Author Archives: Magicfingers

St. Luke’s Church, Stone Cross & Westham War Memorial

Posted on February 4, 2023 by Magicfingers

The church of St Luke at Stone Cross, built as a memorial to a Lieutenant Colonel Charles William Owen, who died in 1922, was opened in 1929 as a chapelry of St. Mary’s Church in nearby Westham, long before eventually … Continue reading →

Posted in Sussex East, U.K. Churches, Memorials & Cemeteries - Back in Blighty | 4 Comments

Austro-Hungarian Hand Grenades of the Great War Part Two – The Ball Rohr Stielhandgranate

Posted on January 28, 2023 by Magicfingers

This is the Ball Rohr Stielhandgranate (stick grenade), once attached to a cardboard handle (as in the replica inset), remnants of which you can still see inside the ball in the main picture. 

Posted in Austro-Hungarian Grenades, Weaponry & Relics | 2 Comments

A Quartet of Curious French Postcards

Posted on January 23, 2023 by Magicfingers

I shan’t be saying much about these cards.

Posted in Postcards | 21 Comments

Knoddishall War Memorial

Posted on January 17, 2023 by Magicfingers

Another locked church, but we do have a war memorial.

Posted in Suffolk, U.K. Churches, Memorials & Cemeteries - Back in Blighty | 5 Comments

‘How It Feels To Be Shot’

Posted on January 13, 2023 by Magicfingers

‘Then there came a crash. It sounded to me like someone had dropped a glass bottle into a porcelain bathtub. A barrel of whitewash tipped over and it seemed that everything in the world turned white.’ 

Posted in 1918 - The Advance East, Soldiers | 6 Comments

Arras – London Cemetery, Neuville Vitasse

Posted on January 6, 2023 by Magicfingers

How about we start the New Year with a random cemetery visit?  I happened to find myself here last summer, at this burial ground a few miles south east of Arras – I’ll show you a map in a while … Continue reading →

Posted in Arras, World War II | 18 Comments

The Men Who Came Home – A Memorial Part Fourteen – The Middlesex Regiment

Posted on January 1, 2023 by Magicfingers

Men of the Middlesex Regiment, three privates and a lance corporal, later in life. 

Posted in Soldiers | 4 Comments