History in the Making: Where were you? IT'S A BOY!

As of 4:24 GMT yesterday afternoon Great Britain has a third in line to the throne. Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge has given birth to a son who is now third in line after his father William and Grandfather Charles.

THIS is history in the making people and we have all witnessed it! Let's just hope they name him something kingly!

(Official Movie) THRIVE: What On Earth Will It Take?

The Death of Military Secrecy?!

So now it appears that there are a few million people across the world employed by Intelligence agencies of every denomination who are no longer needed! Fear not NSA, CIA, MI6 and the FSB your work can now be handled by the internet! Behold the BBC warning the rebels several hours in advance of an impending attack, we can all now happily sleep and revert to leaving battle plans in the hands of carrier pigeons.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22840728

Unless of course it's a cunning ploy? People can't be that stupid can they?

Overlord - 70th Anniversary

Transport yourself back to 1944 with this channel 4 two part documentary and accompanying minute by minute, blow by blow account, in real time of the greatest amphibious invasion ever seen and the first step to victory in Europe.

http://dday7.channel4.com/

Keep up with the action all night if you like!

The last of it's kind

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22726671

The link above to a news story taking place off the southern shore of Great Britain, raising the last intact Dornier 17 from its current resting place in 50 ft of English channel to the surface.

"Any old Iron?" :P

I was surprised to learn that this is the only surviving Do. 17 in the world, and that it was in as good condition as it is (surprising because, as some of the non-British readers may not realise, the channel can be quite rough! :P)

They have a deadline to meet though, the salvage team is currently working frantically to raise it within the week before the immensely unpredictable Channel weather forces them to delay again. Best of Luck!

God that would have been a great night!

Newly declassified files from the National Archives at Kew have revealed a number of interesting things today; apparently the Allies had a hit-list of high ranking Nazis in France they considered eliminating prior to the D-Day landings on 6th June 1944; chief among them General Erwin Rommel and Field Marshall Gerd Von Rundstedt. It wouldn't have been the first time the British Government sanctioned an official hit during World War II; in 1942 a British trained group of Czech resistance members who assassinated Reinhard Heydrich in Prague.

The Heydrich assassination also helps to explain why they didn't go through with the plan, the Nazis enacted brutal reprisals and wiped out the Czech village of Lidice in revenge for his death. The assassination of Rommel, commander of the German forces in Normandy, may have had some effect but the British feared that reprisals against French civilians and POW's would negate it's potential value to the war effort.

Stalin never struck me as a cocktail guy...

As well as the hitlist, there were files that revealed the home office and MI5 were bugging King Edward VIII during the events leading up to his abdication in 1936. Spying on the King? He was a Nazi sympathiser after all!

But for me the most interesting story to come out of the new files was that during Churchill's state visit to Moscow in 1942, he and Stalin got a little drunk and emptied "innumerable bottles". According to Permanent Undersecretary of the Foreign Office Alexander Cadogan:

"what Stalin made me drink was pretty savage. Winston, who by that point was complaining of a slight headache, seemed wisely to be confining himself to comparatively innocuous effervescent Caucasian red wine"

Stalin the party boy huh? That would have been a hell of a good night to be a part of! 

You can't help but love the underdog, even when he's a Crim!

A quick tribute to one of my personal heroes: Frank Abagnale Jr; one of the ballsiest, smartest and most enduring con-men in the history of fraud and criminality. His impressive list of legal accomplishments is a footnote to a rather sad childhood, which he regrettably missed out on from the age of 16; as Abagnale himself puts it "I never went to a senior prom or a high school football game".

You forgot Thief!

He's often asked to be a keynote speaker given his more recent legitimate work with the FBI and the U.S. Federal Government in general; rather than butcher his life story in paraphrasing I always find it's better to hear it from the horses mouth. Watch the video below ( in two parts ) if you have some time to kill, and hear the story of how one 16 year old boy from a Catholic boys school ran from a New York Courtroom in tears and ended up in a French prison 5 years and a couple of million dollars later.

Well this was unexpected... IT'S OVER 1000!!

Thanks for all the views to get Musings past 1000! Especially to that one bloke from Kazakhstan last week, had images of a man using his laptop while sitting in a Yurt with it plugged into a potato or something. Regardless, thank you all and keep checking back on the blog and on the History Circle!

In Memory of: Ray Harryhausen

Probably Harryhausen's best known work, the fight between the skeletons and Jason in Jason and the Argonauts. A great and groundbreaking bit of cinema that we all remember from when we were kids. Still impressively good effects today, no shakycam here!

