The Tynemouth World War 1 Commemoration Project

I don't know if any Scottish town is being as pro-active as Tynemouth in preparing for the 100th anniversary of the Great War?

I know Edinburgh University is working on the Edinburgh's War project in the run up to 2014 but I don't know of any community doing something similar.

See their website here: http://www.tynemouthworldwarone.org/

The Tynemouth World War 1 Commemoration Project

Over the next three years there will be an increasing public focus on the forthcoming centenary of the outbreak of the First World War (4th August, 2014), and thereafter, until 11th November, 2018 (the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Armistice with Germany and the Central Powers), the nation will be reminded, by a series of important anniversary dates of key events, of the sacrifice of the nation, which brought personal loss to almost every family in the land.

The former Borough of Tynemouth marked that loss with a Roll of Honour published in 1923 containing very brief details of the 1700 local residents known to have lost their lives due to causes associated with the war and their service.

The project has been formed with the aim of reminding the population today of that loss and also to explore the social and economic consequences for the town and its inhabitants.

A large-scale research effort is planned in order to expand greatly the biographical information about as many as possible of the names on the Roll of Honour. When as much information as can be traced has been entered into an electronic database the public will have available to them an accessible resource when seeking details of family members who were lost in the War.

A copy of the Roll, sorted by reference to the date of death of the 1700 on the database, will be exhibited widely so that the population today can gain an understanding of the impact of this tragic period in the town’s history.

Sons of Galloway - Recommended website

Today's recommended website is the result of one man's passion in researching the sacrifice of his local area and the local territorial infantry unit. The Sons of Galloway is Dr Stuart Wilson's tribute to the men and women of South-west Scotland who served and died in the Great War.

The website covers the 5th Battalion, King's Own Scottish Borderers, which recruited throughout the three old counties which now make up Dumfries and Galloway*. It also is the home of the Stewartry Roll of Honour which is "a nominal roll of all men and women native to Kirkcudbrightshire, or resident in the county on enlistment, who served their country in the First World War".

The amount of data collected is staggering, and there is a wealth of information and photographs contained on the website. The work is ongoing and all contributions of information related to the projects will be gratefully received by Dr Wilson.

He now lives in England but is from Auchencairn in Kirkcudbrightshire, and apart from the website he has also written a book, "Answering the Call", about the men from Auchencairn who fought and died in the First World War. There is a bit about that on the website too where you can order a copy

Please take the time to visit the website even if you have no connection to the area. The story of the 5th KOSB's at Gallipoli is a tragic one; and the sacrifice of the whole of the Scottish Borders in early 1915 is often overshadowed by Scotland's greater losses first at Loos and the other battles of the Western Front. It is a tale that deserves a wider audience and Stuart Wilson's website does a magnificent job of telling it.

* During the First World War, Stranraer and the Rhinns of Galloway had territorial units of the Royal Scots Fusiliers rather than the King's Own Scottish Borderers.

Online domination

The SMRG has expanded its online presence with a new Twitter account. Apart from this blog we also have a website and a facebook page (and two project forums). Here are the URLs for all of them.

Website

http://scottishmilitaryresearch.netfreehost.com/index.php

Blog

http://scottishmilitary.blogspot.com/

Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Scottish-Military-Research-Group/171539162876337

Twitter

@S_M_R_G

And don't forget the two project forums too...

Scottish War Memorials Project

http://warmemscot.s4.bizhat.com/

Scottish War Graves Project

http://scottishwargraves.phpbbweb.com/

Armadale and District Roll of Honour - websites of interest

In addition to working at the Royal Scots museum, Tom Gordon has spent a lot of his free time compiling a website devoted to the men of Armadale and district in the Great War.

His site includes a wealth of information on the men from the area and is well worth a look if you are researching a man from the district.

Armadale and District Roll of Honour

World War II Today

Thanks again to the lovely Ronnie Scott, we have another website of interest today.

Using "creative commons" material, this blog follows the course of the Second World War seventy years after it happened.

It features previously unpublished combat reports from those on the front line and diary entries from all affected by the war, and also has some fascinating photographs.

You can also use links at the top of the page to see previous entries, so you can look back on events already seventy years past such as hte Battle of Britain and the evacuation of Dunkirk.

Well worth checking it out: World War II Today.

The War Illustrated - WW2 editions online

My friend Ronnie Scott pointed me in the direction of a useful link yesterday.

