Bognor at the time of the Great War was a small seaside town, quiet in winter but full of visitors in the summer. At that time it was barely one hundred and thirty years old, developed from a hamlet by Sir Richard Hotham, a hatter, who wanted to create his own purpose built bathing resort, to attract the nobility to take the sea air and as a rival to other towns along the Sussex coast. rnrnIn 1911 the population of Bognor had grown to a little over eight thousand, of whom around eleven hundred men answered the call in 1914, around a third of whom never returned. The book tells their stories, not in alphabetical Roll of Honour order, but in real time as it happened. It also takes a close look at those who fought and returned to Bognor, albeit with some badly injured, facing the future carrying the scars of four years fighting. Also included are the local villages of Aldwick, North and South Bersted and Felpham.rnrnWartime life in Bognor has also been included, how the town coped from the influx of Belgian refugees in 1914, a look at the various voluntary organisations, recruitment, invasion fears, conscientious objectors, tribunals, lighting restrictions, Zeppelins, food shortages and the victory celebrations. rnrnQueen Victoria, who stayed at Bognor as a child, once referred to it in later life as 'dear little Bognor'. Some eighty years later 'dear little Bognor' flexed her muscles as her young men marched to war.??As seen in the Bognor Regis Observer.

In 1912, Norland childrens nurse Kate Fox was travelling by train heading to the British military station at Nowshera on the Afghan border to care for the premature baby born to the bases commanding officer. Two years later, Kate was escaping from Germany in the first days of the Great War, leaving behind her adored German royal charges and all her personal possessions. Due to their prestige as the crme-de-la-crme of Edwardian childrens nurses to Europes royal and wealthy families, Kate was one among many Norland nannies who witnessed the early days of the War on the Continent with all its tumult and fear. Some fled for home; others managed to stay for a while. And yet others gave up their privileged way of life to undertake war work as nurses in Flanders and refugee camps.The stories in this book are the nannies eye-witness accounts described in their correspondence with their beloved Norland Institute. These previously unpublished letters recount a version of womens Great War history that has remained untold until now. British Nannies and the Great War is the true story of a group of Edwardian, highly trained and opinionated women in the First World War. For the first time in a century, the Norland nannies unique stories of escape from enemy territory, their experiences at home and the Front during the War, and their thoughts on how the conflict changed their role in post-Edwardian Britain are told in their own words.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Leatherhead was alive with celebration. The Boer War had ended in May 1902, King Edward VIIs Coronation followed in August and the had town blossomed into one of prosperous development.Things quickly changed when the war broke out in 1914, leaving the town papered with recruiting posters and swarming with soldiers. The upheaval was especially felt by the local families as they initially waved off over 400 Leatherhead men into the forces. Those left behind attempted to live a normal life in extraordinary circumstances, with Zeppelin raids in nearby Guildford and Croydon, which encouraged Leatherheads newspapers to offer insurance against the destruction of homes, the banning of lights after dark and fines for those who ignored the dictates. Added to the locals distress was the news of the high casualty rate of local soldiers and those previously billeted in the town, wiped out at the Battle of Delville Wood.The spring of 1918 felt especially bleak with shortages of food, labour, fuel and little prospect of an end to the conflict. However, later that year the end of war was finally declared. Of the 983 Leatherhead men who served, 163 were dead.On 19 July 1919, Leatherhead joined with the nation to celebrate peace. A lunch for returning servicemen was laid out and a procession of over 2,000 Leatherhead residents proceeded to Randalls Park. As the Silver Band played the town rejoiced with fireworks, dancing and the customary bonfire. Though warmed by the flames of celebration, Leatherhead was irrevocably altered.

Collected first-hand accounts of British men and women serving their country during World War I, as discovered through the Herts At War community project. In Hertfordshire Soldiers of The First World War the authors explore a series of individual case studies of Hertfordshire men who served in various theaters during the First World War, all of which had been uncovered as part of the Herts At War community project. This unique collection of largely unknown accounts includes stories from the Western Front, Gallipoli, Salonika, Mesopotamia, East Africa, Egypt, and even Russia in the fight against the Bolsheviks in 1919. The Herts At War team uncovered many letters and objects in the course of their research, including men who were Victoria Cross winners to those whose courage or bravery went unrecognized, as well as stoicism on the Home Front. One of the most moving of these surrounds a photograph which was found in the hands of Sergeant Percy Buck as he lay fatally wounded in a shell hole in 1917. On the back of the photograph of his wife and young son he had written his address and asked for whoever found the image to post it to his loved ones in the event of his death. Sergeant Buck would have assumed it would be a British comrade who would find the photograph, but the person who recovered it was a German soldier who subsequently sent it on to the grieving, but grateful, family. The war memorials of Hertfordshire contain the names of over 23,000 men and women who gave their lives whilst in the service of their country during the Great War; some of their tales are uncovered here. Indeed, the poignant collection of stories, anecdotes, and artifacts revealed in this book bring the First World War to life in an unusual and highly moving fashion.

DIVDIVAn ancient country custom goes awry, killing a man and spoiling Bognor’s holiday/divDIV /divDIVAt the annual Clout, the men of Herring do as they have done for centuries, firing arrows blindly into the woods and allowing their women to retrieve what they have shot. Nobody ever kills anything, but it’s a jolly time nonetheless—until the day when a few of the arrows find their mark, pinning a wayward customs inspector to a tree in a bloody parody of Saint Sebastian. It’s rotten luck for the dead man, and not much better for Simon Bognor./divDIV /divDIVBognor huffs when he hears of the killing, knowing that he is going to be sucked into investigating the death. A special inspector for the Board of Trade, Bognor is always getting invited to crime scenes, despite knowing almost nothing about crime. His bad lungs, sour attitude, and fleshy physique are out of place in the countryside, but Bognor is in for the duration. He will find the person who caused the accident—or the next arrow’s target could be his heart./div DIV /div /div

A Simon Bognor mystery - On the eve of the Flanagan Fludd Literary Festival, the Reverend Sebastian Fludd is discovered gently swinging from the end of a rope in his own church. While Sebastian's cousin and lord of the manor, Sir Branwell Fludd, is keen to wrap up the affair with the minimum of fuss, Branwell's friend, Sir Simon Bognor, is more concerned to get to the truth. Did the mild-mannered vicar really take his own life - or was his unexpected demise the result of something more sinister?

Detailed and comprehensive, the second volume of the Venns' directory, in six parts, includes all known alumni until 1900.

Sport and the Home Front contributes in significant and original ways to our understanding of the social and cultural history of the Second World War. It explores the complex and contested treatment of sport in government policy, media representations and the everyday lives of wartime citizens. Acknowledged as a core component of British culture, sport was also frequently criticised, marginalised and downplayed, existing in a constant state of tension between notions of normality and exceptionality, routine and disruption, the everyday and the extraordinary. The author argues that sport played an important, yet hitherto neglected, role in maintaining the morale of the British people and providing a reassuring sense of familiarity at a time of mass anxiety and threat. Through the conflict, sport became increasingly regarded as characteristic of Britishness; a symbol of the ‘ordinary’ everyday lives in defence of which the war was being fought. Utilised to support the welfare of war workers, the entertainment of service personnel at home and abroad and the character formation of schoolchildren and young citizens, sport permeated wartime culture, contributing to new ways in which the British imagined the past, present and future. Using a wide range of personal and public records – from diary writing and club minute books to government archives – this book breaks new ground in both the history of the British home front and the history of sport.