kings Worthy, Hampshire. Commemorating four sons of the Reverend Francis Henry Baring, who all fell in the Great War. Ernest and Charles (Australian Imperial Force), Cecil (Royal West Kent Regiment) and Reginald (Royal Air Force). #LestWeForget

I realize that pub crawls are quite popular, but I truly believe that the concept of a library crawl is long overdue.

"Now must we go again back to the world Full of grey ghosts and voices of men dying..." -May Wedderburn Cannan, after the death of her fiancé Major Bevil Quiller Couch, who survived some of the worst battles of #WW1, only to die of influenza 6 Feb. 1919. behindtheirlines.blogspot.com/2020/10/wome...

Sarah Hart's sister Dorothy Maud, a munitions worker, died at work but was not entitled to a CWGC headstone.So her parents added her name to her sister's memorial, who was. This must be a very rare, if not unique example, of the words "munitions worker" inscribed on a CWGC grave. #womenshistory #WW1

2.2.16 (back from leave) "A day has passed, I am waiting for my company this evening, it will perhaps change my ideas a little. This morning I put all my stuff back in order, I sewed and brushed which kept me busy a little, but we are not going to be warm in our barn, because today it is very cold"

Just spotted on my lunchtime walk to get me out of the office #WW1 #FWW

A tiny watchful fragment in the chapter house at Durham Cathedral. #StainedGlassSunday

"And in every land Are black folk scourged; Their only crime— That they dare be men." --Joseph Seamon Cotter, Jr. behindtheirlines.blogspot.com/2017/09/thei... #blackhistorymonth #ForgottenPoets #FWW #WW1

This morning’s sunshine has reminded me of the word ‘philocaly’: a love of beauty, even in the smallest things.

👀 Ely Cathedral #Ely #Cambridgeshire #Medieval #Romanesque arches, #Victorian nave ceiling - 1860s. #SundayStonework #alwayslookup #CeilingsOnSunday @elycathedral.bsky.social

What a sunrise in #Pittsburgh today. I feel like it’s just been one after the other lately. This morning I headed to the North Shore and found some pockets of calm water protected by the remaining ice, and it made for the perfect spot for a panorama of the cotton candy sky.

Feb 2 1917 Alaska's dog mushers are deployed to Spitzkopf, Vosges the highest point in French possession in support the French Chasseurs Alpins ─ New York Times timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine... bsky.app/profile/this...

Breaking: Punxsutawney Phil sees the shadow of death and fall of an empire, so there will be 6 more weeks of winter and then groundhogs inherit the earth.

When Lieutenant Howie of the Royal Scots Fusiliers was wounded in 1918, his web Pack and equipment were sent home to his family in Scotland. The ‘Wounded Officer’s Kit’ labels are still tied to the pack. 1/

Frankton war memorial plaque. St. Nicholas' Church, Frankton, Warwickshire. First World War. #LestWeForget

"Man that is master of his flesh, And has the laugh of death and pain..." --from "Gramophone Tunes" by Eva Dobell, #FWW nurse and poet, born Jan. 30, 1876. Read more about Dobell's hospital war experience here: behindtheirlines.blogspot.com/2016/08/gram... #WW1 #gramophone

On Jan. 25, 1934, the Toronto Daily Star announced it would begin publishing Canadian official war photographs taken 20 years earlier during the #FWW 🧵 (Let's look at some of those images in real time this year! It'll be way better than following the current news, trust me).

Where Newhaven Seaplane Station once stood, on a stormy today, on the south coast. #FWW #WW1 #gwg

Today's badge - the first in a series. The Comrades of the Great War Association was set up in 1917 to represent the rights of those who had served or been discharged from service during WW1. Over 700 Associations were founded in the aftermath of the war. #WW1 #FWW

Remembering Robert Frost, who died 29 Jan. 1963. Here is one of his lesser-known (but quite wonderful) poems, "Suggested by Talk of Peace at This Time": behindtheirlines.blogspot.com/2017/03/a-qu... #RobertFrost #poetry #FWW

Remembering John McCrae, author of #WW1 poem "In Flanders Fields," who died in France Jan 28, 1918. "We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow..." You can read more here: behindtheirlines.blogspot.com/2015/04/brea... #FWW #poetry

British soldier-poet Cyril Horne was killed Jan. 27, 1916. Before #WW1, he was a musical comedy song-and-dance man. Here is his poem "Law of the Trench": behindtheirlines.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-... #FWW

The living and the dead, Vancouver Corner Ypres

Phoebe Anna Traquair - 1911 Oil on panel. A leading figure in the Scottish #ArtsandCrafts movement, she worked in various media. This is her only known self-portrait. National Galleries of #Scotland: Portrait, #Edinburgh

I am delighted to announce the Call for Papers of the next @fwwsoc.bsky.social Conference to be held at the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki on 1-3 October 2025. We are also hosting an open online Q&A event with the organisers on Mon 3rd Feb at 5pm GMT: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/society-co...

This weekend I've spent alot of time re-reading this wonderful book by @cscottbooks.bsky.social . I've read all her books but this is my favourite. It makes you really think about the psychological issues that soldiers and their families had to cope with post 1918. Beautifully written.

Remembering Gilbert Waterhouse, #FWW British soldier, born January 22, 1883. "A thousand phantom armies go and come, While Reason whispers as each marches past, “This is the last of wars,—this is the last!” Full poem and story here: behindtheirlines.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-... #WW1 #poetry