On Saturday 11th November, members of the SCS, including the Society’s Patron, The Hon. Ann Straker, SCS Chair, Alan Wakefield, Secretary, John Taylor and Treasurer, Ray Brownson, gathered with National Trust staff and volunteers and representatives from the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum, including Trustee, Brigadier David Innes to remember those who have died for their country in war and conflict, particularly the men and women of the British Salonika Force. Thanks to Alison Lazarus of the National Trust for organising the service, The Reverend Mark Christian for officiating and Darren Rolfe for the photographs.
SCS Patron, The Hon. Ann Straker after laying the wreath on behalf of the SCS.SCS Secretary, John Taylor, planting crosses in remembrance of 38218 Acting Bombardier James Thornley and 38368 Bombardier John Edwards.The Sandham Memorial Chapel with the well dressed and ready for the Remembrance service.
On the morning of Thursday 8 November, SCS Chair, Alan Wakefield, represented the Society at the Opening of the 95th Field of Remembrance outside Westminster Abbey. SCS members Jonathan Saunders and Darren Rolfe were also in attendance. The Field is organised by the Royal British Legion’s Poppy Factory and the SCS is very lucky to have its plot in a prime location opposite the west door of St Margaret’s Church, which stands alongside the Abbey. This year the Field was opened by Her Majesty Queen Camilla who is Patron of the Poppy Factory.
SCS Chair, Alan Wakefield, Her Majesty Queen Camilla about those who served with the BSF during the Salonika Campaign.The British Salonika Army plot, a tradition started by BSF veterans of the Salonika Reunion Association and continued today by the SCS.Crosses of Remembrance in the Salonika plot commemorating those who still lie beneath Balkan soil.
It is with great grief that I wish to tell you your son has died of wounds received in the recent attack. Our company was ordered to take up a position on the left flank of a brigade which was taking a village a mile to our front. We know the Bulgars were entrenched there. It was successfully carried out and the trenches taken and held. Your son was hit in the charge gallantly leading his men. I saw him at once and had him taken back. He was hit in the side but was not in great pain. We had great hopes of his recovery but last Saturday he had a relapse and died on Sunday morning. We buried him in a small cemetery where other are laid who in like manner have given their lives for their Country
The Salonika Campaign Bibliography (with thanks as ever to Keith Roberts) is a valuable resource for anyone interested in the campaign or researching an aspect of it. It’s freely available for members and non-members alike.
Each year we aim to publish an update to the bibliography, as close as possible to the anniversary of the Bulgarian Armistice in late September 1918. And so, we are very pleased to announce the arrival of Version 4! You can find it here.
… What do we want with eggs and ham, when we’ve got plum and apple jam? Form fours! Right turn! How shall we spend the money we earn? Oh! Oh! Oh! it’s a lovely war.
Issue 48 of The New Mosquito was mailed to Society members by our printers this week. This issue features a fascinating in-depth piece about the 26th Divisional Company Theatre Company and has articles ranging from the Italian Regia Marina to the Society’s innovative ‘Trench Maps Place Names Project’. Not to be missed!
UK members should receive their copy by September 25th, overseas members a little later. If you haven’t received yours, do please let us know and we’ll get a copy to you asap.
Eight years ago, at the start of the centenary of the Macedonian campaign, the Society ‘adopted’ Muffin, a mule at the Redwings Horse Sanctuary at Caldecott in Norfolk. This was to acknowledge the huge contribution made by animals – especially mules – in the campaign. Through his column in ‘The New Mosquito’ we have learned more about mules in general and Muffin in particular. It has been clear from recent updates, though, (the last is in the forthcoming NM48) that Muffin has been feeling his age and experiencing declining health. So it was sad, but not altogether surprising, to receive this from Redwings:
Staff at Redwings Horse Sanctuary are heartbroken to announce the death of Muffin the mule, its much-loved and longest serving Adoption Star.
The beloved boy was 36 years old and had been at Redwings since he was rescued from slaughter in 1987 along with his mum, a pony called Doris, when he was just a tiny foal.
Tragically, Doris passed away shortly after their arrival at the Sanctuary when it was discovered she had a stomach ulcer. Baby Muffin had become friends with another youngster – April – and, with the support of the Redwings staff who cared for him, went on to become one of the charity’s most famous Adoption Stars for 30 years.
The Redwings Adoption Scheme allows people to support the charity through sponsoring one of their residents, who in turn receive updates on their lives as well as the chance to visit them. The funds raised go towards the care of their friend and that of the other horses, ponies, donkeys and mules at Redwings.
Lynn Cutress, Redwings Chief Executive, said: “We know so many people will be upset to hear this news. It’s left a huge hole in the hearts of all the staff here at Redwings and we know our supporters will feel that too.
“When people discover you work here, they always tell you that they remember Muffin and ask if he’s still with us. They tell you that their grandparents or parents sponsored him for them as gifts, and they grew up with his pictures on their childhood bedroom walls.
“Some families sponsored him for generations, and our priority was to write to them all personally before announcing this publicly as we wanted them to be the first to know.
“Visitors to Redwings Caldecott, where he lived, were delighted by Muffin’s friendly nature and mischievous ways for over three decades, as of course were the staff who cared for him day in and day out. We all loved him dearly.”
