#OTD in 1941, St George's Cathedral in Southwark was bombed. Father Dixon inspecting the damage. #WW2 #HISTORY

I am delighted to be speaking at The WFA Somme 110 Conference on 4 July at the Army & Navy Club! I'll be talking about the Indian cavalry alongside @profpeterdoyle.bsky.social Linda Parker, & Stephen Badsey. Plus our president Spencer Jones will be chairing a panel discussion. Booking is now open!

Re-upping this for the Saturday crowd: On how Michael Balcon articulated Ealing Studios’ institutional identity and commercial and creative decisionmaking in moral, progressive, and patriotic terms. All reposts (and subscriptions) much appreciated. x

This story always makes me smile, especially the reference to the fate of the Bismarck… www.stowmarketmercury.co.uk/news/2150960...

Silk postcards are avidly collected, though examples like this one, faded and grubby, are likely to be overlooked. But there is something about its message, ‘a kiss from the trenches’, that draws the eye and sponsors reflection: a simple message of love from a frontline soldier of the Great War

Your Britain: Fight For it Now - 1943/2026. Abram Games’ hard-hitting poster depicted modern health care (Finsbury Health Centre, with want and degradation lurking in the rear; a future worth fighting for in 1943- and today

Reminders of the ‘first blitz’

The Salient. The physical remains of a war that still reminds us of how easy it is to slip into conflict, and how difficult it is to escape entrenched positions

@profpeterdoyle.bsky.social kindly spoke at our Annual Conference in 2024. You can catch up with it here....and all of our other conference talks and zoom lectures. youtu.be/gyJol5djRHA?...

HNY!

Merry Christmas to all

theconversation.com/presents-fro... A piece I wrote a few years back on this iconic gift from 1914, a précis of my book on the topic.

greekreporter.com/2025/12/23/c... thought this might need airing…

It’s become a ‘thing’ for me to re-read this classic at this time of year…

Festive frivolity (+ historical commentary)

#HistBookChat trailer #2 for my book. Coming from @barnthorn.bsky.social in the New Year.

I was almost tempted… (as seen in Copenhagen this week)

Now open: call for the Royal Historical Society's First Book and Early Career Article Prizes, 2026. Eligible titles, published in 2025, may be submitted by the author before the closing date of 15 December. Further details and how to apply: bit.ly/3KnR47v #Skystorians

Liverpool Cenotaph two weeks ago today.

Details of Tyson Smith’s bas relief panels from Liverpool Cenotaph. On one side the armed men from Liverpool in angular, tight ranks, stern faced; on the other the drawn faces and stooped figures of the families

The Hill80 report was completed some time ago, but only now officially submitted — which means I can finally share it! It’s in Dutch, but I hope you’ll still enjoy the content. 🔗 Read it here: oar.onroerenderfgoed.be/publicaties/...

Hoylake & West Kirby War Memorial with sculptures by Charles Sergeant Jagger, a frontline soldier wounded in action. The sculptures are dark, intense: a brooding soldier and a mourning figure with a crown of thorns. Away from the busy street, this monument, rich in detail, depicts a deep wound

Birkenhead War Memorial, and remembrance of my youth in my home town. At least three of the names commemorated here are from my family. The Westmorland stone bas relief figures were by Tyson Smith of Liverpool; he included a representation of the bronze memorial plaque designed by Carter Preston

Port Sunlight War Memorial. Commissioned from sculptor Goscombe John by Lord Lever while the Great War was in progress. It commemorates the employees of Lever Brothers killed in the war; its bronze statues are amongst the most dynamic and detailed to be seen anywhere. Its detail is breathtaking

The Castello, an Italian WW1 machine gun position on Costabella Ridge in the Dolomites.

The best view in WW1? An Austrian machine gun position on Lagazuoi Piccolo in the Dolomites.

A trip to the Post Office, a chance reading of a sentence in Arthur Mee’s volume on Devon sat in the car park, and a returned cross I had no idea existed discovered. #ww1 #memory

Incredible to see this maquette of Gilbert’s design for Troon War Memorial at Hartlebury Castle yesterday. It’s an unusual design, a product of the Bromsgrove Design Guild, who produced both the Liver Birds and the gates to Buckingham Palace

Battle of Loos with Peter Doyle: in the latest @oldfrontline.bsky.social we are joined by @profpeterdoyle.bsky.social to discuss the offensive of September 1915. oldfrontline.co.uk/2025/10/25/b...

Thanks to all who joined us for a @oldfrontline.bsky.social Podcast Supporters evening where @profpeterdoyle.bsky.social joined us for an excellent talk about the Battle of Loos in 1915 - with the 110th Anniversary tomorrow, very apt!

Finally, a French 75

Trying to work out what is going on in the world can be a challenge

Technology is often a mystery. So it is, so it has always been

I know how he feels

Cast-iron Ypres. This incredible dish, no doubt made for the inter-war tourist market, is a cut-above the norm. Made of cast-iron, it has a dark presence that mirrors the destruction of the city, prior to its rebirth.

Lovely to be ‘leading the charge’ at the National WW1 Museum symposium in October www.theworldwar.org/symposia

I’ll never forget my first trip to this incredible place of legend

Great to see my 2012 book reissued in paperback - as with all the books in this series, it’s an introductory guide. Pleased that readers found it of value

German #WW1 Fokker D.VII fighter planes from Royal Prussian Jagdstaffel 73. #HISTORY

Snake stone. How wonderful is this? Nature, eh

Check out the call for papers for this exciting conference in beautiful Boulogne-sur-Mer in March next year on 'Women in War in France, Britain and Ireland'. It should be a fascinating event. femmescombattantes.univ-littoral.fr/en/call-for-...

At the Menin Gate. The desire to connect with those lost a century plus ago is strong, the gate such a focal point. And rightly so.

The Menin Gate, just last week. Now divested of its shrouds, once again the Gate becomes a focal point for the curious, or for those seeking names or leaving remembrances. All this while pedestrians move through its arches, just as soldiers once passed though its rubble, to the sound of the guns

Faces of the Second World War #VEDay

Faces of the Second World War #VEDay

Faces of the Second World War #VEDay

Faces of the Second World War #VEDay

110 years. Today. #Gallipoli

110 years. Today. #Gallipoli

110 years. Today. #Gallipoli