In early 1914 the town of Etaples in Northern France was home to a colony of artists, a predominantly anglophone group of painters noted for a style that incorporated realist subjects and impressionist light. This all changed fol…

As part of the YMCA's holistic support for soldiers during the First World War, the organisation made arrangements for the loved ones of the 'dangerously wounded' to be able to visit them in the hospitals of northern …

In the years before the First World War, Ethel Brilliana Tweedie had established herself as a pioneering woman. Writing under the name Mrs. Alec-Tweedie, she was one of the world's first female travel writers, journeying from…

Throughout the First World War thousands of Australian soldiers disembarked in Egypt for their first taste of army life. After a month travelling by ship, the land they arrived in was one of great excitement and freedom, where th…

This week in the House of Commons DUP Member of Parliament Jim Shannon called for a National Day of Prayer in recognition of the Covid-19 pandemic. He's not the first to do so: similar calls were made when Britain first locke…

Just before Zero Hour on 1st July 1916, thousands of soldiers stood in wait, ready to go over the top in the much-anticipated Big Push. They fixed their bayonets and readied their rifles, awaiting the sound of the whistle to s…

On my first battlefields trip with my school in 2009 we paid a special visit to Athies Communal Cemetery to visit the grave of my great great grandfather. My mum had printed me his information from the Commonwealth War Graves Co…

This Easter is unlike one we have experienced before. As we stay home to stay safe, we are without many of the holiday's traditions, with even churches being closed. Naturally enough, this got me thinking about how Easter wa…

One of my favourite paintings in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford is Edward Lear's Jerusalem . For me, it perfectly encapsulates the nineteenth century British imagination of the ancient city, mythologised and idealised in the…