The ghosts of the past..

I spent a lot of my time daydreaming about how places looked in the past.  I'm pretty obsessed by it.  I find old pictures fascinating, especially when the scene they depict hasn't changed much.  It's almost as if the ghosts of the past are near enough to touch.

I've seen a few people superimpose images of the past over modern day images and they've really captured my imagination, so I thought i'd have a go at it.  Today I borrowed an amazing book from the library - 'The Great War: A Photographic Narrative'. It's a fascinating collection of images, some very familiar, some i've never seen before.  I heartily recommend having a leaf through it.

Anyway, included in the book was the image below, from the Imperial War Museum archives.



The picture was taken in September 1914 on Agar Street, at the site of the Charing Cross Hospital in London (now a police station). It shows some of the first wounded being brought back from early clashes of the First World War. It's an interesting image - particularly the policemen holding back the crowds.  Obviously this sight was something of a novelty at that stage of the war - depressingly less so later on.

I had a look on Google Streetview and tried to locate the same point today. Here it is:

I don't have Photoshop, but with a little bit of tweaking on Powerpoint i've managed to produce the following image:

It's not perfect, but hopefully good enough to create that sense of the past lapsing into the present that I find so fascinating.  Almost 100 years ago now..

World War One Centenary Visit last month

Early in October, I was lucky enough to be included in the second batch of teachers and students to take part in the WW1 Centenary Project, which is aiming to provide the opportuntiy for two students from every Secondary school in the country to visit the battlefields of the First World War. I've been meaning to update but haven't got round to it yet, but I thought i'd share a few of the pictures to give you a flavour of what it was like. This is us at Vimy Ridge - see me somewhere on the right... Vimy Ridge is on the site of an important German stronghold in the war which dominated the surrounding area, and which was successfully captured in a textbook assault by the Canadians, working together as an army rather than invidivually for the first time. The site has enormous importance for the Canadians, and today is the site of their memorial to the missing. From Vimy, you can also get an excellent view of the 1915 Loos battlefield, which is still dominated by the twin 'crassiers' (slag heaps). My great-grandad started his war here, joining his unit the Royal Fusiliers shortly after their blooding in the battle. Here we are at the Theipval memorial to the missing, which contains 70,000 names of British and Commonwealth soldiers who fell in this area but have no known grave. I was drawn to this shaft of light that seemed to be shining on these names... I paid a visit to a local man of mine - Herbert Nobbs of March, who is commemorated on my local war memorial. I stood opposite his name today during the ceremony. Near Sheffield memorial park - part of the 'Iron Harvest' that is still being recovered from fields almost 100 years later. Sheffield memorial park - the ditch near the fence is the former front line trench, from which the Pals battalions (who are commemorated here) advanced from on the 1st day of the Somme, and met with such terrible losses in their attempts to capture Serre. View towards their objective - Serre, and the former site of No Man's Land. Touching memorial to the 'Acrington Pals' Shell crater behind Sheffield memorial park Railway Hollow cemetery, behind Sheffield memorial park. A beautiful little site - so called because of the narrow gauge railway that ran up to the former British front lines. I find the inscriptions on many of the graves especially moving. Ulster Tower, Somme - site of the German stronghold 'the Schwaben redoubt', and one of the few successes on the 1st July 1916. Look closely in the field to the right of the tower, and you can see a thin chalky line in the field - this is the remains of the German front line.

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Tyne Cot cemetery, in the early morning mist.  I've visited several times but i've never seen it look so striking.

Dennis Judd's 'The Boer War'

I've just finished reading this - I highly recommend it to Year 12 students who are about to study the Boer War.

 

Unlike Pakenham's book, which deals with the war in a lengthy, though entertainingly written narrative, Judd's work is organised instead into chapters which focus on different aspects of the war as a whole.  In many ways this makes it a more accessible book than Pakenham's, although the latter probably remains the definitive work on the subject if you can battle your way through the whole thing!  The advantage of Judd's work is that those who are more pressed for time can read a chapter in isolation without feeling like they are missing out on the wider picture - for example, there is a chapter on the 'Pro-Boers', which I found particularly interesting.  Considering Lloyd George's steely conduct as PM during the latter stages of the Great War and beyond, it seems surprising to hear of him putting himself out on a limb to criticise the Boer War, and making himself unpopular to the extent that he was forced to flee one rally dressed as a policeman!

 

I shall certainly be adding this book to the reading list in the future. Unfortunately we do not have a copy in the library, but I ordered mine using the Cambridgeshire library inter-library loan service where several copies seem to be available.

 

I will be copying some sections of this book as reading for you in the future, but if you can get a copy i'd highly recommend it.

Pre-reading on the Boer War

I hope that everyone has had a restful half term!

Current Year 12s - we will be covering the Boer War up until Christmas. The schedule is very tight and it is a big topic. There will be no time to go back and go over topics again. Therefore, you MUST read up on these topics before we cover them. I will give you a copy of this sheet in class, but it is your responsibility to read up on the topics before the deadlines and to have completed notes on them.

Please also note - i have a lovely stack of reading for you on the first topic (causes of the Boer War). I won't see you for a week, so please come and collect it. I'll try and remind you in registration.

Also, I am currently reading Dennis Judd's book 'The Boer War' and can highly recommend it. It's accessible and very readable, and groups topics together (e.g. military defeats, Liberal reforms), so might be a bit less formidable than the Pakenham book. You can order the book from the library.

Topic to research	Date to be completed by	What specific books/articles you have read (full reference please – the course textbook doesn’t count)
Causes of the Boer War	11th November
Fighting the Boer war – the three stages of the war – initial defeat for British (‘Black Week’), followed by seeming success (e.g. capture of Pretoria/Bloemfontein), followed by the Guerilla War. Also, attitudes to the ‘scorched earth’ policy – particularly the work of Emily Hobhouse	18h November
How the war was reported, the 1900 ‘Khaki election’, ‘National Efficiency’	25th November
Liberal reforms after the war	2nd December
Reforms to the army after the Boer War (e.g. Haldane reforms)	9th December
The significance of the Boer War – particularly in terms of lessons learned before WW1	16th December