Search results for ""Author Peter Doyle""

In 1914, Princess Mary, the only daughter of King George V, was just 17. Yet with the world war two months old, the young princess was destined to make her mark. She would send a Christmas gift to all those serving in uniform, ‘afloat and at the front.’ With great determination, she set about her task to provide her gift to all those on active service. For Every Sailor Afloat, Every Soldier at the Front is the first time the full story of the princess’s gift has been told. Using original sources, texts and archives, and illustrating original surviving objects, this book unfolds the true story of the fund and its wider meaning, set, as it is, in the context of hope as provided by the unofficial Truce in No Man’s Land that has been so well documented. Princess Mary’s gift was extremely sophisticated; great pains were taken to ensure that the needs of its recipients were met, based on ethnicity, gender, religious observance and personal preference – the Gift Committee was way ahead of its time. By 1919, some 2.7 million people from across the British Empire had received the gift. Well-illustrated and fully sourced, this book will provide those interested in the first Christmas of the War a greater perspective of the achievements of its founder, of the meaning of the gift to the recipients, and of the nature of the gift itself, such that prevailing myths and misunderstandings of its constituents and recipients will be resolved.

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A guide to fossils in the UK, plotting the main fossil groups around the country, and relating them to the different ages of the rock in which they are found. It is suitable for novice fossil hunters or enthusiasts.

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Collection of letters from the Catholic Bishop Goss vividly depict contemporary ecclesiastical life. These letters, covering the years between 1850 and 1872, illustrate the complex issues facing the newly-established Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales. Bishop Alexander Goss was closely involved in the struggles to assert diocesan independence from Westminster and undue interference by Rome and was a determined upholder of his episcopal rights, "strong and resolute almost to vehemence - the crozier, hook and point" as Cardinal Manning claimed. At thesame time, as leader of the diocese with the largest number of Catholics in England and Wales, he faced the problems of serving the needs of a rapidly expanding population and of integrating a huge numbers of Irish migrants, without damaging the flourishing recusant traditions that had made Lancashire so important in the survival and growth of English Roman Catholicism. Whether he was writing on ecclesiastical politics, or his reasons for opposing the definition of infallibility, or the spiritual needs of his people, he wrote "without restraint or reticence" and his letters show us both his energy and administrative ability, and something of his complex personality. They are presented here with introduction and elucidatory notes. Peter Doyle, a retired history lecturer, has written extensively on the history of the Catholic Church in England after 1850. His published work includes a historyof Westminster Cathedral, a ground-breaking history of the Catholic diocese of Liverpool from 1850-2000, and three volumes in the new Butler's Lives of the Saints, as well as a range of contributions to academic journals.

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Objects allow us to reach out and touch the past and they play a living role in history today. Through them we can understand the experience of men and women during the First World War. They bear witness to the stories of men whose only morning comfort in the trenches was the rum ration, children who grew up with only one photograph of the father that they would never get to know, women who would sacrifice their girlhood in hospitals yards from the frontline, pinning a brooch on to remind themselves of a past life. Weapons like the machine gun and vehicles like the tank that transformed the battlefield; planes that had barely learnt to be flown entangled in dogfights far above the barbed wire of the frontline; German submarines that stalked shipping across the seas. Through these incredible artefacts, Peter Doyle tells the story of the First World War in a whole new light.

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Frank and Percy Talley of the 1st City of London Yeomanry (Rough Riders) were destined to leave England to take part in the last, and most costly, single-day battle of the Gallipoli Campaign, on 21 August 1915. In never-before published letters, the Talley brothers describe their training in England and their move to the East Coast to man the trenches there during the invasion scare of 1914 and the Zeppelin attack at Great Yarmouth. Their letters provide a rare insight into the activities of the yeomen in preparing for war, their transportation to Egypt and Suez and their expectation that they would be used in action at Gallipoli. After walking into a maelstrom of fire on 21 August 1915, the trooper-brothers were separated; each wrote home not knowing whether the other had survived. Both were wounded. Their letters from the Suvla trenches are brief but telling – the last, desperate battle for Gallipoli as seen through the eyes of two brothers from London.

