The bells of hell: trench songs of the First World War

Stephen Sedley with Les Green and Dick Wolff

Friday 12 February 2016, 5.0 p.m.
Mansfield College Lecture Theatre

Stephen Sedley, an honorary fellow of Mansfield College and retired Lord Justice of Appeal, became interested in British trench songs in the 1960s, when he was able to record the recollections of a number of veterans. He has recently returned to these, and to printed sources, to compile this presentation, first given to the History Faculty in March 2015. With the vocal help of Les Green, Professor of Law,  and the instrumental accompaniment of Mansfield alumnus Dick Wolff (of the Three Pressed Men), he will describe and discuss the remarkable body of insubordinate and humorous song with which the troops faced hardship and death.