Category: SCS News

Swindon soldiers from Salonika Campaign set to be remembered

Working with the Society, Swindon Borough Council intends to commemorate the role of Swindonians in the Salonika Campaign. We are grateful to the Swindon Advertiser for allowing us to reproduce this article which explains the Council’s plans.

“The men of Swindon and Wiltshire who fought in a long and bitter, if often forgotten, campaign in World War I will be remembered by a plaque or some other memorial.

Members of Swindon Borough Council voted unanimously to approve a motion brought by Conservative councillor Jake Chandler.

He said he had been set on the way of researching the Salonika campaign by his great-grandfather and he had learned of significant links to Swindon and Wiltshire and the fighting which took place in Greece and what is now North Macedonia in the southern Balkans between allied forces and The Bulgarian army with support from Germany, Turkey and Austria-Hungary.

Coun Chandler added: “I have been in contact with the Salonika Campaign Society and there are 41 pages of names about 900 military personnel from Swindon.”

The link with Swindon is so strong because the 7th Battalion of the Wiltshire Regiment, the 79th Infantry Brigade of the 26th Division, which had many men from Swindon in its ranks was one of the allied units, fighting on the front there for three years from 1915.

Also operating in the theatre were the Royal Engineers, and Swindon’s railway works and the skills of the men meant many of them fighting in that regiment and in the Salonika campaign were responsible for laying miles of new railway track.

The presence was such that landmarks in the area were given names such as Swindon Hill, Rickley Hill and the names of other villages around north Wiltshire.

Coun Chandler said: “There is a unique connection to this episode in history.”

The motion was seconded by the council’s Military Champion, Coun Lawrence Elliott.

He said: “Many from Swindon made the ultimate sacrifice out in the Balkans, far from home, and did not come back to a hero’s welcome.

“My grandfather came from Australia to do his bit and he lasted about three weeks in France. His sacrifice is marked on the Menin Gate, and my family can remember him.

“But many from Swindon and around have nowhere to remember those who fought and dies in this campaign.”

As Armed Forces Champion, Coun Elliott will “investigate the commissioning of a commemorative plaque or other memorial in partnership with the Salonika Campaign Society to be completed by 2025, in time for the 110-year anniversary of the start of the conflict”.

There will also be documents photographs and maps relating to the campaign put on display in the museum and art gallery when it puts on exhibitions and Swindon’s role in the First World War.”

Featured image, Swindon Hill. Source: Imperial War Museum

Directory of WW1 Websites


Canada’s contribution to the First World War cannot be underestimated. More than 650,000 Canadians and Newfoundlanders served in the war with 66,000 killed and over 172,000 wounded. Such was the contribution, Canada had its own signature on the Treaty of Versailles. In Salonika, Canadian medical services provided care at Nos. 4 and 5 General Hospitals, and Nos. 1 and 3 Stationary Hospitals (see this earlier post).  It’s of no surprise therefore that Canadians continue to research this significant period of their history.

One such research group is the CEF Study Group – an Internet discussion forum for the study, sharing of information and discussion related to the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) in the Great War.

The CEF Study Group has just published its 2022 ‘List of Recommended Great War Websites’. Our own site is included among a directory of 2000+ websites, grouped into 31 logical sections. We are described thus: “This very detailed and multi-layered Blog site has numerous theme ‘buttons’ which take the reader deeper into the topic. Site is mature and very well organized.” (A recognition of former editor Robin Braysher’s work, I should add).

Readers may well find this a useful resource for research. The directory can be downloaded here.

Winter Webinars 2 – with Alan Wakefield

Online Talk and Live Q&A with Alan Wakefield
‘Britain’s Forgotten Army in Salonika’

Streaming Live: 7pm, 27th October 2022

Alan Wakefield’s talk will focus on two battalions of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry which gained for the Regiment the battle honours Doiran 1917-18 and Macedonia 1915-18. Using first-hand accounts, Salonika Campaign Society Chair Alan Wakefield will paint a vivid picture of life for the British Army in Salonika.

This talk is hosted by the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum. It is free to view, but please consider making a donation to support the work of the museum.

Click HERE for the talk – 7pm on Thursday 27th October 2022.

Featured image source: Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum. Men of 8th (Service) Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, photographed while building a POW camp, shovels still in hand.

Members’ Area – coming soon, with your help.

One of the items discussed at the recent online AGM was the introduction of a new private ‘members only’ website. The site will provide content related to the Salonika Campaign and the Society, for example: past copies of the Society’s journal, ‘The New Mosquito’; photos from the campaign; contemporary documents; Society proceedings; and more.

