Our congratulations go to overseas SCS member Glenn Stennes. In recognition of his work in maintaining and improving access to sites on the Doiran battlefield, Glenn has been awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) in the New Year Honours Overseas and International List 2026, for “services to UK Military Heritage Preservation.” Congratulations Glenn!
British Empire Medal (Image Source)
On behalf of the Committee, I’d like to wish all members and supporters of the SCS, their families and friends, a Merry Christmas. We hope that you all have an enjoyable festive period and can welcome 2026 in with good spirits.
Once again, I am pleased to report that the past year has been good one for the Society. Membership numbers remain strong, which is heartening to see, as your continued support is an indicator that the Committee are working in the right way to fulfil the Society’s objective of keeping alive the memory of all those who served in the Salonika Campaign through Remembrance activities, research and public facing outputs ranging from history talks, publications and social media to battlefield tours.
This year saw the successful trialling of a new format for our annual meeting and AGM. The problem over recent years of getting the majority of the Committee together in person was overcome by taking the AGM online. This proved a success with a wider range of members attending, including some from outside the UK. Several action points were forthcoming from the meeting, on which the Committee are now working. I would like to thank members for contributing ideas and volunteering for aspects of Society work both during the AGM and in subsequent email follow ups. At the annual meeting in London, members attending were treated to three excellent talks on a range of Salonika Campaign topics. I was pleased to welcome several new faces to the meeting, among them a few folk from this year’s battlefield tour. An in-person meeting in London is a good opportunity for members to get together and a way of maintaining the tradition, started by the SRA, of laying a wreath at The Cenotaph. Plans for next year are in progress.
In terms of our other commemorative events, the Society was represented by a plot at the RBL Field of Remembrance outside Westminster Abbey. Thanks to members Darren Rolfe, David Tarn and Jonathan Saunders for joining me at the opening. I hope members are taking the opportunity over the two-week lifespan of the Field to visit and plant a cross of Remembrance. The Field is an impressive spectacle, and a walk around really does bring home the sacrifice made in conflicts since 1914. A few days after the opening of the Field of Remembrance, SCS members gathered with staff and volunteers from the National Trust on 11 November at the Sandham Memorial Chapel for a Remembrance service. This event is now a fixture in the SCS calendar, is increasingly popular with SCS members and is a fitting way to round off our commemorations for the year. The Chapel is the nearest thing in the UK to a memorial to the BSF, which makes the active relationship between the team at the Chapel and the SCS something we should work hard to maintain.
Overseas we had a very successful battlefield tour that had as it’s theme the role of artillery with the BSF. A tour group of 27 visited key ground associated with British operations in the Salonika Campaign. This included new locations near the River Vardar (Axios) around Machukovo (Evzoni) and Smol (Mikro Dassos). Thanks to members Apostolos Nalmpantis, Graham Winton and Keith Roberts for assisting with a pre-tour recce to the area and again to Graham for taking on a couple of the associated stands. It was interesting to see that the SCS contingent formed the largest contingent of representatives of any of the commemorative associations/societies present at the official Remembrance ceremony at Polykastro. Members may be interested to know that I am now in touch with representatives from the Association Nationale Pour Le Souvenir Des Dardanelles Et Fronts d’Orient, who plan to be at Polykastro next year.
For 2026, as well as another battlefield tour, it is planned to restart work on the map cataloguing project at the National Archives and to run the Philip Barnes Bursary for a second time, which will allow a university student or early career researcher to accompany the 2027 battlefield tour. The Society will also look at the feasibility of running another Salonika Study Day at a venue outside London in 2027. The Committee would welcome ideas for potential venues for a study day or to hear from members wishing to get involved with the map project.
Now, as I close and turn to eat another mince pie, I’d just like to thank my fellow Committee members for their work over the past year. We work as a team to keep the Society moving on the right track for the benefit of all members. Thanks also go to various members who have actively participated in events and projects run by the Society and those who have made suggestions and volunteered to assist the Committee in numerous ways.
It just remains for me to wish you all the best wishes for Christmas and the New Year. I hope 2026 gives us as many chances as possible to meet to remember all those men and women of the BSF who remain firmly at the heart of our fellowship.
Whilst having the central theme of the role of the Royal Engineers in the Salonika Campaign, the tour will visit all the key locations associated with the British Salonika Force and look to break some new ground:
Several CWGC sites will also be visited:
Proposed dates for the tour are Sunday 20 – Tuesday 29 September
If you are interested in joining the tour please contact SCS Chair, Alan Wakefield, to get your name on the emailing list for further details.
Other Opportunities to visit the Salonika Battlefields in 2026
The battlefield tour operator The Cultural Experience is planning a tour (25 – 30 April) to key British related Salonika Campaign sites. The tour will be accompanied by SCS Chair, Alan Wakefield. Details here.
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.
Photographs from Salonika featured quite strongly in “The Illustrated War News” of April 19th, 1916. Here are a couple of those photos:
More to follow in the next few days.
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.
To mark Remembrance Day, the Embassy of Greece in London is hosting a special (free) exhibition on November 12th at the Hellenic Residence, 51 Upper Brook Street, London .
“There, among the rotted sandbags, a flower had grown…” is an exhibition to remember those who served in Greece during WWI. It is also a tribute to the enduring friendship and long-standing alliance between Greece and the UK.
The exhibition will present a compelling narrative of the shared histories and sacrifice between Greek, British and Commonwealth personnel in WWI Greece. The exhibition takes its title from a line in “Life in the Tomb” by Stratis Myrivilis -a landmark war novel, and by far the most famous work written in Greece on the First World War.
Visitors will have the opportunity to explore an array of artifacts and objects, some never seen before in the UK such as parts from the wreckage of Zeppelin LZ.85 which was shot down over Thessaloniki by the British battleship HMS Agamemnon on 5 May 1916.
Other artefacts on display include:
Visiting hours and Additional Information
The exhibition will be open to the public with free admission on November 12th from 12pm.-3pm. and from 5pm.-8pm., with guided tours available to provide further context and insight into the displayed items. Slots are bookable on the hour. Last entry is at 7.30 p.m. Click here for details and tickets.
My thanks go to David Gallon for sharing a letter from today’s Daily Telegraph, alerting readers to the delights of visiting northern Greece and – in particular- sites associated with the Macedonian campaign.
Continue reading “Salonika recommended!”In December of last year, we posted about a podcast series that featured an interview with Society member Chris Loader who had travelled with the Society on the September 2023 SCS Battlefield Tour to visit the grave of his great-great-grandfather, Henry Albert Obadiah Loader.
Inspired by a visit to Doiran Military Cemetery during the tour, Chris has now branched out to record his own podcast series: Salonika Secrets.
‘Salonika Secrets’ – a new podcast from Society member Chris Loader
The podcast tells of Chris’s search to identify an unknown British officer commemorated at Doiran. Without giving too much away, Chris has so far managed to narrow down the identity to an officer who served in the 12th Hampshire Regiment. You can listen to the podcast free on Spotify, Amazon and Apple and, no doubt, other podcast providers. Chris also posts updates and extra information on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) here.
Good luck with the search Chris!
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.
Salonika Campaign Society, 1915-1918 