The War Illustrated features an index of the issues of this famous World War Two magazine. The site has also started to make some of the articles available online. It's possible that the ultimate aim will be to make the complete run available - let's hope so!

Click here to visit the homepage: The War Illustrated

Sites of Interest: Stobs Military Camp

Long standing SMRG member Derek Robertson from Hawick has once again got his website about Stobs Camp online. It’s well worth a visit to Derek’s website to learn more about this camp in the Scottish Borders.

Please take the time to go and search through many of the fascinating pages and photographs on Derek’s site here:

Stobs Military Camp

2010 Review of the Year

As we approach the end of 2010, we decided to look back on some of the projects the Research Group has worked on, and to look forward to what 2011 may bring.

Our primary project, the Scottish War Memorials Project has continued to add new memorials and additional information throughout the year. As time goes by, the number of “new” memorials to be added has diminished, but there is always information to be added, and new memorials do continue to be found. The number of civic memorials added to the project is something we can feel justifiably proud of, and our focus in the future will be to add memorials from other sources such as churches, places of work and school/colleges.

Memorials continue to make news headlines, and a recent story in the Courier newspaper was cause for cautious celebration, as the memorial to the men of Mains, located in Caird Park in Dundee will hopefully undergo restoration and relocation in 2011. The members of the Research Group can feel some small amount of pride in this, as it was our initial discovery of the condition of the memorial, and our highlighting it to both the media and local interested parties were the opening stages of what has proven to be a long and complicated process. Hopefully the end of the tunnel is in sight for this much neglected memorial.

Our War Graves Project also continued this year, with new grave photographs added on a regular basis. I will admit that I personally have let my involvement in this project slip as I have worked on other things, but 201 will see me attempting to take a more active interest in this project.

Several members of the Research Group spent a lot of time and effort this year working with the University of Edinburgh on a website concentrating on the efforts of people from Edinburgh and the Lothians during the First World War. The Edinburgh’s War website went live in October this year and has been a great success. 2011 should see more work on the website – watch this space!

Looking at our own projects, the Roll of Honour for the city of Glasgow has lain dormant for a little while, but only last week we were able to launch the first batch of surnames from the transcription. 2011 will see us continue to work on this, with a hopefully second batch being released in the spring.

Another new project, the indexing of the Daily Record for the Great War, has been progressing well. I have been working on the issues from 1915 and John Houston has been indexing those from 1917. Between the two of us we now have almost 12 months of indexing completed, and next year will see that work continue. To see a glimpse of how the complete index will look, we recently showcased the index for January 1915. We're always looking for people to assist with the indexing - if you think you can help, please get in touch!

This year also saw this blog making more of an impact – when I started it in late 2008 I saw it as a method of getting news, research items of interest, and articles “out there” where they might be of interest. I’d like to think that now we’ve finally got the correct balance of news items and our own articles –long may this continue into next year and beyond. We’re also hoping that next year will see more “guest authors” writing for the blog – got something to say? Let us know and we’ll post it here!

The final new development was the launch of our Facebook page – I’ve been using Facebook for a while now, and it seemed a sensible move to create a page for the SMRG – early days yet, but fingers crossed it can grow into a useful hub for information.

So…that was 2010. I’ve made mention of a few things in store for next year, but who knows what’s round the corner? I hope you’ll stay with us to see what crops up!

Sites of Interest: "The Fallen Oak"

HMS Royal Oak was sunk at Scapa Flow in 1939, and is now recognised as a war grave.

In 2006 ADUS Ltd were commissioned by the Ministry of Defence to carry out a sonar survey of the wreck.

Images of that sonar survey can be viewed on the ADUS website here, as well as images of other wrecks.

You can also view a movie "flypast" of the wreck, which is fascinating to watch.

We're on Facebook!

The Scottish Military Research Group now has a page on Facebook.

We'll keep the page updated with posts from here, as well as whatever else we can fit on to it.

It's early days, but if you're a member of Facebook, visit the page and click "like"!

Website - The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders

The website of The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders has undergone something of a makeover in recent months. It looks like a lot of new contect about the history of the regiment has been added, as well as information on the museum and the regimental family. It's well worth a look.

The website of The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders

Visit the Poppyscotland store

Poppyscotland, the website of the Scottish Poppy Appeal, this year has a shop selling a number of Poppy branded items.

The English equivalent has sold items like this previously, but this is the first year that Scotland has followed suit. The store is worth a look, and I would encourage anyone to have a browse and consider a purchase - it's all in a very good cause!

