This handkerchief case – from Staffordshire Museum Service’s collections – was sent as a love token from a member of the British Expeditionary Force serving in France during the First World War. Do you know of any other tokens that were sent to loved ones during the Great War ? If so we are interested…
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Many letters sent to and from soldiers on active service during the Great War have been lost over the passage of time. Some, however, remain with family members and on the public record. Some letters relating to Private Horace Isaac Hill, of the North Staffs & Durham Light Infantry, tell the story of an ordinary…
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Did you know ……. the field poppy or corn poppy, Papaver rhoeas, is known as the poppy of wartime remembrance. During the First World War the battlefields across Europe created ideal conditions for the poppy to flourish and bloom in between the trench lines and no man’s land on the Western Front. Poppies can lie dormant for many years…
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The Redfern’s Cottage WW1 centenary event, which took place on the 4th June, was hugely successful and well attended by people looking to learn more about their relatives named on the war memorial. This event gave visitors the chance to meet Gillian and Alan Talbot who have dedicated the past ten years to researching the…
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In November 1915 a young, newly-commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Lancashire Fusiliers arrived at Rugeley Camp on Cannock Chase, Staffordshire, and in December was transferred with his battalion to the nearby Brocton Camp. Whilst he was patriotic and wanted to ‘do his bit’ for his country like others of his generation, he was bored by…
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Spencer Alfred Lockett (1890-1967) An objection to taking Human Life By Jill Barber Spencer Alfred Lockett, aged 26, of Aspley Farm, near Eccleshall was working as a stockman and shepherd on his father’s farm when conscription was introduced in 1916. Conscientious Objector He was also a Primitive Methodist, and believed it was wrong to kill…
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With the centenary of the Great War and recent archaeological excavations, there has been increasing local interest in the extensive training camps that existed on bleak Cannock Chase between 1915 and 1919. This expanded and enlarged edition of the Archive Service’s popular booklet on the subject draws on documentary and archaeological evidence to look at…
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Butterton recently gained Thankful Village status and is the only village in Staffordshire to receive the title – 53rd in the whole of the UK. See www.hellfirecorner.co.uk/TV/butterton
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NEW PUBLICATION THE LIFE AND TIMES OF CHARLES MASEFIELD MC (ISBN 978-0-9928305-3-3) Graham Bebbington’s latest book is a biography of the Cheadle born poet & author who died at the age of 35, having been wounded at Lens in July 1917. On one level the work tells of how his ideals were severely put to…
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