Away from the Western Front would like to wish the Salonika Campaign Society and its members a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We are very grateful for the support given to our project by the Society’s committee and for the interest shown by members.
Our 2018 Salonika highlights have included the completion of three local projects that related to the campaign in conjunction with our partners at Sandham Memorial Chapel, Castle Drogo and most recently the Holst Birthplace Museum. You can watch how each of these progressed and see the creative outputs on our website.
In addition we commissioned a 15-minute film specifically about the Salonika Campaign. This was researched, written and narrated by Alan Wakefield and filmed by Taff Gillingham of ‘Khaki Devil’, making use of footage filmed during a battlefield tour led by Alan. The film is now part of the interpretation for visitors to Sandham Memorial Chapel as well as being online for viewing by wider audiences and is receiving very positive reviews.
We are extremely grateful to Alan Wakefield, not just for his work on the film but for speaking with our Alabaré group of military veterans, opening their exhibition at Sandham Memorial Chapel and for speaking on the Salonika campaign at our National Conference. The ‘Salonika Stories’ exhibition at Sandham will continue during 2019 and a film from our conference will shortly be available on our website.
We ran a Creative Writing Competition during 2018 and quite a few entries were inspired by the Salonika campaign, notably one from a 14 year old girl in Serbia who wrote a heartfelt poem based on an incident during the Serbian retreat. Our ‘Over 18’ winning entry, ‘Buried Letters’, was inspired by a story of two people who met whilst working in the Scottish Women’s Hospitals in Macedonia and an audio version is available here. The winning and shortlisted entries have all been published on our website.
We’d like to sign off by reminding everyone that we are able to offer a platform for individuals who have researched relatives’ stories and if you would like to know more please contact us.
Robin Clutterbuck, National Coordinator
Lyn Edmonds, Project Director
info@awayfromthewesternfront.org
Troops sleeping at the entrance to their tent, Salonika, April 1916. BRITISH FORCES IN THE SALONIKA CAMPAIGN 1915-1918 (click on image to see full size) © IWM (Q 31864)
