Category Archives: WW1

An Evening with Rudyard Kipling – Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum, Woodstock

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A talk by Philip Geddes

Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum, Park Street, Woodstock OX20 1SN
Wednesday 11th July 2018
6.45pm – Doors Open & Refreshments Available
7pm – 8.30pm Lecture
Tickets: £10

“What comfort can I find ?” was the anguished question asked by the writer Rudyard Kipling after the death of his only son Jack at the Battle of Loos in the autumn of 1915. Kipling provided his own brutally realistic answer – “none this tide, nor any tide”. Kipling responded to his loss by becoming the unofficial voice of the people of Britain and its Empire. He wrote many of the words by which we now remember the dead of the Great War – striking phrases such as “Lest we forget” and “A Soldier of the Great War Known unto God.”

An Evening with Rudyard Kipling tells the story of Kipling’s life with readings from his poetry and prose. It takes Kipling from his early days as the chronicler of Britain’s Indian Raj, through to his high point as poet of Empire for Edwardian England and as voice of the nation in the First World War. The show includes many Kipling favourites – “If”, regularly voted Britain’s favourite poem, and extracts from Plain Tales from the Hills and the Just So stories.

About Philip Geddes
Philip Geddes is ‘a child of the Empire’ and a long standing Kipling fan. His family served in India for almost 200 years in the army and as political officers. He was a journalist for 30 years with the BBC, ITV and The Financial Times (as European Editor for Financial Times Television). He then spent 15 years as a consultant to European Commission, advising senior level officials on the development and presentation of policy. He has written for numerous magazines and newspapers, and is author of two books – In the Mouth of the Dragon, on the future of Hong Kong and Inside The Bank of England, the first modern study of the Bank of England.

For further information and to book, see here.

Workshop: Writing the First World War

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The Quick and the Dead: Fallen Soldiers and their Families

Saturday, 22 September 2018, 10:00 to 17:00
John Henry Brookes Building, Headington Campus, Gipsy Lane site

This interactive day will draw on the extensive experience of bestselling author and well-known historian of the Great War, Richard van Emden.

It will cover many aspects of non-fiction writing from clarifying what sort of book you want to write, how to build a narrative and getting published. It’s suitable for anyone, published or aspiring, who’s writing or wanting to write about the First World War.

Also taking part will be Stephen Barker, author of Lancashire’s Forgotten Heroes.

Cost: £65 (including tea/coffee and lunch) or £60 for Western Front Association members.

For more information contact: hss-shortcourses@brookes.ac.uk
Further information and how to book, see here.

Conference: Colonial and Wartime Migration, 1815-1918

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13 and 14 September 2018
Université de Picardie Jules Verne
Amiens, Logis du Roy
CORPUS (EA 4295)
https://colonialandwartimemigration18151918.wordpress.com/

Wednesday 12 September
Reception at Amiens City Hall at 6:30pm

Thursday 13 September (Logis du Roy)

9:00-9:15: Introduction: Marie Ruiz

9:15-10:15: Keynote Address
Eric Richards (Flinders University, Australia) – “Migration at Extremes”

10:15-10:45: Discussion

10:45-11:00: Coffee break

11:00-12:00: Panel 1: Exceptional Migration Patterns (Chair: Laura Sims)
Bernard Porter (Newcastle University, UK) – “British colonial migration in the 19th century. The Short Route”
James Hammerton (LaTrobe University, Australia) – “’Empire made me?’: English lower middle-class migrants and expatriates, 1860-1930.”

12:00-12:30: Discussion

12:30-1:30pm: Lunch

1:30pm-2:30pm: Panel 2: Scottish Migration (Chair: Yann Béliard)
John MacKenzie (Lancaster University, UK) – “Early nineteenth century war and the distinctive Scottish Diaspora”
Marjory Harper (University of Aberdeen, UK) – “”The hands of the clock have begun to move backwards”: postwar emigration from Scotland”

2:30–3:00pm: Discussion

3:00–4:00pm: Panel 3: Ireland, the Great War and New Zealand (Chair: Marianne Kac-Vergne)
David Fitzpatrick (Trinity College, Ireland) – “Irish Migration and the Great War”
Jim McAloon (Victoria University, New Zealand) – “Irish immigrants and the middle class in colonial New Zealand 1890-1910”

4:00–4:30pm: Discussion

Friday 14 September (Logis du Roy)