You can also now follow Poppyscotland on Twitter, Facebook, or view their YouTube page.

The Home Guard Pocket Manual

This might be of interest to those budding Private Frazers out there - a manual for members of the Home Guard.

Thanks to Ronnie Scott for the link!

Edinburgh's War 1914-1918

Today sees the official launch of Edinburgh’s War. This is a project run by the University of Edinburgh alongside the City of Edinburgh Council Libraries Department. Several members of the Scottish War Memorials Project and Scottish War Graves Project have been involved in writing the text and pdf attachments for many of the web pages.

The official launch was held at the University’s Playfair Library and attended by representatives of many of the local businesses and organisations which have supplied information to the project.There was also cause for celebration as the University pledged to fund the maintaining of the site until at least 2014, in time for commemoration of the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War.

The aim is to get local people involved in sharing their family stories of the First World War and how it impacted Edinburgh and the Lothians.

Over the next few months more information will be added to the website but in the mean time please take the time to visit it here: Edinburgh’s War

You can also find out more by viewing the University news page.

There has also been coverage so far from the BBC News and The Guardian newspaper.

More on the CWGC

Over the last day or so the fuss I reported on in the last two blog postings has subsided, but hasn't entirely gone away.

There has been little to report on, but today there was some contact between David Stacey of the CWGC and a member of the Great War Forum.

June Underwood of the GWF had reported to the CWGC that there had been a tacit agreement from the CWGC that they were happy for people to link to their site. That is the agreement referred to in his reply, which is quoted below:

"Dear Mrs Underwood
Thank you for your further email about the CWGC database. It is very helpful to have a copy of the attached correspondence of which I was unaware. I will be researching to see how many other similar agreements there might be. I note that your website is freely available, but I would be interested to know whether there are others that in fact charge for the same information.

I was pleased to see that you had participated in the original survey. Afterwards, although you were not chosen, a sample of people were asked more detailed questions about the website, at which point such issues might have been raised (but were not). The survey was sent to almost 5000 customers and we received back over 1500 responses. The customers contacted were those who had most recently contacted the Commission at the time the list was extracted, and represented a complete cross section of our customers from the new user (some of whom had never used our website) to the regular visitor, many of whom used our website for "work" purposes. Of those who replied, 821 said they were happy to be contacted again and a number were then randomly chosen for a more detailed telephone conversation. There were several demands for a better search facility, and we have attempted to accommodate some of these.

Before re-introducing the new database, I will look further into the issues raised by the direct links to it. As another correspondent has suggested, it may be possible to keep the functionality of the earlier version, together with the changes to the new. I am considering inviting various individuals to a meeting to put their view to the CWGC in order to inform the debate, and I may be in contact again.

Yours sincerely

David Stacey"

It is encouraging to note that they will look into a number of the issues which have been raised by several members of both the Great War Forum and WW2 Talk.

Now, here's hoping that perhaps they might actually improve the search facility rather than saying they will and adding nothing!

CWGC Search changes - update

The situation with the CWGC I reported on yesterday has taken a few new twists and turns today.

The CWGC reported on their Twitter feed that they were experiencing "technical difficulties" - they later reported that these had been resolved. It also seemed that the search facility had been restored to the way it was. Perhaps they'd been listening to us! Actually, no they hadn't.

It turned out that their new search engine was full of bugs anbd flaws, and had so many errors they had to remove it.

It also became clear that they were going to change the search engine, whether we like it or not.
The following was posted on the CWGC website today:

"Following extensive consultation with users of the popular CWGC website, we have made several changes to the “Search Our Records” section , which will make it easier for people to search our database of 1.7m Commonwealth casualties. However, a technical problem has affected these changes, which has required the temporary reinstatement of the previous search tool.

It is our intention to adopt the improved system, once the technical problem has been resolved. As well as providing a more intuitive system, the changes to the records search facility allow for greater security of our database but regular users may wish to note that one of the likely results of the security upgrade is that external websites will be unable to take advantage of the links to individual casualty details which are currently available

We are confident that these changes to the search facility represent a significant improvement on the previous system and that users will find the changes useful."

I'll come back to that statement later.