Anzac Day - 25th April 2013

Today, we remember the contributions of the men and women of Australia and New Zealand in all conflicts. Engraved on the memorial at Anzac Cove on the Dardanelles peninsula is the following inscription:

"Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives. You are now living in the soil of a friendly country therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side in this country of ours. You, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are at peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well"

Kamal Ataturk, 1st President of the Turkish Republic

War between Great Britain and the United States? Canadians may wish to take note!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4hjyyrpiKQ&list=WL07B0171CBE458293

The above link is to a documentary that was recommended to me discussing the viable possibility of a war between the United States and the British Empire in the 1930's.

I know what you're thinking! What a load of absolute shite! Special relationship and all that! I know because I thought the same thing; this is just another pseudo-historian making shit up in a vain attempt to be interesting (don't get me wrong about pseudo-history, it can occasionally be interesting :P) but when I gave this a watch and then did some reading on it afterwards I was forced to take a massive helping of humble pie!

The United States and Great Britain, contrary to popular opinion, did not develop the "special relationship" as we know it until much later than I expected. And the rising levels of impatience between London and Washington after the First World War eventually resulted in the preparation of a detailed and perfectly feasible plan of attack by the United States which became known as War Plan Red. 

(all sounds a bit Tom Clancy I know but bear with me!)

In the 1930's Britain was in hock deep with American bankers and loans that she had given out to France and Belgium at the commencement of hostilities (hoping that Britain could bank roll the conflict but not have to get involved directly) were now being delayed by the massive damage done in Western Europe and the fact that German war reparations were no longer being paid. This inability to pay back what we had borrowed coupled with several naval treaties meant that the Americans were thoroughly sick to death with Britain, seemingly ungrateful for the American lives that had been lost ending the war. 

In response the U.S armed forces drew up a comprehensive plan to interdict further British belligerence by invading (yes you read that correctly) Canada and British overseas territories in the Caribbean and Pacific. This plan, as explained in the documentary, really wasn't going to be a civilised war and would be characterised by the mass bombing of cities in Canada and America, Chemical Warfare and plenty of backstabbing, all topped off with a very interesting question: who would have won? 

Honestly, this really is worth a watch and I highly recommend it to you!

History in the Making! Where were you? PM Thatcher's Funeral

This day April 17th 2013, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Baroness Margaret Thatcher's funeral has taken place in Central London; amid controversy over it's £10 million price tag. Remembered with applause by some and utter disdain by others for her often controversial politics and fiery attitude, she will be remembered by all at least as the first ( and so far only ) female Prime Minister my country has ever known.

Spent ages looking for a good photo of the procession, then found this. I think it tells the same story.

Highlights from the funeral procession here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22183063
The first state funeral for a Prime Minister since that of Sir Winston Churchill in 1965, of which another similarity can be made; they were both immensely popular during wartime, but their popularity faltered with the coming of peace. Despite the obvious pomp and circumstance that I am all too happy to oblige in cases like these, I do wonder how the price has jumped so astronomically. I can't imagine it's cheap to clear out St Paul's and close off half of the roads in Central London on a weekday, but the gun carriage hire would be free I imagine? Either way, me not being a taxpayer I don't really need to concern myself; to all those who are I can only say...

THIS LADY'S NOT FOR TURNING!

This Day in History: Sic Semper Tyranus

On this day April 14th 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth at Fords theatre in Washington DC.

Booth was the only one of three conspirators to actually kill his target that night. Two other assassins: Lewis Powell and George Atzerodt attempted to kill Secretary of State Seward and Vice President Johnson as well , hoping that this would cut the head off the federal government and provide the South a chance to revive the Confederate cause. Lincoln died the following day from one shot fired at point blank range to the back of the head. Following the shot, Booth jumped from the President's box onto the stage, breaking his leg in the process, despite this he is said to have shouted "Sic Semper Tyranus"; in Latin "Thus always to tyrants". A touch melodramatic, but then again the man was an actor...

The World of Tomorrow, Today?

Here's a good one from the BBC if like me you need to be lured our of your cynical shell every now and then. How is technology and the vast complexities of what many of us, myself included, consider to be almost science fiction changing our lives? Are we on the cusp of a Second Renaissance?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01rwgt6/Horizon_Tomorrows_World_A_Horizon_Special/

(Please note: Viewers from outside the United Kingdom may not be able to view this video, apologies)

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/titanic-100-years/interactives/adventure-on-the-titanic/

I managed to survive, will you?

