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Family history is so much more than names and dates

Category: First World War

High Hesket war memorial

High Hesket war memorial

Posted on November 8, 2020January 22, 2021 by Harriet
High Hesket war memorial is just one of  countless (or uncounted) such memorials across the length and breadth of the UK. Every name on every memorial has a story behind it, of a life lived and a lif... Read More
Food control, and war service for women

Food control, and war service for women

Posted on October 25, 2020January 22, 2021 by Harriet
Food control was a matter of national concern in the UK in both the First World War and the Second World War. If the trade-off for the national prosperity of the Industrial Revolution was people leavi... Read More
Newbiggin to Serbia and the First World War

Newbiggin to Serbia and the First World War

Posted on August 16, 2020January 22, 2021 by Harriet
Newbiggin Hall, in Cumbria, is more than 2,500km from Belgrade. But it has an important connection to the events that tipped Europe into the madness of the First World War. This third post on the Crac... Read More
After the war is over

After the war is over

Posted on November 10, 2019January 22, 2021 by Harriet
Today is Remembrance Sunday and tomorrow the 101st anniversary of the Armistice. Here is my final reflection on the men whose names are recorded on just one memorial in one Cumbrian town. ‘After the... Read More
Jutland, Gibraltar, and Newbiggin Hall

Jutland, Gibraltar, and Newbiggin Hall

Posted on September 29, 2019January 22, 2021 by Harriet
Which Newbiggin Hall is this? There is more than one! Newbiggin Hall – the one at Newbiggin, near Temple Sowerby – became the home of the Crackenthorpe/Crackanthorpe family in the 1300s. Here ... Read More
Penrith casualties: Stanley Dennison & Mark Dayson

Penrith casualties: Stanley Dennison & Mark Dayson

Posted on June 16, 2019September 1, 2019 by Harriet
If ‘Two more Penrith casualties’ sounds somehow dismissive, it isn’t. Quite the opposite. More than 700,000 British soldiers were killed in the First World War (the number actually ... Read More
Border Regiment prisoners of war: WWI

Border Regiment prisoners of war: WWI

Posted on May 18, 2019January 22, 2021 by Harriet
Prisoners of war have long been a staple of movies and TV dramas, from those based on  true stories like The Great Escape, to the enjoyable nonsense of Escape to Victory. The focus is almost always o... Read More
Tom Telford – one more casualty

Tom Telford – one more casualty

Posted on April 20, 2019 by Harriet
Tom Telford is another of the men recorded on the 1920 Penrith Congregational Church memorial plaque. It’s ‘just’ one plaque among countless tributes to the dead of the First World W... Read More
Mustard gas – a delayed killer

Mustard gas – a delayed killer

Posted on March 30, 2019January 22, 2021 by Harriet
Mustard gas is possibly misleading in this piece about the deaths of two Cumbrian First World War soldiers. Chlorine gas and phosgene were also used as chemical weapons. Which somehow have always seem... Read More
Penrith brothers in arms: the Pilkingtons

Penrith brothers in arms: the Pilkingtons

Posted on March 10, 2019January 22, 2021 by Harriet
Henry and Jane Ann Pilkington, of Penrith, lost three sons to war. This is their story. Penrith Congregational Church unveiled a memorial table on September 26, 1920, ‘in grateful memory of the men ... Read More
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