Despite walking round London over 300 days a year for 11 years, the amount of times I’ve been there just for fun like a local or tourist could be counted on one hand. I’ve not been in Buckingham Palace, until last year I’d not been to a West End Show for 16 years nor eaten… Continue reading Face to mask with a WW1 Gashood
Category: WW1
The Rutland of Jutland – WW1 Flying Ace to WW2 traitor
There aren’t many things that connect WW1 Battle of Jutland to The Beatles and Pearl Harbor but if such things float your boat then this post is for you and it is all about a man called Frederick Rutland. Rutland’s 300-page FBI dossier describes an almost James Bond type figure “Square jaw; well poised; highly… Continue reading The Rutland of Jutland – WW1 Flying Ace to WW2 traitor
London’s Biggest Explosion. Silvertown 1917
Tomorrow will see the 105th anniversary of the biggest explosion that London has ever seen and considering all of the industry, terrorism and world wars then that is saying something. However as is often the way with these things, to a great extent it was an entirely avoidable disaster albeit with the mitigating circumstances of… Continue reading London’s Biggest Explosion. Silvertown 1917
My first Remembrance Service at Bushey Memorial
Due to Covid, Sunday was the first opportunity I have have had to attend the local Remembrance Sunday ceremony at 11am as it didn’t run last year so despite having moved almost 2 years ago, this was the first time I got to witness it in person. I’d been to the memorial last summer and… Continue reading My first Remembrance Service at Bushey Memorial
150 years of disasters at Liverpool Street Station
It is nearly 150 years old and the third busiest railway station in the U.K. and only behind London Waterloo and London Victoria Station with around 64 million passengers every year acting as a London gateway and exit to travellers from Cambridgeshire, Essex, Greater London, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. But over the last century it’s… Continue reading 150 years of disasters at Liverpool Street Station
A swan-song moment of glory for Tilbury Fortress
I thought I would finish my little run of Tilbury Fort related posts but recalling its last great moments and some might say greatest of all, the night it shot down a Zeppelin in WW1. The Zeppelin was invented by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. It was a rigid dirigible and he patented his idea in… Continue reading A swan-song moment of glory for Tilbury Fortress
My offering of Christmas goodies! Books and Video Tours
I must be the most useless blogger the world has ever seen at least when it comes to self-publicity. Here I am with a new book that came out at the end of August and I’ve never even mentioned it AND it is an official #1 best seller. If I ever had motivation or ambition… Continue reading My offering of Christmas goodies! Books and Video Tours
My WW1 history book ‘Lest We Forget’ is currently available free on Kindle by the Publishers
I know it’s quite a common thing for some writer to make their books available free or heavily discounted for a short period of time. It’s never something I’ve agreed with or indeed done. Whilst checking on some on something else I found out my WW1 history book Lest We Forget which was published by… Continue reading My WW1 history book ‘Lest We Forget’ is currently available free on Kindle by the Publishers
Visiting WW1 trenches in the heart of England
As someone with a keen interest in WW1 or The Great War, I’ve written before on my visits to the Western Front in France and Belgium. Not many people know that there are still trenches in England and conveniently only about 15 miles from where I live. I’ve wanted to visit them since the 1990’s… Continue reading Visiting WW1 trenches in the heart of England
A piss-poor history of urine
I’m going to try not to use the P word too much in this post, as tempting as it is as that would be taking the Pee but urine has actually had a long history of practical uses especially in medicine. None other than Pliny the Elder back in Rome recommended fresh urine for the… Continue reading A piss-poor history of urine
Stephen Liddell 