In his later years Muffin was diagnosed with Cushing’s disease (PPID) which made him prone to a painful hoof condition called laminitis. As a result of his specialist needs, which increased with his age, Redwings retired him from the Adoption Scheme in 2017 so he could enjoy a quieter life with his friends.
As such an elderly boy, it was becoming increasingly challenging to care for him without him needing to have extended periods of time away from his herd. The recent addition of front shoes helped him feel more comfortable, and happily he had recently been living on a more-gentle woodchip paddock at his Caldecott home with a friend. Unfortunately, he had become very reluctant to take his medication and despite his carers trying various foods and methods of feeding and providing him with enrichment activities to improve his emotional health whilst in vet care, these measures were not working as well as was hoped. Sadly, on 11th September, it was decided that the kindest thing to do was to put Muffin to sleep to prevent his health and comfort deteriorating.
Laura Starkey, Redwings Caldecott Equine Centre Manager, said: “Our staff and the vet team cared for Muffin with such love and dedication.
“Muffin was one in a million, such a patient, calm boy. He loved his feed, and would often stand waiting by his bowl, 30 minutes before time, with a face that said: ‘What’s been keeping you?’. He took life at his own pace and you certainly couldn’t rush him. He has been here since the beginning of Redwings Caldecott and we will miss him terribly.”
Muffin receiving his SCS membership certificate and badge from Robin Braysher on his birthday in April 2016 – ginger biscuits may also have changed hands! (Photo by Robin Braysher).
Young Muffin and mum, Doris, in 1987 (thanks to Redwings for the photo).
The birthday boy, April 2023 (thanks to Redwings for the photo).
Muffin at sunset, summer 2023 (thanks to Redwings for the photo).
The SCS Annual Meeting takes place on Saturday 7th October. If you haven’t already reserved your place, please do so by Monday September 25th. Click here for details of how to do this. We look forward to seeing you at the AGM!
I’m grateful to a recent correspondent with the Society for bringing to attention (to me at least!) the work of artist Henry Lamb. In 2014, the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester had an exhibition, The Sensory War, to mark the 100th anniversary of WW1. One of the works exhibited was by Lamb: Advanced Dressing Station on the Struma 1916
Ana Carden-Coyne, who co-curated the exhbition Visions of the Front 1916-18, for the Somme centenary also featured the painting and describes it in this way:
“The scene of a dressing station focuses on the relationship between a wounded man and a stretcher-bearer, who attends him with a cup of water, a great relief that many soldiers wrote about as the comfort given between men. Thirst and cold were understood much later in the war as signs of hemorrhage and shock. The bearer’s hand gently touches the wounded man’s head, providing comfort symbolic of the pietà (Christian iconography of Mary cradling Jesus’ corpse). Indeed, the pietà was often used in war-time humanitarian images of nurses caring for wounded men. But Lamb transforms the theme into an effigy of masculine care and the intimate brotherhood of shared suffering. Placed on the ledge of a shallow trench, the stretcher resembles an altar. In the right hand corner is a Thomas splint used for compound fractures, from which soldiers could die. Pathos is also created by the figure on the left, head in hand, perhaps affected by malaria, a common disease of this front, or perhaps a reference to psychological suffering. The central figure stands over the patient, staring pensively into the distance. Made three years after the end of the war, the composition of this painting symbolises the pain and succour of the entire conflict.”
There’s also discussion of the painting by one of the team at The Whitworth here:
Henry Lamb was born in Australia in 1883 and educated at Manchester Grammar School, before studying medicine at Manchester University Medical School and Guy’s Hospital in London. He abandoned medicine in 1906 to study painting at the Chelsea School of Art but “with the outbreak of the first world war Lamb returned to his study of medicine and served as a doctor in the Royal Army Medical Corps in France, Salonika and Palestine where he was awarded the Military Cross. He was not an official war artist but was always sketching and drawing in spare moments. These sketches with memories from his time on the Macedonian Front and the Palestine campaign formed the basis of large-scale paintings made after the war. ‘Irish Troops in the Judaen Hills’, now in the Imeperial War Museum, and ‘Advanced Dressing Station on the Struma’ for Manchester City Art Gallery are amongst the most extraordinary of his career. In 1928 he married Lady Pansy Pakenham and moved to the quiet Wiltshire village of Coombe Bissett where they would remain for the rest of their lives. Lamb was appointed an official war artist for the second world war and after first wanting to document the war cabinet decided on portraits of soldiers and studies of servicemen at work across the South of England. At the same time as his appointment as a war artist Lamb was elected as an associate of the Royal Academy and a Trustee of both the National Portrait Gallery and the Tate. He was finally awarded full membership of the Royal Academy in 1949.” Sources here and here.
John asked a question on the previous post about 10th (Irish) Division’s Army Service Corps Divisional Train in which a relative may have served as a driver of mule transport, so I thought I would share this photograph from my collection. From the summer of 1916, it shows an ASC column stretched out over a Macedonian plain. These draught mule are pulling supply limbers which were more flexible than lumbering, general service wagons, but weren’t as useful in the hills and mountains of Macedonia as nimble pack mules.
Salonika Campaign Society, 1915-1918 