7 Modern Sci-Fi Realities!

7 Modern Ghost Towns that look like Sci-Fi movies

Have a gander at this! Are you back to being 7 years old and wanting to crawl around in places like these, get filthy knees and be yelled at by your mum for getting radiation poisoning while wearing your new shoes? Yeah, me too. Check out the link above.

"What kind of peace do I mean and what kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana; enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace; the kind of peace that makes life on Earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope for a better life for their children. Not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women; not merely peace in our time but peace in all time" 

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 1963

A great story, and it's a true one!

Whilst going through the digest of the 91st I came across a really good story.

One of the officers of the regiment, Captain James Walsh, was serving with the regiment in Spain and was present at the Battle of Talavera ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Talavera ) . The diary said that during one attack against a French position he was lost and reported missing. But he reappeared a few weeks later with a tremendous story.

"Captain Walsh, taken by the enemy in a charge and with many other officers, was marched under a strong escort of cavalry and infantry towards France, but affected his escape at Vittoria, on the night of the 20th of August following - swam the river and, after suffering the utmost privation and hardships, he with the greatest difficulty rejoined the army in Portugal and reported himself personally to the Duke of Wellington."

What I find amazing about this though, is that when I thought about it, that was a hell of an escape! Vittoria is on the northern edge of Spain near the bay of Biscay, and Wellington's army was a good couple of hundred miles away near the Portuguese border! He had to contend with not only the rough terrain and the incredible heat of a Spanish summer, with no adequate supplies and no detailed knowledge of the geography of Iberia, but with the danger of running into other people; the French would have re-captured him or killed him; the Spanish could have helped him or turned him in to the authorities, and even the British might not have treated him well, he could have been seen as a deserter ( a capital offence, but he would have been flogged for it before he was hanged! ) so he was in a rough situation.

Yet he made it! And then probably looking not-very-official stood before the Duke of Wellington and explained himself. Clearly he was impressed a he suffered no punishment for his absence, rejoined the regiment immediately and continued to serve. I found, further on in the book, a note that Walsh was wounded at the Battle of Toulouse in 1813 "slightly" but I had to leave before I could find out anything else yesterday. Needless to say, I wanted to know more, so I searched online and found a biography of him ( http://www.napoleon-series.org/research/biographies/GreatBritain/Detachments/c_Walsh.html ) which explained to me what happened afterwards and before where I came in. Its a good read!

"War makes rattling good history, but peace is poor reading"

Thomas Hardy

People don't talk this way anymore

First thing through the door, my boss hands me what feels like a phone book. It's wrapped in a cardboard suit and when I got that off my jaw dropped! It was, in simpler terms than the vernacular of the time, the regiment's diary of events for the better part of half a century!

I was asked to go through it and find references to certain events and facts. It was all written in that beautiful, flowing script that some guy 200 years ago wrote with a quill and ink!

But the really cool thing was when I came to the diary entries for 1809 which documented the regiment's actions during the Peninsular Campaign of the Napoleonic Wars. The scribe had made a copy of a letter the regiment received following the defence of Corunna:

London, February 3rd 1809

Sir, 

I enclose by Order of the House of Lords, the unanimous resolutions of their Lordships, and by Order of the House of Commons, the resolutions of the Commons, declaring their approbation of the of these bodies respectively, of the conduct of the General and other officers, noncommisioned officers and soldiers, composing the Army lately under my command in Portugal, while serving in that country.

\I beg you will communicate to the Officers, noncommisioned officers and soldiers under your command, these honourable marks of the approbation of both the Houses of Parliament for their exemplary conduct.

Officer Commanding

Arthur Wellesley

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the history of the era, Arthur Wellesley is probably better known to you as the Duke of Wellington! Very cool, but people at this time really didn't like full stops did they? 

The copy of The Duke of |Wellington's Letter

"We English are good at forgiving our enemies; it releases us from the obligation of liking our friends"

P.D James

Oh my God... I care so little I almost passed out!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21835363

Well now, President Kirchner is now beseeching the Pope to "start a dialogue" over the Falklands. Banging on again about how Britain is "militarising the whole South Atlantic" rather than stationing defensive forces around a pair of tiny islands that Argentina has invaded in the past...

The interesting thing is, she made no mention of the return of the islands to Argentina. In my mind, two possible explanations: she is so confident the Pope will side with his own nation that she feels no need to; OR she doesn't want to be quoted lying to the head of the Catholic Church?

