The WFA promotes an interest in the people, campaigns, events and aftermath on all fronts of the #WW1. Friendly and constructive discussion is encouraged.
International Organisation
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The WFA Calendar 2027 is now available. It features twelve members’ photographs of First World War battlefields, on the Western Front and beyond, each with a commentary that sets the scene. Sales support the work of the WFA.
Order online: westernfrontassociation.com/…
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A British trench map drawn in April 1917 has helped a French government service investigate ground movement at Beaumont, Pas-de-Calais. The map, found in the WFA’s TrenchMapper, records the ground before a century of rebuilding.
Pierre Rouvillois reports: westernfrontassociation.com/…
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Who are the MOD’s ‘War Detectives’?
Rosie Barron of the Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre explains how her small Gloucester team identifies First World War soldiers recovered from old battlefields and gives them a named grave at last.
youtu.be/5pzewQzATqE
@wardetectives
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Call for papers: @TheWWImuseum 2027 ‘Paris at War’ digital summit, 2 February 2027. Early-career and postgraduate researchers especially encouraged – established academics and independents also welcome. Deadline 20 November 2026.
westernfrontassociation.com/…
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The 2026 Colin Hardy Essay Award, open to students aged 16–18, has its winners: First Prize to Elodie Salter and James Kehoe, Second Prize to Samuel Crosby. Read their essays, and find out how to enter in 2027: westernfrontassociation.com/…
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‘One wife, two brothers’: Private Percy Hadaway and Driver Edward Hadaway of Elham, Kent, both died in the First World War – and, it seems, married the same woman. Rob Kirk investigates: westernfrontassociation.com/…
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@JakeGasson1918 reassesses the view that morale in the British Salonika Force was consistently poor. On the WFA’s Mentioned in Dispatches Podcast, he discusses the conditions soldiers faced and what first drew him to the campaign.
westernfrontassociation.com/…
ALT Soldiers in Salonika reading 'The Balkan News', 1917. (Image: National Army Museum)
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The JCCC (otherwise known as ‘The War Detectives’) have announced the following First World War burials and re-dedications in September and October:
westernfrontassociation.com/…
ALT Image: MOD war detectives, facebook.com/wardetectives
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Three weeks to go: Milton Keynes branch presents ‘A Great War Cornucopia’ at The Old Bathhouse, Wolverton.
Four talks, displays, living history, and books!
£30 per person incl. lunch. All welcome.
westernfrontassociation.com/…
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Reminder for teachers: the WFA’s 2026 Autumn Competition is open. Students aged 12–14 write, draw or compose in response to the Battle of the Somme – just one lesson and one homework session. Books and certificates for winners. Closes 20 November.
westernfrontassociation.com/…
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War memorials. Commonwealth graves. Local factories. Streets of missing men. The Malcolm Doolin Award asks school pupils to find the 1914–18 story on their doorstep. Open to primaries and secondaries. Registration closes 31 January 2027.
westernfrontassociation.com/…
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Applications are now open for the WFA’s 2026 PhD Grant Scheme – up to £2,500 for doctoral researchers working on any First World War topic, at any UK or international institution. Deadline: Tuesday 1 December 2026. Details: westernfrontassociation.com/…
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John Hodby was escorting limbless soldiers from Roehampton to a match at Stamford Bridge when he was thrown from the bus. Alan Hawkins traced him through a rare civilian pension card – one of the millions the WFA saved from destruction in 2012.
westernfrontassociation.com/…
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Two German POWs escaped a Japanese camp in 1915, aiming to walk home via China, Afghanistan, Persia and Turkey. Almost 5,000 miles and a year on the run later, they ended up in a POW camp again… in Skipton, Yorkshire.
Prof Anne Buckley tells the story: westernfrontassociation.com/…
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Andrew Russell’s New Zealand Division and John Monash’s 3rd Australian Division trained hard for Third Ypres. On 4 October 1917 they took Gravenstafel Spur. On 12 October, at Bellevue Spur, they failed. Chris Pugsley ONZM on why.