9:30-10:30: Panel 4: Labour Migration (Chair: Géraldine Vaughan)
Fabrice Bensimon (Université Paris-Sorbonne) – “British Labour and Migration to Europe during Industrialisation (1815-1860). The Case of the Lace Makers”
Yann Beliard (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle) – “Migration to and from Hull, and its impact on the labour movement, 1840s-1914”

10:30-11:00: Discussion

11:00-11:30: Coffee break

11:30-12:30: Panel 5: Religious Migration (Chair: Aurélie Thiria)
Hillary Carey (University of Bristol, UK) – “Clergy for Convicts: Religion, Emigration and the Convict Probation System in New South Wales”
Géraldine Vaughan (université de Rouen – IUF) – “‘Promote Protestant emigration!’: John Dunmore Lang, Religious Immigration and Imperial Identities in the Mid-Victorian era”

12:30-1:00pm: Discussion

1:00-2:30pm: Lunch

2:30-3:30pm: Panel 6: The Empire and WWI: Canadians and Kiwis (Chair: Frédérique Spill)
Kent Fedorowich (University of the West of England, UK) – “The ‘Sawdust Fusiliers’: The Canadian Forestry Corps, 1916-1919”
Adam Cutforth (France-New Zealand Association) – “‘There and back again’: an ANZAC’s round-trip to the Western Front”

3:30-4:00pm: Discussion

4:00-4:15pm: Coffee break

4:15–5:15pm: Panel 7: Migrant Representations of WWI (Chair: Nathalie Saudo-Welby)
Edward Higgs (University of Essex, UK) – “Spirit photography as war photography, and migration across the Great Divide”
Santanu Das (King’s College London, UK) – “South Asian Troops in Europe, 1914-1918 – Image, Song, Literature”

5:15-5:45pm: Discussion

5:45pm: End of Conference

To End All Wars? Geopolitical Aftermath and Commemorative Legacies of the First World War

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August 22, 2018 to August 25, 2018
Ieper, Belgium

At the end of 1914 H. G. Wells published The War That Will End War, a collection of patriotic essays justifying Britain’s participation in the war. The title sounds familiar as it was taken up later on in other contexts, particularly by the British prime minister David Lloyd George and the American president Woodrow Wilson (‘the war to end (all) wars’).

With To End All Wars? the In Flanders Fields Museum (Ypres) and CEGESOMA (Brussels) once again return to this historic title for a multi-day conference, to tackle two questions: what were the consequences of the new geopolitical order installed after this so-called ‘last war’, and how is the legacy of both war and post-war order remembered up to the present day?

Taking worldwide perspectives, this unique and prestigious conference brings together international specialists including Jay Winter, Nicolas Offenstadt, Carole Fink, Stefan Berger, Bruce Scates, Pieter Lagrou, Piet Chielens and many others. They will discuss and reflect upon the consequences of the new geopolitical order that came into being after the First World War, and how that war and its legacy have been remembered up to the present day.

See here for full conference details and to register.

CfP – The Many Faces of War: An interdisciplinary symposium on the experience and impact of war throughout history

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September 19th, 2018 at South Dakota State University

The study of warfare is often restricted to the sphere of military history and rarely allowed to transcend the artificial boundaries of historical study, namely those limited by geography and periodization. Throughout the ages war has had the greatest impact, not on the political elite who declare wars but on those who fight and die and their families and friends. This conference aims to address both the experience and impact of war for those fighting as well as for those on the periphery of combat.

Subtopics of particular interest are:
Women in war; the social stigma of retreat or cowardice; war and agriculture; the impact of scorched earth policy on populations; The depopulation of villages; war’s effect on birth or marriage rates of the loss of male citizens; prisoners of war; camp-followers and non-military personnel; displacement of populations; arms production; social security systems for war widows and orphans; the effect of training on a soldier’s mindset and actions (before, during and after combat); the social position of soldiers; peacetime relations between soldiers and civilians; wartime relations between civilians and occupying armies.

The conference is aimed equally at postgraduate students, researchers in the early stages of their careers and established academics. There are no specific geographical or temporal parameters regarding the subject matter of papers, and scholars of ancient, medieval and modern warfare are encouraged to submit proposals. We would also encourage the proposal of panels of three papers.

Proposals/abstracts should be no longer than 250 words and should be sent to:
Graham Wrightson (graham.wrightson@sdstate.edu)
The deadline for submission of proposals is August 31st, 2018.

CfP: To cease fire, to cease hostilities? Since modern times to the present day

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The Defense Historical Service and the Zentrum für Militärgeschichte und Sozialwissenschaften der Bundeswehr, the Institute of War and Peace Studies (IHMC-UMR 8066, Paris 1-Sorbonne) are organizing on the 27th and 28th November 2018 an international symposium entitled “To cease fire, to cease hostilities? Since modern times to the present day.”

