Air Raid Warning
Peggy Vanderkar was studying at Chelsea College of Physical Education when the Second World War was started. I was at 111, the Solkhorn family home, when war was declared on…
The Working Class Tea
For the Edwardian working-class meals were very different to their rich counterparts. J. Rey in ‘The Whole Art of Dinning’ published in 1914, enlightens us: The Working Class Tea “The…
The Traction Engine
One of my favourite books is ‘Before the lamps went out,’ by Esme Wingfield-Stratford, his account of growing up in Edwardian England. Here he recalls the advent of the Traction…
Medieval 'Listeners'
Henry of Lancaster, Earl of Derby, may be called one of the earliest great English military engineers, for in 1345, the year before Crecy, he first taught the troops under…
Night Flying
In his book ‘Tiger moths to Typhoons’ F/Lt Peter Watson lets us into the world of the Second World War night flying school. “There were one or two consolations about…
Gunpowder
Gunpowder became known in the West about the middle of the thirteenth century. The Franciscan scientist Roger Bacon mentioned it as something already widely known; this is his description of…
Henry V Guns
Henry V’s force of 1415 was the first English army to use real artillery, though siege guns played no part at Agincourt. They had pet names as ‘London’ and the…
A night on Hill 60
I was reading Norman Gladden’s book ‘YPRES 1917’ when i came across his account of his dealings with the Australian’s on Hill 60. Although the account is not specifically about tunneling, i found it fascinating of…
Personal Hygiene
The Daily Express – Enquire Within publication of 1934, gives the reader all useful and helpful information on every day issues. When it comes to Personal Hygiene it has some…
The Comprehensiveness of the Gunpowder Plot
George Carlton, James 1st bishop of Chichester, explained the diabolical comprehensiveness of the Gunpowder plotters:- “Their hellish device was at one blow to root out religion, to destroy the state,…