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 aircrew served 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.
I’m very grateful to Jon Lewis, author of the excellent The Forgotten Front; the Macedonian Campaign 1915 – 1918, for bringing this to the attention of the Society – thanks Jon!
See also: https://salonikacampaignsociety.org.uk/2020/09/26/australians-and-new-zealanders/
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.
There then follows the opportunity for lunch at the club before the meeting starts at 12:30 with a series of talks:
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:
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.
Awarded the first SCS Philip Barnes Bursary in 2024, Dr Jake Gasson* recently spoke on ‘The Battle Against Boredom‘ at the National Army Museum. The topic was explored in August this year in this YouTube video for Redcoat History.
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.
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.
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.
Sir Thomas Lipton (1848–1931) was a Scottish businessman and philanthropist best known for founding the Lipton tea company, which became one of the largest tea brands in the world. He was also a noted sportsman, famously competing in the America’s Cup yacht races several times, and made significant contributions to charity and education throughout his life.
During World War I, Lipton visited Serbia to offer humanitarian aid, moved by the suffering caused by the conflict. Recognizing the dire need for medical support, he donated substantial funds and medical supplies to assist Serbian soldiers and civilians, especially during the devastating 1915 retreat. His efforts helped establish field hospitals and provided relief to those affected by both the war and the widespread disease in the region.
This remarkable, and to me at least, largely forgotten story will be told with much more skill and knowledge by Colonel (Retd) Nick Ilic in a free online talk this week. As Nick explains, “It is a fascinating story and I’ve assembled a large number of photographs to try and bring it to life.”
The talk is on 11 February at 7pm and should last about an hour. You can join via this link:
Yesterday, Dr Jake Gasson1 presented ‘Salonika: The Battle Against Boredom’ online from the National Army Museum2. If you missed the talk, or would like to listen again, you can catch it below or via this link. The talk begins at 15 minutes 24 seconds.
1Dr 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. He is also the first recipient of the Salonika Campaign Society’s Philip Barnes Bursary. Jake joined the Society’s 2024 battlefield visit to Greece, delivering two presentations to the tour party while there. We recently published his article on Searching for Scapegoats: The ‘unreliable Zouaves’ and the Second Battle of Doiran. Jake will also be writing a piece for the The New Mosquito in the future.
2The National Army Museum is a leading authority on the British Army and its impact on society past and present, and has hosted many free online events in the past. You can support its work here.