The threads on both the Great War Forum and WW2 Talk had some interesting discussion, and I recommend taking the time to have a read of them. Many people had emailed the CWGC to express their dissatisfaction, and lo and behold, someone got a reply from them! Sadly, it doesn't make for encouraging reading, and only highlights that iut appears that the CWGC haven't a cluewhat kind of people actually use their search facility. You can find the reply on both threads linked above, but here it is in all it's glory:

Dear Ms Underwood
Thank you for your email concerning recent changes to the Search Facility on the CWGC website. You may have already noticed that we have temporarily reverted to the older version due to some of the technical problems you and others have noted. However, when the technical issues have been sorted, we do intend to change the Search Facility, which I note has caused problems to people who are running linked databases.

This is the first time that I have been made aware that links have been made directly to the Commission's website. If there are any formal agreements in place, then perhaps you could let me know. If not, then it would seem to me perfectly reasonable for the organisation to make changes it believes enhances the system. I can assure you that there was a wide consultation earlier in the year, which was included on the website. I do not know whether any of the members of your group participated in that consultation. The enhancements of the new system respond to some of the points raised during that consultation.

Your comments about the new system have been noted and will be looked into. In the meantime, I am afraid I can give no assurance that the referencing of casualties on the database will remain the same and you may wish to consider other ways in which to retain your information.

Yours sincerely

David Stacey
Director Information Services
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
2 Marlow Road
Maidenhead
Berks
SL6 7DX

Tel: 01628 507147 (Direct)
Fax: 01628 507186

Let's take a look at some of these comments shall we?

"extensive consultation" - from what anyone can gather this took the form of a survey which was available on the CWGC website. I know enough about surveys and statistics to know that you can take whatever information you want from them. I wouldn't class this as "extensive" - there was no communication with any dedicated users, and certainly no discussion with Geoff, who runs an excellent and far superior search engine to that of the CWGC. I'm sure he'd have been happy to consult with the CWGC to try and improve on their frankly disappointing search facility, but sadly he wasn't given that opportunity.

"easier for people to search" - there has been no change to the search facility. How does that make it easier? Making it weasier would make it possible to narrow your search down to a specific month, or even day.

Want to see who else may have been killed the same day as your grandfather? After all, they may have been mates of his. No chance of doing that with the search as it currently stands, or as it will be in future.

This is not making it any easier to search.

"Greater security of our database" - this statement concerns me somewhat. I don't really understand what they mean and until someone from the CWGC can explain it I think we have a right to be concerned by it.

"We are confident that these changes to the search facility represent a significant improvement on the previous system and that users will find the changes useful." - well, this is just nonsense, isn't it? I can point them in the direction of dozens of users of their site who don't consider it an improvement and find it somewhat less than useful!

As for the email from David Stacey, there are a number of points that merit further discussion.

"This is the first time that I have been made aware that links have been made directly to the Commission's website." - Seriously?!?! I find that very hard to believe. Do they live in a bubble? I expect not, but okay, let's give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they don't know anything about the people using their database. As my friend John Duncan has stated on the GWF "If this gentlemen is unaware of external websites linking into the CWGC site then he is not the man for the job".

"formal agreements" - This confuses me. I'm sure many people were unaware that there should be any kind of formal agreement. Does this conflict with this part of their Terms and Conditions? I quote:

This material may be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium for personal use or for internal circulation at an educational establishment, provided it is not altered or used in a misleading context and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission is acknowledged as the source of the material.

I don't have an issue with his statement that they are free to change things if they wish. We can't stop them, obviously. However, I don't accept that there was "extensive consultation" and I certaily don't believe that anyones comments will be looked into.

Still, we can always voice our opinions, so if you'd like to do so, then feel free to email David Stacey. Or write him a letter. Here's his details again:

David Stacey
Director Information Services
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
2 Marlow Road
Maidenhead
Berks
SL6 7DX

Tel: 01628 507147 (Direct)
Fax: 01628 507186
david.stacey@cwgc.org

Oh look. A direct telephone number. Why not give him a call? Tell him what a bad idea their "revamp" is. I'm sure he'd love to hear from you. But please, keep it polite.

Alternatively, why not email some of the other people involved with the CWGC? Here's some ore details:

Mr Peter Francis
Head of Communication
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
2 Marlow Road
Maidenhead
Berkshire SL6 7DX
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 1628 634221
Tel: +44 (0) 1628 507163
Fax: +44 (0) 1628 771208
peter.francis@cwgc.org

Mr Andrew Bishop
Director of Information Technology
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
2 Marlow Road
Maidenhead
Berkshire SL6 7DX
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 1628 634221
Fax: +44 (0) 1628 771208

Apparently Peter Francis is on holiday at the moment, but I'm sure someone is monitoring his inbox. And if they aren't, I'm sure it'll be full on his return...

