Category Archives: Aspects of World War One

Aspects of War is a category which stores articles on war specific subjects and mostly WW1.

Wokingham's news from The Mercury 1913-1923

Jim Bell continues his journey to provide us with an overview of Wokingham during the 19th and 20th centuries. This time he visits the archives to extract  Wokingham’s news from old Reading Mercury newspapers. They go as far back as … Continue reading

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Hills Nicholson family: Four sons lost in two World Wars

The Nicholson family have no Wokingham street or building named after them and have sunk below the consciousness of today’s local community. In the 1800’s however, they lived in what is now the Cantley House Hotel and they invested in … Continue reading

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Philip Tice, a Wokingham WW2 Veteran aged 95.

It’s fascinating to see how a network of contacts can pool information together and come up with some global connections. Wokingham Remembers has published hundreds of family trees on its website, as well as the genealogy site, www.ancestry.co.uk . The … Continue reading

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Wokingham Families: The Purseys, Brants, Rances and Alexanders

Wokingham Families and the Great War. Recalling the 1914-18 war often involves descriptions of military strategy and the bewildering numbers who were killed or maimed on both sides.  What is often lacking in the tomes of history is the impact … Continue reading

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Remembrance Day – The Incredible Story

Written by Mike Churcher As we stand for the first of the two minute’s silence at 11 am, we try to contemplate those who fought and fell during all wars in all circumstances. The second minute is spent thinking about … Continue reading

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What was in the Wokingham news during the Great War ?

These articles are all taken from one of the area’s principal newspapers, “The Reading Mercury (also including Oxford Gazette, Newbury Herald and Berks. County paper)”   Each week the towns and villages surrounding Reading had sections in this paper devoted to … Continue reading

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Chemical warfare starts October 1914.

Chemical warfare enters in October 1914. Sneezing powder. The Germans used 3,000 shells containing the Niespulver, mixed with shrapnel and sent over to the British and Indian troops at Neuve Chapelle. Although not highly effective (the British were not even … Continue reading

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Winnie the Pooh and The Great War

Written by Mike. I’m not sure why we did it, but in 2003 my wife and I drove across Canada with our four year old son. It was a strange journey which included a 1000 miles of prairie land, bears racing … Continue reading

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Bearwood Roll of Honour, St Catherine's Church.

Every now again we come across seemingly small pieces of information, which suddenly provides insights into the changing attitude to the war. At first it was about glory, fighting for one’s country, beating the Bosch and still be back in … Continue reading

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BBC's 'Birdsong' and the story of the miners in The Great War

Birdsong has completed its two episodes on the BBC. Author, Sebastian Faulkes tells us of a story about a soldier who has been affected by the experience of war; from the battles of the Somme to Messines Ridge and Amiens. … Continue reading

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