youtu.be/AdexYa-L7-g
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Twenty-six headstones in Row D at Franvillers stand almost touching. All carry the same date: 1 June 1918. Two bombs from a single German aircraft caught ‘B’ Company, 28th Battalion AIF, as it marched out of the line. David Tattersfield names them all:
westernfrontassociation.com/…
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Captain Francis Dodgson, a kinsman of Lewis Carroll, fell near Contalmaison on 10 July 1916. The memorial his family raised on the spot went missing in 2024. It has now been recovered, restored and rededicated, 110 years on. #FirstWorldWar #Somme
westernfrontassociation.com/…
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Verdun 1916: the longest battle of the First World War. But did it matter, and could the German plan ever have worked? Christina Holstein, leading authority on Verdun, examines the offensive from first bombardment to final counter-attack. youtu.be/7NSX0OjFkBI
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2026 marks the 110th anniversary of the Somme. The WFA’s Autumn Competition asks students aged 12–14 to write a diary entry, poem or sketch from the perspective of someone involved – soldier, nurse, war artist, or tunneller. Closing date: 20 November.
westernfrontassociation.com/…
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The Malcolm Doolin Award opens for registration in September – and schools can start planning now. Local history research into the 1914–18 period, for primary and secondary pupils. Two £500 prizes, mentorship from WFA members, and publication.
westernfrontassociation.com/…
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The Gallipoli Historical Site Directorate has launched ‘Deep Heritage’, a conservation project to preserve WWI shipwrecks. HMS Louis, a 1913 destroyer, is the first to receive cathodic protection to slow metal corrosion.
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Reminder: subscribe to ‘Trench Lines’ to get your free copy of our special digital magazine marking the Somme 110 anniversary: westernfrontassociation.com/…
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‘He did his duty. Now at rest.’ The epitaph of Rifleman Edward Compton, dead at 21 of Spanish influenza, six days after his wedding in October 1918. Rob Kirk pieces together a brief and tragic story from a single headstone near Bath.
westernfrontassociation.com/…
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Hunting a lost Tudor palace at Ampthill, Beds, archaeologists struck WW1 instead: timber-revetted practice trenches from the Bedfordshire Training Depot, where Kitchener’s volunteers prepared for the Western Front. Photos: @TheDigVenturers
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Just published: Alan Wakefield on the British Salonika Force in WW1. How terrain, climate and disease in Macedonia – plus the BSF’s own weaknesses – shaped very different experiences for British troops across the four sectors of the Salonika front. youtu.be/RsMOXL6oC-Y
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“As soon as our men attacked, the Germans opened up... a bullet which must have gone over my head hit Colonel Forsyth.”
To mark the Somme 110 anniversary, we are releasing a special digital magazine. Subscribe to ‘Trench Lines’ for your free copy – coming soon.
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Saturday’s Trooping the Colour honoured the King’s birthday. The largest ever was held in 1919 – eleven guards on parade, in service-dress khaki, the peace not yet signed.
New on the WFA site:
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By November 1918 the British Army alone numbered 5,336,943 men. The War Office’s 1922 report ‘Statistics of the Military Effort of the British Empire’ set it all down – casualties, munitions, even the millions of horses, mules and camels. Free to read: westernfrontassociation.com/…
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The WFA President’s Conference: SOMME 110 has nearly sold out. Four historians – Badsey, Prime, Parker and Doyle – mark the battle’s 110th anniversary at the Army & Navy Club, Pall Mall, on 4 July 2026. Book before the last tickets go:
westernfrontassociation.com/…
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One for your diary in October: The WFA’s Milton Keynes branch hosts a full day of Great War talks – Q-Ships, the Bantam battalions and war photographer Ariel Varges among them. Details: westernfrontassociation.com/…
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Ace in a day: instances of WW1 airmen shooting down multiple opponents in a single day. westernfrontassociation.com/… → featured in the excellent (and free!) newsletter of the @GWAS1914_1918
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Jack Tar: Churchill’s Little Army at Gallipoli → now on our YouTube channel. Steve Chambers’ excellent presentation on the RND. youtu.be/m3pZnvrESmw
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A petrol-engined narrow gauge locomotive built for service on the Western Front has been purchased by the Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway (LCLR) at Skegness, joining nine other Simplex machines already in the care of the railway’s Historic Vehicles Trust. westernfrontassociation.com/…
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The WFA’s education grants support schools and colleges in running First World War learning activities that might otherwise be out of reach. Teachers can find details on our website. Warwickshire students were a recent beneficiary. westernfrontassociation.com/…
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After 20 years, the private First World War museum Romagne 14-18 is set to close later this year. The decision follows the seizure of 25,000 artifacts by French customs, enforcing national heritage laws regarding battlefield finds. Read the full story: westernfrontassociation.com/…
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Have you seen the trailer for Landship? youtu.be/eyAesKPdDCM
The film hits cinemas in just over a month.