Over the last few years, the historiography of military history has benefited from a profound renewal of ideas, objects and methods in the wake of John Keegan’s works. Despite a growing interest in the surrender phenomenon (P. Vo-Ha) or in the experience of war captivity (F. Théofilakis, F. Cochet) and more generally in the fate of the vanquished (C. Defrance, C. Horel and F.-X. Nérard), the analysis of the end of hostilities still remains a blind spot. However, the organizers of the current conference are convinced that this problem is a particularly fertile prism through which the war object should be examined: The way we stop fighting says much about how the war is thought and waged.

Papers can be submitted in French or English.
Languages for the symposium will be French and English.
Please send us a 500-word abstract and a short bio by July 1st, 2018. Accepted speakers will be notified by July 15th, 2018.

The organizers of the symposium will bear the costs of:
– Travelling tickets, accommodations and catering for non-Parisians speakers
– Midday lunches

Please direct questions and submissions to: colloque.ceasefire@gmail.com
Full call for papers: CFP To cease fire

CfP: From the “New Republic” to the Spanish Flu: the Azores and the Armistice

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World War 1 Congress
Faial Theatre, Horta, Faial, Azores, 18-20 October 2018
Azores Military Museum, Ponta Delgada, São Miguel, Azores, 15-17 November 2018

Sidónio Pais died on December 14, 1918, murdered in Lisbon. As a republican, he would successively occupy the positions of deputy, senator, minister and ambassador, returning to Portugal when the First World War was already predicted. In power by the conspiracy that established the “New Republic” (1917-18), he would lead a confederation of disgruntled republicans, monarchists, clericals and anti-war forces, and legitimize the presidency by elections, exercising a mixed power of authoritarianism and populism. His homicide left the country in great political, economic and social instability, aggravated by the Spanish flu, the Influenza A virus.

In the Azores, the year of 1918 was marked by the war in the sea; the Spanish Flu; the Azores Detachment of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet and the High Commissar of the Republic, General Simas Machado, was sent by the President of the Republic to control the civil, military and diplomatic areas in the archipelago. To this scenario were added the war in the sea, the TSF and submarine cables and the communication of the Armistice to North America; a German POW in Terceira island and a deep trade crisis, with big social misery, promoted in many cases by the action of hoarders.

This meeting aims to analyze the last year of World War I, with particular emphasis on the Azores in its relationship with the Atlantic, belligerence, economic crisis, communications and Atlantic ports, and international affairs with Sidonism and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Likewise, 1918 also marks a year of profound reflection about the hygienic-sanitary conditions, and is even a starting point for the study of war traumas or morpho-functional sciences / biomedical engineering, to which we can ally the relevance of the female activism, with some echoes in the Azores.

The organizing committee calls for proposals that address, but are not limited to, the following themes:

The maritime and terrestrial dimension of the involvement of the Azores in World War I;
The naval and submarine war;
The Atlantic and telecommunications during the Great War;
The maritime connections in the Trenches War, or in the colonies;
The Sidonism and the High Commissioner of the Republic for the Azores;
Health services, health conditions and the Spanish Flu;
The Armistice and the return to normality;
Women’s Emancipation.

Submission deadline: 17 July 2018
Further information here.
Download CfP: 2018-10-18_Azores-Armistice_CFP

Submission process: Please send your identification (name, institutional affiliation and mail address), Paper title, place of preference (Horta/Ponta Delgada), Abstract (maximum 700 words), and academic CV (1 page) via mail to: azoreswar@gmail.com

Working languages: English, Portuguese (no simultaneous interpretation is available).

Organising committee:
Ana Paula Pires (IHC – NOVA FCSH and Stanford University)
Rita Nunes (Comité Olímpico de Portugal and IHC – NOVA FCSH)
Sérgio Rezendes (IHC – NOVA FCSH)
Manuel Marchã (Museu Militar dos Açores)
Carlos Lobão (Escola Secundária Manuel de Arriaga /CHAM Açores)

Scientific committee:
António Paulo Duarte (IDN and IHC – NOVA FCSH)
Carolina Garcìa Sanz (Universidad de Sevilha)
Filipe Ribeiro de Meneses (University of Maynooth)
Luís Manuel Vieira de Andrade (Universidade dos Açores)
Maria Inès Tato (CONICET and Universidad de Buenos Aires)