Author: Andy Hutt

Andy's interest in the campaign comes from his grandfather, Arthur, who served in Salonika as a sapper with the Royal Engineers from 1916-1918. Opinions expressed in these posts are personal and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Society.

Ghosties and ghoulies and long legged beasties …

A Halloween offering from ‘The Mosquito’, reprinted in the Salonika Reunion Association’s final, souvenir album: Salonika Memories, 1915-1919, edited and produced by G E Willis, OBE, JP – the SRA’s long-standing Editor – and published in May 1969 …

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Something else for Black History Month …

Black soldiers in the BSF seem to be rather thin on the ground – in fact I only know of one: Charles Bailey of 9/King’s Own. I first gave Charlie a mention last year, but am happy to mention him again in case you missed the fascinating website in which he features: Charlie Bailey’s War – The story of WW1 soldier Charles Bailey a Welsh miner of West Indian origin plus some of the men he served with.

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Australians and New Zealanders on the Serbian Front

My thanks go to Australian author Bojan Pajic for sharing a link with us to a fascinating article on the Australian War Memorial website about Australians and New Zealanders who served on the Serbian Front.

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Plant specimens collected on the Salonica Front

The New Mosquito of April 2015 (issue 31) contains a fascinating article by Dr James Wearn of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, entitled ‘Risking their lives to collect plants on the Salonika Front’. It is about the eight members of Kew Gardens’ staff who served in Salonika with the armed forces, but were able to collect plants as an extra-curricular activity.

Some while later I was contacted about this article by  Emeritus Professor Arne Strid, distinguished Swedish botanist and expert on Greek flora, whose two-volume Atlas of the Aegean Flora was published in 2016. Professor Strid provided additional interesting information about plant collecting in the region and kindly allowed me reproduce this here.

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