Riqueval Bridge looks inconspicuous enough, but the goosebumps climbing my legs, arms and neck know otherwise. A hundred years ago it was here the men of the Midlands broke through the Hindenburg Line. Spanning high above the narrow San Quentin canal, the bridge was witness to one of the…
It was the first day of the German spring offensive. The date was March 21, 1918 and the Kaiser’s boys were launching Operation Michael, an audacious bid to puncture Allied lines and seize the Channel ports that lay beyond. If they achieved that aim, Britain would be bracing itself…
A hundred years ago WW1’s second most notorious bloodbath was churning up souls in Flanders. Here, I spare a few words on Leicestershire’s involvement at Passchendaele. The three Leicestershire Regiment officers stared at the map, looked hard at the surrounding mud and then, with incredulity, at each other. The…
The niggling human conscience affects people in different ways. In the case of Co-op salesman Roy Watts, it made him leave the comfort and security of his life in Leicester, travel all the way to war-gripped Spain, and take up arms for a cause as black and white as ink…
It was February and raining when they found him, covered in a century-old cloak of earth and chalk. In the dirt near his bones, attached to a shred of uniform, they found a brass shoulder title, green with age and a little twisted. One word could be seen clearly…Leicester.…
The 4th Leicesters had sat in trenches overlooked by the Boche on the Messines Ridge and at Hill 60. And now at Vimy the enemy were at the top of the ridge again thanks to those responsible for our shortage in guns and munitions. If you had wished to…
Frank Haines, a lieutenant in the 8th battalion of the Leicestershire Regiment, died during WW1. He was killed, aged 29, on the last day of the Battle of Arras in Croisilles. He was living in Knighton before joining up. His parents lived at The Moorlands in Syston. He got…
I’ve just been watching Our World War on BBC iPlayer. It was moving, factual and the action was brilliantly done. Got to the final credit, and saw the name of the director – Bruce Goodison. Bruce is a Bafta winner who did Our War – a real eye opener…
Leicester City FC won the league in 2015/16. But what do you know about the city and county which spawned them? 1. Leicestershire is the Spiritual Home of Rock Music. It started back in 1980 with the first Monsters of Rock at Donington Park. It continues today…
A century ago the world was at war. Leicester and Leicestershire’s boys and men were packed off to the Front. Here’s a feature which gives you a little taste of where we were in 1915, although do remember that not all of our lot would have served in the…
Lilian Lenton in court in Doncaster with co-accused Harry Johnson in June 1913. Lilian Lenton’s prison photograph sits in a display case at the National Portrait Gallery in London. The sepia image, now more than a century old, was taken covertly by police when she was among…
How they covered football in the old Leicester Illustrated Chronicle. These two pictures were published in an October 1915 issue of the Leicester Illustrated Chronicle. Helpfully, there is no final score mentioned. Or when the game was played. A cursory glance at the internet and I can find…