The Members’ Area is provided by Voice, an independent service providing free websites for hundreds of charity, not-for-profit, and voluntary groups in the UK.

Access to this members-only content is by invitation from the Society. Once invited, members will need to register with Voice. Voice  then manages the (free) subscription to this site. The process for registering is much the same as for many other sites.

The immediate plan for the site is to gather feedback about its organisation and content before going fully live to all members in the Spring of 2023. In the meantime, we welcome members of the Society to request an invitation to join the site, to try it out, and help us develop the area.

Would you like to write an article for ‘The New Mosquito’ ?

I always look forward to the thump of the society’s journal, The New Mosquito, falling through the letter box onto the floor beneath. I also look forward to the tactile pleasure of holding a printed publication and reading with more leisure and a slower pace than I tend to do with online materials.

It may be that you have something that you would like to share, via the journal, with fellow members of the society. Perhaps you have a story of a relative who served in Salonika, results of research, or letters and photographs from the time. If so, we would be delighted to hear from you and, to help the process, we have put together a simple webpage which you can find here. We look forward to hearing from you!

The very first New Mosquito of April 2000 and, twenty years later, Issue 41

Seasons greetings to all our members, friends and visitors!

The Society is very pleased to have been given a collection of photographs which belonged to Private John Gilchrist of 244 Mechanical Transport Company, Army Service Corps. In the year ahead we hope to scan these – along with other donated collections – so they can be made available to members. As a teaser, here is a seasonal photograph showing pigs and turkeys at an ASC camp in Salonika being fattened up for Christmas.

Continue reading “Seasons greetings to all our members, friends and visitors!”

A recent request for help – was it you?

UPDATED! September 6th 2022

We were contacted today by the son of the gentleman who had originally asked for help but who had provided an incorrect email address for replies. The son had seen this post and wondered if there was a family connection. So it was great to finally be able to send on the little information we had found. In reply, he said, “Wow, I’m glad I followed up with you…, my father will be very grateful… I’ll forward the information you’ve supplied on to him and I’m sure he’ll be in touch.”

Good to be able to conclude things!

The society received a request for help recently, looking for information about a relative who served in Salonika. On average we get similar requests at a rate of about one a week, via the contact form on this website.

We were able to find a little bit of information and we would love to share this.

However, on this occasion, our enquirer entered his email details incorrectly and, as he is not a member of the society, we have no other information with which to identify him. Without the correct email address, and only a not-uncommon name to identify him, it makes it near-impossible for us to reply.

So, if you have recently requested information about a very close relative who served with the Church Army in Salonika, please get in touch via the contact page here – using your correct email address of course!

Church Army – Open to all © IWM (Art.IWM PST 13266)

Remembrance at Whitehall and Sandham Memorial Chapel, November 2021

Easing of COVID restrictions enabled the Society to participate and lay wreaths in two services this year: at the Field of Remembrance, Westminster Abbey; and at Sandham Memorial Chapel.

Field of Remembrance, Westminster Abbey

This year the Field was formally opened by HRH The Duchess of Cornwall, the Patron of the RBL Poppy Factory. The SCS had its remembrance plot in the location opposite the west door of St Margaret’s Church. The Society was represented by Chair, Alan Wakefield, and Jonathan Saunders. With excellent weather throughout the opening ceremony, it was good to be back at the Field in person after last year’s event being held behind closed doors due to COVID-19. Thanks to all those members who continue to support the SCS remembrance plot through planting crosses of remembrance and making donations to the Poppy Appeal.

Sandham Memorial Chapel

For the second year a memorial service was held at Sandham Memorial Chapel. A gathering of approximately 40 people took part in the act of Remembrance. This was led by Reverend Mark Christian himself a veteran army chaplain. The exhortation was read by David Innes. Wreaths were laid at the entrance to the chapel by the National Trust, Salonika Campaign Society and Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum. Individuals laid Poppy Crosses too. The ladies of the WI produced a net covered with poppies in different styles. This will be placed on the altar of the parish church. After the service, tea, coffee and cake were served by the volunteers of the Chapel. The exhibition was made available as well as viewings of Stanley Spencer’s paintings inside of the Chapel walls. Some SCS members then retired to The Carpenters Arms for lunch. Next year a larger gathering is being planned at the Chapel by the National Trust.

With thanks to Alan Wakefield, Darren Rolfe, and Keith Roberts for words and pictures.