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Sign up for Trench Lines, the regular email newsletter from The Western Front Association. News, events, articles and videos on the Great War, straight to your inbox. westernfrontassociation.com/… #FirstWorldWar
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The ‘Bond of Sacrifice’ set out to record every British officer killed in the Great War. Planned across 10 volumes, it collapsed after just two. David Tattersfield on what went wrong – with a downloadable index to both volumes by WFA volunteers.
westernfrontassociation.com/…
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Rob Kirk remembers Sergeant Thomas Hunter, 10th Bn, Australian Imperial Force – ‘The Lonely Anzac.’ westernfrontassociation.com/…
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The complete run of ‘The Illustrated War News’ – 192 weekly editions from August 1914 to April 1918 – has been scanned, digitised and added to the WFA’s Searchable Magazine Archive. Now available to members. westernfrontassociation.com/…
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A chalk kiwi carved by New Zealand soldiers in 1919 has been restored with help from an RAF Chinook – ten tonnes of chalk dropped on to Beacon Hill, Wiltshire. westernfrontassociation.com/… #FirstWorldWar
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How well do you know French Flanders? Help us ID pictures taken in 1921 by Ronald Massey and his wife. Ronald’s brother was KIA serving with the Canadian Machine Gun Corps at Passchendaele. westernfrontassociation.com/…
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Johns also described a long-distance bombing raid with 55 Squadron – five hours over enemy territory in a DH4, fighting Fokkers the whole way home ↓
westernfrontassociation.com/…
#FirstWorldWar #RAF
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W.E. Johns – creator of Biggles – was never officially posted to 55 Squadron. He hitched lifts on bombers, survived two crashes, and talked his way in. His own account of how he got there – and what he found ↓
westernfrontassociation.com/…
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The RAF was formed on this day in 1918. Five months later, W.E. Johns – future creator of Biggles – was shot down flying with 55 Squadron. His observer was killed. Johns was taken prisoner. His own account of that flight ↓
westernfrontassociation.com/…
#FirstWorldWar #RAF
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Who were Tolkien’s brother officers in the 11th Lancashire Fusiliers? This article profiles 51 of them and overturns long-held assumptions about the battalion he served with on the Somme. westernfrontassociation.com/…
#FirstWorldWar
ALT J.R.R. Tolkien, c.1916. Image colourised by AI (Google, Nano Banana).
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Saturday 4 July: Join us at the Army & Navy Club on Pall Mall – one of London’s most distinguished private members’ clubs – for a day of expert talks marking the 110th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme.
westernfrontassociation.com/…
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Iraq is the fifth largest country for Commonwealth war dead, with over 56,000 lives lost. Most of us will never visit these sites – this extensively illustrated article is a rare and invaluable record.
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Since 1914, Britain has invaded Iraq three times and fought five wars there – yet the war cemeteries have almost disappeared from public view. Ben Soppitt visited every one in 2025. westernfrontassociation.com/…
#FirstWorldWar #LestWeForget
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New on the WFA website: the letters of Captain Archibald James, who witnessed the Suvla landings, survived a bullet through his field glasses, and was among the last men off the Gallipoli peninsula in December 1915.
westernfrontassociation.com/…
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Three First World War re-dedication ceremonies will take place in France and Belgium on 17–18 March, for soldiers identified by the JCCC. Open to the public. westernfrontassociation.com/…
#FirstWorldWar #LestWeForget
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How did First World War doctrine shape the BEF – and what traces survive in British Military Doctrine today? Phil Watson explores the links across a century. youtu.be/Y6-LUxYewwU
#FirstWorldWar #GreatWar
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In October 1996, WFA member Steve Metcalfe launched The Northallerton Memorials Project – possibly the world’s first online war memorial. Hand-coded in HTML 1.0, it predates many of the internet’s best-known Great War resources. westernfrontassociation.com/…
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Bulletin 130 is out now, with new editor Dr Martin Purdy (‘Doing Our Bit’ and ‘The Gallipoli Oak’) at the helm. This issue: the men of Niue, Cenotaph reflections, and more. Exclusive to WFA members. westernfrontassociation.com/…
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NEW VIDEO: The Austro-Hungarian Navy during the First World War. In this engaging talk, Graham Kemp covers the development of a surprisingly effective force and its Adriatic operations. youtu.be/z_lHAEZBfqA
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