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The British soldier of the Great War has been depicted in many books. Invariably, a pen picture paints him as stoic, joining the army in a wave of patriotic fervour, and destined to serve four years on the Western Front in some of the most costly battles in history. Yet often the picture is difficult to resolve for the reader. How did the soldier live, where did he sleep? What was it like to go over the top, and when he did, what did he carry with him? For many, the idea of trench life is hazy, and usually involves ‘drowning in mud’, in, as one writer put it, ‘the pitiless misery’ of Passchendaele. Remembering Tommy pays tribute to the real British soldier of the Great War. In stunning images of uniforms, equipment and ephemera, it conjures the atmosphere of the trenches through the belongings of the soldiers themselves – allowing us almost to reach out and touch history.

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The British soldier of the Great War has been depicted in many books. Invariably, a pen picture paints him as stoic, joining the army in a wave of patriotic fervour, and destined to serve four years on the Western Front in some of the most costly battles in history. Yet often the picture is difficult to resolve for the reader. What was it like in the trenches? How did the soldier live, where did he sleep? What was it like to go over the top, and when he did, what did he carry with him? For many, the idea of trench life is hazy, and usually involves ‘drowning in mud’, in, as one writer put it, ‘the pitiless misery’ of Passchendaele. Recently, military historians have presented an alternative picture, a picture in which the hopelessness of the First World War is given new life and purpose. Remembering Tommy pays tribute to the real life British soldier of the Great War from the moment of joining up to their final homecoming. Using original artefacts in historic settings, the men and their words are brought to life. The uniforms they wore, the equipment they carried, the letters they wrote home, their personal possessions, mementos and photographs come together in a powerful tribute to the indomitable Tommy. Each one of these precious artefacts bears witness to the men who left them behind – allowing us to almost reach out and touch history.

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For those living in Britain between 1939 and 1945, the war was an ever-present reality; reminders were to be found everywhere. Huge numbers of objects relating to the war effort at home - some functional, like gas masks, ARP uniforms and ration books, and others less so, like Hitler chamber pots and toys and games - were manufactured and became commonplace in homes up and down the land.

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One day, a small bundle of letters was found in a flea market. Kept together for one hundred years, these few letters tell of one teenage boy, Percy, and his girl, Kitty. This is a story of 1918, and of young people caught up in war, and of the war itself. It is a true story. Percy Edwards was conscripted into the Royal Welsh Fusiliers in 1918. Trained at Sniggery Camp near Liverpool, he was sent to the front, aged just 18. Percy’s letters were few and his words sparse and immature, but they are very powerful. Tragically, he was to die of his wounds three weeks after his arrival. Percy: A Story of 1918 is a unique book. Built around the words of a Young man from Wales, its narrative is constructed from surviving documents, war diaries, accounts of battle, and newspapers. It is an accurate picture of the war of 1918, a true story of one soldier representing the bigger picture. Written by historian Peter Doyle in prose that is accessible to young readers, it is illustrated by Tim Godden, renowned illustrator of the war. What Percy brings is an authentic testimony of the final year of the Great war, through the eyes of one young man. Percy’s story is typical of the last year of the war, when the British Army fielded a conscript army of 18 year olds. It was this army that would go on to win the war. It is also a story of the contribution of Wales to the Great War.

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It was a war that shaped the modern world, fought on five continents, claiming the lives of ten million people. Two great nations met each other on the field of battle for the first time. But were they so very different? For the first time, and drawing widely on archive material in the form of original letters and diaries, Peter Doyle and Robin Schäfer bring together the two sides, ‘Fritz’ and ‘Tommy’, to examine cultural and military nuances that have until now been left untouched: their approaches to war, their lives at the front, their greatest fears and their hopes for the future. The soldiers on both sides went to war with high ideals; they experienced horror and misery, but also comradeship/Kameradschaft. And with increasing alienation from the people at home, they drew closer together, ‘the Hun’ transformed into ‘good old Jerry’ by the war’s end. This unique collaboration is a refreshing yet touching examination of how little truly divided the men on either side of no-man’sland during the First World War.

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