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
Salonika Campaign Society, 1915-1918 