Was your Great War ancestor a footballer?

There are some very impressive First World War commemoration sites on the web and I was advised about this one by the author a little while back

Football and the First World War is, "a searchable database containing the military service records of all Football League, Southern League and Scottish Football League players who served in the armed forces during World War One." There are around 500 profiles that have already been published, and more will follow in due course.

The man behind the site, Iain McMullen, is to be congratulated both for his research and also for constructing a very user-friendly and attractive-looking site. I have borrowed one of Iain's images, that of Arthur Richard Kempton of Arsenal, to illustrate this post.

I also offer a comprehensive, fast and cost-effective military history research service. Follow the link for more information. 

Up the Micks! - Irish Guards illustrated

Published by Pen & Sword at £35, Up The Micks! is a superb pictorial history of the Irish Guards which begins with the regiment's formation in 1900 and brings the reader right up to the present day. I would have liked to have seen sources cited on more of the illustrations and photos, and it is unfortunate that the date of the regiment's first presentation of the colours is given as May 2002 rather than May 1902. However, these are minor quibbles and there is much to recommend this book, including useful appendices that detail everything over the years from gallantry awards and the evolving Colours to names of colonels and senior NCOs. This will be a very distracting coffee-table book as well as a quick and easy source of reference. I've only just started dipping into my copy but it's going to sit very comfortably with my other Guards regimental histories and I know it's going to be useful. Grenadiers, Coldstreams and Scots, take note.

I also offer a comprehensive, fast and cost-effective military history research service. Follow the link for more information. 

The Thuillier Collection - WW1 photographic archive

I came across this archive completely by chance, this morning. It's not a new story by any means but it was news to me and so I thought I'd flag it here.

As the story goes, the so-called Thuillier Collection comprises around 3,000 glass plate negatives of British, Indian, French, Australian and American troops, and even some members of the Chinese Labour Corps. For some unaccountable reason the collection, having lain undisturbed in a Somme barn for close on a hundred years, seems to have been broken up, Australia's Channel 7 having acquired 500 of the plates which depict Australian troops.

Named after the photographers, local farmer Louis Thuillier and his wife Antoinette, I'm sure there must be more reference to The Thuillier Collection online which a basic Google search would uncover. There are certainly some images on this Sunday Night page, all of which can be downloaded with a quick right click and save of the mouse.

I also offer a comprehensive, fast and cost-effective military history research service. Follow the link for more information.