Days of World War1

In October I began working on a very special project ...a very ambitious BBC project called World War 1 At Home. A journalist from each BBC local radio station was selected to find stories which reflected the huge impact that the war had on places and people in local communities across the country.

I wrote about the beginning of my journey to find some of those stories in Leicestershire and Rutland those stories here ...

http://thinkingofthedays.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/days-spent-back-in-world-war-1.html

Now, only a few months later, tomorrow sees the launch of the first batch of what will be over a thousand stories from across the country both on local radio and online.

Nearly thirty of those will be mine. Stories gleaned from archives, from meeting people with a fascinating story to tell and from passing places and thinking, "I wonder what happened here during the war?"

It's been a very emotional few months. I've been genuinely in awe about how a whole generation coped with four years of war, the devastating loss of so many of their young men, and the way their communities changed.





I've fallen for characters whose actions and words will stay with me forever and I've been amazed at what went on in everyday places I often pass. I also used up packets and packets of tissues as I heard about heroic deeds and tragic tales, finding myself crying at odd times in different places as I've spoken to descendants of those who took part in World War 1. I was also terrified as one of those descendants opened an old tin trunk full of World War 1 memorabilia and handed me two grenades - one English and one German.



It's also been a pleasure to meet local  historians who have helped me ensure that these stories are  kept alive for future generations.




It's such a privilege to bring stories like this on air, and I do hope you listen and like them.

My stories will be going out every day in the coming week in mid morning with Jim Davis at 11.10am and will be repeated at 4.10pm every afternoon with Ben Jackson. On 104.9 FM or you can listen online at www.bbc.co.uk/leicester.

I'd love you to listen....and the next batch of stories will be broadcast in the week beginning 7th April.

 

days spent back in World War 1

You'll have to forgive me, I've been a little emotional since the beginning of October.

I'm spending most of my waking hours in the early twentieth century working on the biggest project that the BBC will broadcast to mark the centenary of the First World War next year.

It's a special  project across all local radio Stations called World War One at Home.
My job is to search out local stories which will surprise, show the huge impact World War I had on us here at home, and remember those who gave their lives between 1914 and 1918.

It's fascinating work , and I'm coming across interesting, heart warming, desperately sad, and riveting stories which will be broadcast next year. Those stories just won't appear on local radio though, they'll be across the BBC website too, and they will be archived for posterity at the Imperial War Museum.

For someone who's loves history as much as I do, this is a dream project to be working on, to make sure that what happened won't be forgotten by today's generations and those in the future.

Last week, I went to Belgium, to visit the area around Ypres, or Ieper as it's also called.  The name became synonymous with destruction, trench warfare, and the slaughter of half a million soldiers in the battlefields nearby during the four years of the war.

The Flanders Field Museum in Ypres...

Ypres was destroyed by German troops during the war,with a hardly a building left standing. But it was rebuilt, recreating the layout of streets and the buildings.

The sacrifice that so many British and Commonwealth soldiers made there is remembered every night at the Menin Gate Memorial at a very special ceremony which takes place at 8pm sharp. The ceremony, and the names of 58,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers commemorate those who died but whose bodies were never found.

 

 

 

 

Wreathes and crosses are left there every day by visitors, well wishers, and families of the dead

 

 

And as my eyes scanned the rows and rows of names, and where they came from, my heart grew heavier and heavier, my throat grew tight , at one stage I felt as if I couldn't breathe as I realised the scale of the slaughter around here.

 

 

 Of course it's difficult to see each name, but in each pillar, there's a niche

 

 

 

where there are books listing the names of everyone commemorated . 



 

 

 

Traffic is usually streaming under the Menin Gate, but at 7.45pm, it is halted, and the crowds stand ready

 The Last Post is played by men from the town's fire brigade, wreaths are laid, and then everyone moves quietly away at the end of the simple fifteen to twenty minute ceremony, all moved by the

experience. 

 

The traffic begins to flow again under the Menin Gate, and Ypres come back to life once more.

 



 

 

 

 

 

There's no track today, but here's the link to a feature I made about the ceremony and the people I met there..... please listen....

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01jwlgc

A day of remembrance

The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month

Such a sad day for so many...when millions of us think about the sacrifices made by so many in wars past and present. When we remember those who lie in a foreign land...

I always feel very emotional on this day every year.....and today the day is as depressingly dark and grey as I feel.

This is the view from my kitchen window at 2 o clock in the afternoon. 2pm- talk about matching my mood

My grandmother Annie was one of three children,the baby of the family, born years after her two older brothers.They both fought in the First World War. Percy, the youngest brother was a young lance corporal when he died in 1915 - he was 19 years old.

I know in which foreign field he lies, I have photos of his grave in France.There is also just one precious solitary photo of him shyly smiling into the camera, standing in uniform outside a military tent ,so heartbreakingly boyish.

Albert, her older brother died during the Second World War.He was a Major by now, wore a much smarter uniform, but it wasn't enough to save him.

Annie went on to have a girl and two boys too.One of them was my father Freddie who continued the family tradition - I have two brothers. One of them was only a teenager when he got caught up in the Falklands War.He was in the Royal Navy - he signed on to see the world for three years.He was coming back home across the Atlantic from the USA on his final trip when his ship was redirected down to the Falklands.

Instead of bringing out the bunting and hugging my brother...I didn't see him for nearly a year.A year of avidly listening to the news every day, waiting for his letters,and praying that I wouldn't have to face what Annie went through .Luckily I didn't....

But like my great grandmother, grandmother and father ....yes, you've guessed ..I have a girl and two boys.

And I hope with all my heart that they will never have to make the sacrifices that Annie, Percy and Albert made all those years ago.

Today's track? Not from the First or Second World War - it's an anti war song that defined a different generation from theirs...From 1970...Edwin Starr