Hanna Smyth, who is completing her DPhil on the relationship between Commonwealth War Graves Commission sites and identity, recently contributed to the University of Oxford’s WWI Centenary ‘Continuations and Beginnings’ website. Her blog, WWI Memorials of the British Empire: Identity and Memory on the Western Front, can be accessed here.
Category Archives: Web Resources
Online talk: ‘Two-thirds of a Life: The Challenge of Writing about T.E. Lawrence’
Jeremy Wilson, who has written extensively on the life and letters of T.E. Lawrence, including Lawrence of Arabia: The Authorized Biography of T.E. Lawrence, gave a lecture in May 2015 at the Institut d’Etudes Avancées in Paris. A recording of the lecture is available here.
Forgotten landscapes of the Great War: The case of a prisoner of war camp in Czersk, Poland
For researchers interested in archaeology and the First World War, please see here for a paper, which presents survey information relating to the prisoner of war camp in Czersk, Poland.
7 War Memorials that Bear Witness to the Great Loss at Gallipoli
On 25 April 1915, the Allied force launched amphibious landings on the Gallipoli Peninsular. The aim was to control the straits and capture Constantinople (now Istanbul), the capital of the Ottoman Empire. The Allied landings, which included French, Australian and New Zealand troops, were heavily opposed by Turkish forces and a trench warfare stalemate followed in extreme heat and appalling conditions. This eventually ended in a disastrous Allied defeat with over 250,000 casualties, including 58,000 dead. Turkish losses were heavier still.
These seven war memorials, are notable among the tens of thousands in every village, town and city in the country for their association with the Gallipoli campaign. Like all war memorials, they are tangible and poignant reminders of events a century ago.
For more information, see here.
Material culture of the Great War: The Tyneside Pioneers
Historic England: First World War Northumbrian practice trenches, as revealed by aerial reconnaissance.
The carnage and misery of trench warfare is for many the abiding image of the First World War. Practice trenches, built by soldiers in training, are among the more emphatic monuments to that conflict to remain visible in the English landscape. A complex of such sites in Northumberland throws light on the achievements of one such group of soldiers, known as the 1st Tyneside Pioneers.
Further information here.
Blog and exhibition: Maori soldiers that served at Gallipoli
A blog from Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand highlights the role of Maori soldies that served at Gallipoli, as an introduction to their exhibition Gallipoli: the scale of our war.
First World War 100 at The National Archives
The National Archives has a range of resources on the First World War, including:
Online collections, including war diaries
Talks and events, including webinars
Learning opportunities
For more information, see here.