Despite some rainy days recently, the weather was kind to those attending a joint National Trust, Salonika Campaign Society service of Remembrance at Sandham Memorial Chapel earlier today. Thanks are owed to the National Trust team at Sandham for organising the event and the Rev Mark Christian for officiating. Also to those members of the Society who attended the service, and who enjoyed a convivial lunch afterwards.
HRH The Duchess of Gloucester opened the 98th Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey on Thursday 5th November 2026. The event, which marks the start of the nation’s Remembrance commemorations, has been held every year since 1928, when the Poppy Factory brought a tray of poppies and a collecting tin to the grounds of St Margaret’s Church. Only a handful of poppies were planted around a single cross, but it began a tradition that has grown over the decades, and now a sea of scarlet poppies covers St Margaret’s churchyard in the Abbey grounds each November.
Chair of the Salonika Campaign Society, Alan Wakefield, represented the British Salonika Army plot. Attending also were Society members Darren Rolfe, Jonathan Saunders and John Taylor.
The Field of Remembrance will remain open until daily Sunday 15th November, and members of the public are invited to visit and to plant their own tributes.
A reminder (another, I know!) to all SCS members that the 2026 Annual General Meeting (AGM) is scheduled to take place tomorrow, Tuesday 3 November at 7:30pm. (UK time) The meeting will take place online, enabling members to attend wherever they live.
Should you wish to join the meeting, please visit this page where you will find further details and a registration form. Once registered, joining details for the online meeting will be emailed to you.
A reminder to all SCS members that the 2026 Annual General Meeting (AGM) is scheduled to take place on Tuesday 3 November at 7:30pm. The meeting will take place online, enabling members to attend wherever they live.
To register your intention to join the meeting, please visit this page where you will find further details and a registration form.
Those with an interest in the Salonika Campaign will no doubt be familiar with the life and work of Sir Stanley Spencer, and Sandham Memorial Chapel – and the chapel’s enduring significance as a place of commemoration and remembrance. If so, you may well be interested in two events taking place this summer and in the months ahead.
There are just a few places still available on the Salonika Campaign Society Battlefield Tour this coming September. So, if you have never explored the old haunts of the British Salonika Force or fancy making a return, here’s your chance!
Led by Alan Wakefield, the Salonika Campaign Society is offering a chance to visit key sites associated with British efforts during the Salonika Campaign, 1915-1918. The overall theme of the tour will be the role of the Royal Engineers with the British Salonika Force. Locations will include the Doiran battlefield, where the BSF suffered 35% of its total battle casualties, the Struma Valley, where XVI Corps faced the threat of endemic malaria as well as their Bulgarian adversaries and Kosturino Ridge, where 10th (Irish) Division made a stand in the Winter of 1915. Time will also be spent on the Birdcage Line, built to defend the city and port of Salonika from Bulgarian attack in 1915-1916. We will also attend commemorations to remember all those who served and died during the campaign.
Salonika Campaign Society Battlefield Tour
20 – 29 September 2026
The ‘Sappers in Salonika’ Tour
Sunday 20 September
• Tour begins late morning with meeting at Thessaloniki airport
• Ceremony of Remembrance at CWGC Kirechkoi-Hortakoi Military Cemetery
• Overnight in Doiran
Monday 21 September
• Visits to La Tortue; Petit Couronne; Hill 340 – to include RE involvement in raids and major operations against Petit Couronne
• Overnight in Doiran
Tuesday 22 September
• A Day on Kosturino Ridge
– Rocky Peak and Ormanli village
– Memesli village
– Site of Kajali village
– Crete Rivet and Crete Simonet
– 10th (Irish) Division Memorial
• Overnight in Doiran
Wednesday 23 September
• Visit the 22nd Division Memorial
• Visit to the ‘Devil’s Eye’ Observation Post on Grand Couronne
• Visit to The Hilt – key position in Bulgarian second line
• Overnight in Doiran
Thursday 24 September
• Doiran Memorial & Cemetery
• Dova Tepe Fort in Krusha Balkan Hills
• Triada – British artillery position (Struma campaign overview)
• Outpost Line – Between villages of Anagennisi (Cuculuk) / Vamvakia (Nevolyen) / Neo Tyroloi (Topolova)
• Overnight in Serres
Friday 25 September
• Komarjan Bridge – a study of RE bridging & river crossing methods
• Kilo 70 old Serres Road – RE work on Line of Communication
• CWGC Struma Cemetery & XVI Corps HQ
• Visit to Strimoniko (formerly Orliak) to discuss RE role in signals and lines of communications
• Overnight in Kilkis
Saturday 26 September
• Horseshoe Hill (7th Ox & Bucks action 17-18 August 1916)
• Pip Ridge (from the Greek side)
• Bowls Barrow [time allowing]
• Overnight in Kilkis
Sunday 27 September
• Attend Official Commemorations at the Five Nations Memorial, Polykastro
• CWGC Karasouli Cemetery
• Kilindir (now Kilindria) railway station – to discuss RE role in railway operating
• Overnight in Thessaloniki
Monday 28 September
• Birdcage line – including 99th Field Coy. bridge position
• Lembet Road Allied Military Cemetery
• Thessaloniki Port
• Overnight in Thessaloniki
Tuesday 29 September
• End of tour
If you are interested in joining the tour please contact SCS Chair, Alan Wakefield, for further details: aj.wakefield[at]talktalk.net or via our contact page.
Available to attend either in person or online, SCS member—and former Army officer and UK Defence Attaché—Nick Ilić will be delivering a presentation at the National Army Museum which “will bring to life the little-known but truly heroic and inspirational story of the British contribution. Their efforts, as part of a coalition of nations, played a significant role in Serbia’s survival and liberation, and in the defeat of the Central Powers in 1918. More than a century later, their sacrifice is not forgotten within Serbia.”
Nick’s presentation is on April 17 at 12:00pm and is free to attend or watch online – full details here.
Apologies for the late notice…
Tonight (Monday 9th February) at 7pm, Nick Ilić will be giving a free online talk (as part of the Serbian Council of Great Britain Serbian Month programme of events).
Nick says on ‘X’, “The talk is about the ‘Second Serbian Campaign’ that was taking place 110 years ago during the Great War. The events culminated in what became called the ‘Serbian Golgotha’ – where rather than surrender to the advancing German, Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian Armies, the Serbs decided to retreat over the Albanian and Montenegrin mountains to the Adriatic Coast. Thousands perished.
The Serbs did not march on their own over the mountains – with them went the international military and medical missions that had deployed to Serbia in 1914 and 1915.
It is a most remarkable, heroic, tragic and little known story.
The events also witnessed the deployment of the French and British Salonika Armies to come to the rescue of the Serbs – but to no avail.”
To access the talk:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88643782272?pwd=NMRfjni3cQdTiGy3bLvMDeNAgzYxeb.1
Meeting ID: 886 4378 2272
Passcode: 443996 from this page.
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.
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.