But, I don't see what good its going to do her or Argentina to be honest, I don't want to be the one to tell you this... but Britain stopped being a Catholic nation the better part of 500 years ago... we owe no loyalty and Papal authority is not sufficient to get us to change policy. It's not like back then, the Pope won't excommunicate the nation and allow Catholics to take us out, much as you might want it to be Madam President. Swing and a miss...

Letters Home

Had a delivery yesterday at the museum from the lawyers; a guy who served in the Argylls died childless and unmarried and so the accumulated service history of him and his father was dumped rather unceremoniously onto our desk by their solicitors.

There were medals from the First World War, nothing fancy just the Victory Medal and a couple of Service Stars; the sergeants stripes from his uniform; beautifully preserved photos of him and his mates in France and Belgium and then, close to the bottom of the pile, I found a handwritten letter from 1916 whilst his Dad was on the Somme.

It was to his mother, he'd just got back to the reserve lines after a few days on the frontlines. The first thing that impressed me was how steady and ordinary his handwriting looked, but as I read down the page it surprised me even further. He'd been through probably the worst conceivable week of his life. As a part of the Allied Offensive on the Somme in July his section of the line had advanced a poultry seven miles and he described the experience of being shelled whilst in the open as one of the worst things he'd ever experienced in the war thus far. He was utterly horrified by the experience of being gassed. His mask had worked fine, but it brought home to him "...just how inhumane the whole thing has become". It really got me because he was my age and he'd had a life experience that no one who's 20 has to experience anymore.

He finished his letter with a note to his mum asking her to write every week and finished it with two lines of kisses, at least twenty, and gave his younger sister his love. I could have looked up afterwards whether or not he survived. I decided against it, frankly I didn't want to know. You'd be surprised how easy it is to forget about the human cost when you're surrounded my material that tells you of the loss; but the truth is statistics are senseless and they have no meaning after 100 years. It's things like that letter that bring it home, and I know that Blogging about it will make no difference but I just hope that you one day find something like that. If everyone had an experience like that, mankind would never fight another war.

Your Holiness! Come on Down!

It's a first time for many things it seems. New Pope Francis I is the 226th Holy Father and the first to be both from Latin America (Argentina) and a Jesuit.

Seems like an interesting fellow, he chose the name Francis in honour of Saint Francis Xavier rather than take the name of one of the apostles, to be fair there have been a great many Pauls and Johns! He seems to have good relationships with bothe the Jewish and Islamic communities in Buenos Aires and he's an outspoken opponent of corruption and sexual abuse (then again as the vicar of Christ I imagine that's what most say!) But, he's also fairly young, as far as Popes go, only 76! We can expect this fellow to be around to a while, and I wish him the best of luck!

Today: Truce, Tomorrow Business as Usual

Found an poignant item in the archive today, I was asked to accumulate as much from our archives about the Christmas Truce of 1914 for a Battlefield tour guide. Whilst going through a war diary of one of the Regiment's officers I discovered the record of a conversation he had with a German officer in no man's land on Christmas day, the German looked at the proceedings and the friendly gift exchanges and simply remarked:

"Well, it shall be war again tommorrow..."

Clearly there was at least one person whose Christmas spirit wasn't deadening him to realism, sad though that is. 

Well, I could tell you that was going to happen!

Well, the Falkland's referendum is underway and the results should be in soon! It's a very brave, autonomous move by the few thousand people who live on the Falklands to show that they have some say in their own futures. Whilst Argentina has been banging the drum and relying diplomatic pressure to force Britain to relinquish the islands, the islanders are taking matters into their own hands. I think we all know what they'll say...

And don't for a minute suspect that the Argentinians don't either. Hence why the latest statement out of Buenos Aires is that the islanders themselves do not have the right to choose and that the referendum is "illegal" and "utterly meaningless". Nice... Why not just call them squatters too? Rather amused me though really, if it isn't going the way you like; just close your eyes and pretend it's all a bad dream Madam President!

However, for all my being a wise-ass this vote underlines an issue which is never going to dissapear. 258 Britons and 649 Argentines fought and died to try to put an end to the argument, banging on about this now just dishonours their sacrifice! The simple fact is that as long as this is a fair vote and the islanders choose British Sovereignty, Argentina will never get the Melvinas returned to them, the UN will never side with Argentina if they continue to throw their weight around like a stroppy, pubescent teenager. Furthermore, the UN will never agree to help override the wishes of the islanders themselves, sorry!  

