20th Century
My Grandfathers’ Chests [part 2]
It seems a long time since I wrote about William Slaughter’s small leather trunk in the December blog post, with Christmas and New Year falling in between. Now it’s 2015, and the anniversary of the Gallipoli campaign falls this year, reminding us that there were many other theatres of war than the Western Front, during … Continue reading
Mr Punch’s History of the Great War
Of all the books I’ve acquired from relatives over the years one of my favourites is Mr. Punch’s History of the Great War. Published in 1919 by Cassell and Company and edited by Charles L Graves (1856-1944) it uses extracts from Punch magazine to “provide a mirror of varying moods, month by month, but reflecting … Continue reading
Zeppelin Nights
Jerry White is a social historian and Visiting Professor of London History at Birkbeck College, University of London. He is perhaps best known for his trilogy of histories of London in the eighteenth to twentieth centuries. His latest book, Zeppelin Nights: London in the First World War was published by Bodley Head on 1st May … Continue reading
Great-grandpas airship and Zeppelins over London
Last year I wrote couple of blogs about a largely unrecognised element of the First World War story; the Zeppelin bombing raids over England and the competition to develop a British airship to rival the German Zeppelin. My focus was my great-grandfather’s attempts to persuade the War Office that his airship design would both … Continue reading
Gomersal Mills and the outbreak of World War One
The outbreak of the First World War would prove profitable for some textile businesses in the West Riding, as wars had in earlier centuries. They had supplied uniforms and other items for military use to this country, most of Europe, the Middle East and overseas territories for several hundred years previously. I think they clothed … Continue reading
A family not at War (much)
The Great War centenary commemorations are something of an embarrassment for me. The obvious family war stories are lacking among my ancestors. In particular, no-one was an acknowledged hero, and nobody died. I suppose one could regard Nana’s sister, Ethel, as a war death, at a stretch. She died in 1918, in the Spanish Flu … Continue reading
Great grandpa and the overture to war (part two)
In my last posting I introduced the International Review of Commerce and Industry to which my great grandfather, Alfred John Liversedge (AJL), submitted articles in December 1913 and January 1914 in an attempt to see if there was any intimation that the Great War was imminent. In the next issue, January 1914, the editor kicks … Continue reading
War Baby
My mother-in-law, Diana Gutch [nee Worsley], who died three months ago would have celebrated her 100th birthday on 26th February 2014.It used to amuse her to call herself a ‘War Baby’, although she was born six months before the outbreak of the first World War. However,her early life was greatly affected by the events in … Continue reading
The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men Gang aft agley
At the beginning of 1914, my grandparents had important decisions to make. My grandfather, Lewis Casson, 38 years old, had just resigned from an important job as producer (the more usual word for a theatre director) at the very first regional repertory company in England, Miss Horniman’s Company at the Gaiety Theatre, Manchester. His modern … Continue reading