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SCS Battlefields Tours in 2020

Next year there will be a single Society tour, running in September so as to coincide with the annual official commemorations. The reason for only running a single tour next year is due to the poor response to the spring
SCS tour run through Battle Honours last April. We hope to try running another tour with Battle Honours in 2021 but can only do so if it is supported by members.

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Exhibition and Event at Sandham Memorial Chapel: 16-27 October 2019

An exhibition of work by 2018 Sky Landscape Artist of the Year, Jen Gash, inspired by her journey through the countryside of Macedonia accompanying the 2018 SCS Centenary tour and following in Stanley Spencer’s footsteps.

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Faces of Salonika : John Henry Gibbon – Methodist army chaplain

The John Rylands Library recently accepted on deposit a collection of diaries written by a Methodist army chaplain John Henry Gibbon (1880-1933), who served in Salonika with the 67th Brigade of the 22nd Division between November 1916 and June 1917. Continue reading “Faces of Salonika : John Henry Gibbon – Methodist army chaplain”

A picture of the Salonika campaign?

I was pleased to hear from Joel Garzoli an art dealer from San Francisco. We are truly global! Joel had a question about a picture in his collection, a First World War painting by American artist Gilbert Gaul, called ‘Directing Traffic’. Does the painting depict a scene from the Salonika campaign?

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Remembering František Štěrba who died in Hotesovo, 17 March 1917

A departure from our usual BSF focus this time. The Austro-Hungarian Army has not come up before although they were active in Macedonia, albeit at the other end of the line from the BSF. I am pleased though, to be able to remember František Štěrba, who lies in Northern Macedonia, a long way from home. Continue reading “Remembering František Štěrba who died in Hotesovo, 17 March 1917”

Faces of Salonika : Daisy Dobbs MM, TFNS

My thanks go to Geoff Botting who has kindly provided these details and photos of his remarkable grandmother, Daisy Dobbs, who was a nurse in Salonika, where she won the Military Medal for her courage. The man she later married, George Botting, was also a holder of the Military Medal; surely a unique occurrence!

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And another thing …

It is its marvellous collection of military vehicles that makes Muckleburgh well worth a visit – that and its location in glorious North Norfolk – but other delights are an historic military camp, the Suffolk and Norfolk Yeomanry Collection, previously mentioned, and an extensive display of scale models. Continue reading “And another thing …”

Hold yew hard, bor, tha’s Norfolk Day!

It’s that time of the year again when I try to find a tenuous link between the Salonika campaign and my adopted home, the fine county of Norfolk, even though, as I’ve only lived here 29 years, I’m still a ‘furriner’.

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Remembering Herbert Beacock, RAMC

My thanks go to David Redhead who kindly provided a splendid photo of Salonika’s iconic White Tower, following an appeal for information in our email newsletter, The New Balkan News. The photo belonged to his grandfather and I am delighted to be able to remember him here.

Continue reading “Remembering Herbert Beacock, RAMC”