Colonel Nick Ilić MBE QGM, and former British Defence Attaché in the Embassy in Belgrade, will give a talk on the Second Serbian Campaign of 1915 at the National Army Museum, London, SW3 4HT, on Thursday, 20 November, at 2pm.
The talk will cover the arrival of the British and other international missions in Serbia, the Typhus epidemic, and the October 1915 invasion of Serbia that led to the Serbian Army’s epic retreat across the mountains to the Adriatic.
The talk will last about an hour. If you have attended a talk given by Nick in the past, you will know how informed, informative and interesting the talk is going to be.
Admission is free, but please let Nick know by 18 November if you plan to attend.
Nick presenting at the Salonika Study Day, Great War Huts, August 2024
The Dead Gunner; a figure on the Royal Artillery Memorial (1914-19) at Hyde Park Corner, London. Photograph by the author.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.
Members of the Society may well be aware, from the notice in the New Mosquito No.51 earlier this year, that the Society’s AGM will be held online via Zoom at 7.30pm on Monday 27 October.
All members have today been sent an email with details of how to enter the online AGM. If you haven’t received this, please check your Junk/Spam email folder. Failing that, please send us a message and we will get the details to you.
We look forward to seeing you in the meeting on Monday.
Those in London, or able to visit, on Saturday 18 October are warmly invited to attend the screening of By Far Kaymakchalan, a newly completed documentary by Australian writer and historian Bojan Pajic. The one-hour film will be shown from 3:00 to 5:00 pm in Room KIN 204, King’s College London, King’s Building, Strand Campus, WC2R 2LS.
Bojan Pajic is the author of two books examining the experiences of Australians and New Zealanders who served with Serbian forces during the First World War. By Far Kaymakchalan builds on his previous work and combines archival material, personal testimonies, and historical analysis to illuminate the shared history of these Allied nations. The event, hosted by Dr Stephen Morgan, Lecturer in Film Studies at King’s College London, will be followed by a discussion with Bojan Pajić.
Filmed in Australia, Serbia, Greece, and North Macedonia over a period of eighteen months, By Far Kaymakchalan is based on Pajić’s research that has revealed that more than 1,500 Australian and New Zealand volunteer doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers, soldiers, sailors, and aircrewserved alongside Serbian forces during the war.
Full details of the event are available via this link.
NB For security reasons, King’s College London requires a list of attendees to be submitted 24 hours in advance. If you are thinking of attending, please don’t forget to register beforehand.
This screening offers a rare opportunity to engage with a significant and often overlooked chapter of First World War history, and to hear directly from the researcher and filmmaker who has dedicated much of his work to bringing these stories to light.
Just a quick reminder that the SCS Annual Meeting takes place at the Civil Service Club, London on Saturday, 11th October 2025. Prior to the meeting, we will be gathering at The Cenotaph, Whitehall at 11:30 for a short commemorative ceremony.
October 2024: Patron of the Society, the Hon. Ann Straker, lays the poppy wreath at the Cenotaph (photo by Vernon Creek).
There then follows the opportunity for lunch at the club before the meeting starts at 12:30 with a series of talks:
Dr. Jake Gasson, Salonika: The Battle Against Boredom.
Chris Loader, 10th Battalion The Hampshire Regiment: The OG Salonika Battalion.
Alan Wakefield, Balkan Gunners: Some Aspects of the Artillery War in the Salonika Campaign.
The cost of the annual meeting is £10.00 per person, excluding lunch. Please note, advance booking is required (by September 20th 2025) as availability of seats is strictly limited.
Full details of the meeting and how you can reserve your place can be found here.
SCS Secretary Chris Loader recently recorded (on July 28th) a new podcast as part of the History Rage series in which he shares his personal connection to the Salonika Campaign, through his family history, and discusses the background and complexities of the war in Greece.
You can listen to the podcast here (or via the image below):
The podcast is also available via these other podcast channels:
The Society’s occasional email-newsletter, The New Balkan News* has recently been sent out to subscribers. The July issue contains news about the SCS Annual Meeting in October and also includes a number of interesting articles:
Archaeology in the Struma Valley
Botany & Salonika
Request for Information
Help needed in identifying a Salonika combatant
Mule Musings.
One article (Archaeology in the Struma Valley) reports on archaelogical research on the site of the ancient city of Amphipolis, at the mouth of the River Strimon/Struma.
Officers of the 2nd King’s Shropshire Light Infantry with skulls excavated during the construction of trenches and dugouts at the ancient Greek site of Amphipolis, 1916. Image Source: Imperial War Museum Q 32521
It was here at Amphipolis in 1916 that British troops discovered human remains and artefacts while digging trenches. To read the article, and the rest of the email newsletter, please click here.
And, if you haven’t, please consider subscribing to the NBN here.
*The New Balkan News is available to Society members and non-members alike. The name was inspired by the newspaper of the British Salonika Force – The Balkan News, published 1915-1919 – and was the idea of founding editor, Martin Wills, when it was launched in 2013. All previous newsletters are freely available here.
On 9th February Colonel (Retd) Nick Ilic gave an online talk about Sir Thomas Lipton (1848–1931), the Scottish businessman and philanthropist best known for founding the Lipton tea company. I wrote an introduction to the talk here.
I’ve just spotted, rather belatedly, that Nic’s talk is now available on YouTube.
And earlier in the year, Jake also explained the background to the Salonika Campaign for Redcoat History.
*Dr Jake Gasson is a National Army Museum Fellow based at King’s College London, where he is a postdoctoral researcher. He obtained a DPhil from Pembroke College, Oxford, specialising in the Macedonian front of the First World War.
The ‘Artillery & Small Operations’ Tour – Sunday 21 to Tuesday 30 September 2025
Explore the key locations of the British Salonika Force during the 2025 battlefield tour, with a special focus on artillery and the small-scale but intense operations that defined the campaign—raids, ambushes, and offensive patrols.
At Doiran, we’ll examine the crucial role of both British and Bulgarian artillery during the First and Second Battles of Doiran. On the Kosturino battlefield, we’ll revisit the desperate December 1915 fighting of the 10th (Irish) Division. In the Struma Valley, we’ll explore the sites of XVI Corps’ limited offensives between 1916 and 1918, as well as the defensive positions held by British forces.
Exploring sites during the 2024 tour
Our journey continues to Bowls Barrow and Smol (now Micro Dassos) in the Vardar sector, where we’ll see firsthand how operations were often designed to divert Bulgarian attention from Doiran. We’ll also visit sections of the Birdcage Line defences and the village of Mavroplagia (formerly Karamudli) in the Krusha Balkan Hills.
The tour will include visits to several Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries, including Doiran (with the Memorial to the Missing), Karasouli, Kirechkoi-Hortakoi, Lembet Road, and Struma.
Running from Sunday 21 to Tuesday 30 September 2025, the tour is timed to coincide with the official commemorations marking the end of the Salonika Campaign, held over the last full weekend of September.
Led by SCS Chair, Alan Wakefield, this is a great opportunity to walk in the footsteps of BSF history.
To register your interest and receive further details, contact Alan Wakefield via email.
Salonika Campaign Society, 1915-1918 