One thing is clear - the CWGC have done themselves no favours with this. There are many members of both the Great War Forum and WW2 Talk involved in projects to try and have men missing from the CWGC Register brought "in from the cold" - they must be feeling incredibly let down right now, since this will make their work a lot harder. It also shows that the organisation they are working incredibly hard to help clearly doesn't give two hoots about them.

As I've typed this, a member of the GWF has stated:

I'm just going out but I've found a letter from Andrew Stillman, Records & Enquiries manager in Aug 2005 where he gives permission for us to use the links to CWGC. "The Commission is always pleased to support such causes which go hand in hand with our aim to reach as big an audience as possible"

Are they still pleased to support such causes? Doesn't seem like it...

Changes to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission search engine

Have you ever used the CWGC search engine? If so, have you ever posted the URL of your search result onto a website, email or any kind of document?

Well, that link is now utterly useless, thus leaving many people having to start from scratch with painstaking research, due to the CWGC "revamping" their search engine. I use that term carefully since there appears to be no improvement made whatsoever - no additional search facility, no new way of organising the search results.

There's more discussion on both the Great War Forum and WW2 Talk, but it's clear that many military and genealogical researchers are unhappy - particularly in the way there was no advance warning or announcement of the changes.

I've posted a message on the CWGC Twitter feed - I'll be interested any response that is received from them. I expect a standard response that it is not their job to assist researchers - that might be the case, but I feel this might be a bit of a public relations blunder from the Commission. Many of the researchers affected have assisted the CWGC in the past, adding missing names to the Debt of Honour register and they've been badly let down here through a lack of communication.

It also means that we have lost the excellent Geoff's Search Engine - many people used this since the serarch facility was far, FAR better than the CWGC. Geoff has posted the following on the page where the search was, and I think it deserves to be repeated here:

"If this has caused some inconvenience to your WW1 and WW2 research and you view it as a retrograde step, please contact the following, giving your views.

Mr Peter Francis
Head of Communication
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
2 Marlow Road
Maidenhead
Berkshire SL6 7DX
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 1628 634221
Tel: +44 (0) 1628 507163
Fax: +44 (0) 1628 771208
peter.francis@cwgc.org

Mr Andrew Bishop
Director of Information Technology
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
2 Marlow Road
Maidenhead
Berkshire SL6 7DX
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 1628 634221
Fax: +44 (0) 1628 771208"


I suppose this is a message that perhaps the old ways are sometimes still better - I printed all my search results of my research on to hard copy ages ago.

Twitter

One of the big things on the internet these days is "social networking". This takes many shapes, this blog being one of them. Sites such as Facebook and MySpace have been around for a while, and they have been joined fairly recently by one called Twitter.

In case you've never heard of it, Twitter is a site where you can post updates of around 170 characters - it makes you keep things short and to the point. Some may think that rather frivolous, but many people have got on board and are now "tweeting" regularly.

Some of them may be of interest to those of you with an interest in Scotland and military history.

Yours truly can be found here, although I wouldn't expect much in the way of updates from me, since I never seem to have the time.

Genealogist and Friend of the SMRG Chris Paton can be found here, posting regularly on events and happenings in the Scottish Genealogical world. His blog, incidentally is also worth a look and can be found here.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission have been social networking for a while (they can be found on Facebook) and have got in on the Twitter act here. They post fairly regularly with some interesting items of news and updates.

Others "Twitterers" include:

The Western Front Association

The National Archives

The Imperial War Museum

The Australian War Memorial

That's just a few of the "bigger" names - there are plenty of familiar names out there if you have a browse.

Newbattle at War

I recently received an update from John Duncan regarding his excellent "Newbattle at War" website, which I thought might be of interest:

"work has been rather limited on the website recently due to other commitments, however a few nice photographs have been added and a feature on Jimmy Smith, the Great Uncle of Charles Sandbach who was shot at dawn. Charles has campaigned long and hard to have his uncle Jimmy added to the Bolton Roll of Honour and has now been successful.

I have added the text of the Parliamentary debate on Jimmy and ask you read it, it is a tale of human tragedy and very moving.

http://www.freewebs.com/eltoro1960/jimmysmith.htm "

The whole website is well worth a look, I urge you to check it out:

www.freewebs.com/eltoro1960