The Cenotaph and the disappearing pram

Here we have several versions of the same image. and as far as the lady and the pram goes it's a case of now you see it:


Now you don't:


Now you see it:


Now you don't:


I'm not sure why it was felt necessary to remove the pram but versions with and without pram appear throughout the 1920s whilst everything else in this particular photograph remains the same.

Updates - week ending 5th September 2009

I've started another blog; this time commemorating the dead of WW2.

The Second World War has never held the fascination for me that the First World War does. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that my relatives were mostly Great War era veterans rather than Second War. My childhood was peppered with anecdotes of the horrors of the trenches rather than atrocities in Burma, or heroism at Dunkirk. But this week has marked the seventieth anniversary of the outbreak of World War Two and so on 3rd September 2009, 70 years to the day that Britain went to war against Germany for the second time that century, I started a WW2 Remembrance blog and like the WW1 Remembrance blog I'll be updating that daily.

I've also started a site for military books, an attempt to draw together publishers under one roof, and again highlighting British military involvement in conflict since 1800. The Military History Bookshop is HERE.

And whilst on the subject of books, I recently picked up a number of medal reference works which make great companions for the various medal rolls that I hold and which I've used on the British Army Medals site. Medal collecting is an area I've dabbled in, albeit not as much as I would have liked to. That's one hobby that requires deep, deep pockets.

Finally, it's been a busy week again on the military research front; mostly WW1 era but with some interesting Victorian projects spanning the Indian Mutiny and Boer War. Get in touch if you'd like us to help with your own project.

The photo shows a very sodden Kirkee War Cemetery, Pune. I took around four hundred photos there for The War Graves Photographic project a few years ago.

Updates - week ending Saturday 8th August 2009

It's been another busy week with enquiries covering men whose service spanned the years 1880 to 1918 and who served with the Militia, the Volunteers, the Territorial Force and the regular army, both pre and post Cardwell reforms. We've also supplied information on a couple of Royal Navy men - service records plus details of the ships, with photographs, on which they served.

Talking of Cardwell, there's a good chapter in Edward M Spiers's book, The Late Victorian Army 1868-1902 and it's available to read on line via Google books. HERE'S THE LINK.

Enquiries this week have come from throughout the UK and overseas. We always aim to respond to enquiries within 48 hours and, when given the go-ahead, to complete the work within two weeks - and usually a good deal sooner than that. We'll also always give you an outline quote so that you know exactly how much you're going to be spending.

I used the photograph above on one of my WW1 Remembrance posts. It shows the Thiepval Memorial on the Somme, under construction in 1930. Two years later it would be unveiled, it's vast columns recording the names of over 72,000 men who died on the Somme battlefields and have no known grave. The photograph appears on the Australians on the Western Front 1914-1918 website.

If you'd like to find out more about your military ancestor, don't be shy; do drop us a line. We look forward to hearing from you.