Oh and just to totally screw you up... anyone want to point out that it was the French who owned the Falklands first? No? Alright then!

Two Reasons!

Congratulations Mr Assad! You've now given me two reasons to be saddened by the civil war that's tearing Syria apart!

Firstly, and most obviously, the tremendous and utterly pointless loss of life, i'm not in the business of downplaying that for a second.

BUT, secondly I just heard that the Syrian Army has shelled the castle of Crac de Chevalliers, a UNESCO world heritage site of outstanding importance, one of the best preserved medieval castles in the world! From me to you, "man who gave that order, whatever-the-fuck-your-name-is" there's a place for you reserved in the special level of hell along with rapists and murderers. I'll have the Devil bake a cake for your welcoming bash.

Now, before any of the more sensitive of you think "hang on mate, way to stick up for the western history of the region and making light of it" I've also found out that the beautiful Citadel in Aleppo and many of the most stunning mosques in Islam have been burned out or looted. If I had had the money and resources (being a poor British schoolboy I didn't) Syria was one of the places I wanted to see the most, precisely to see these sights! Now, no one will ever be able to appreciate them again in their entirety, assuming they survive the war at all.

As if the destruction of the Syrian people wasn't enough for this war? It's now raping their heritage!

Finally, a little success and a kick in the teeth

Yesterday I spoke of the frustration I felt when so many of the enquiries I was presented with constantly came up against brick walls. MOD bombed out in WW2 or not, it made it very easy to become disenchanted with my lot.

However, today I had a good experience today, one that helped restore a little of the enthusiasm that i lost yesterday. My supervisor handed me a copy of an email he received through the usual channels to find the an uncle who had served with the regiment in WW1 and I went about the usual way of trying to track down this soldier in our records.

Normally, at this point, i'd head upstairs to the archive and find squat, but today I found far more than I expected. When i found the soldier's records through his unique serial number, the file in which I was searching was stuffed with hand drawn trench maps and letters from various officers at the front to the regimental headquarters. It wasn't just the feel of these nearly century old papers in my hands that got me, it was their relevance to the search I was carrying out, and the job i'd been assigned to do.

The guy's uncle turned out to have been present at a small-scale yet very significant engagement for the regiment, and within the files I found maps of the region it took place in; aerial reconnaissance photos of the moon-scape at the front, with barely recognisable features circled or labelled. And it just hit me like a ton of bricks, there was me bitching because I couldn't find the right file or find the service record of one man among a thousand. When you're surrounded by artifacts, it's strange but true to say that you sometimes forget the circumstances that forged these objects. As I leafed through the ancient, flaking paperwork, meticulously typed by a man in a dugout, I remembered why it was I wanted to do this work in the first place, it was to find men like this man's uncle, even if I only managed to find one in every four men I was asked to find, and feel the weight of history in my hands as I touched those papers. On a sad note though, when I got home and searched for the two villages that were featured in the reports: Rouex and Famboux neither Google nor the infinitely wise Wikipedia had ever heard of them, they, like so many of the men who died there, have been simply forgotten.

Needless to say, my zeal has been replenished. It was a high note of success today, and i'll try to recall that feeling whenever I feel dispondent in my search, and Keep Buggering On.

Names Lost in Time

So today was my first day at the Museum in Stirling, and I certainly don't regret going for it.

For my orientation today I was assigned the task of answering the correspondence of people who had contacted the regimental museum wanting to know more about their ancestors who had served with the Argylls.

To answer their questions and find out the histories of their relatives, I had to delve deep into paperwork that had not seen the light of day for a while! This was a real thrill for me, the tactile history of holding papers signed by Douglas Haig, or someones Victoria Cross citation, the hand drawn maps of enemy trench networks from the First World War. This is what I want from my career in history!

I was always advised to find work that feels like play and this certainly covers it! However there was a down side. Of four of the messages I researched and replied to today, only one provided a satisfactory answer to their enquiry. The lack of information you can uncover when you're surrounded by such a vast wealth of information is maddening! I was told that this is part of the job, that because of a mix of shoddy record keeping at certain times in the regiment's history and the fact that the MOD storage facility for records was destroyed by bombing during the Second World War, the likelihood of finding all the information the people want is pretty slim.

The last enquiry I answered was one of these, someone wanting information about their relative who was a Regimental Sergeant Major for the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders at some point in the late 19th century. All I had to go on was a serial number and a name, so I had to put on my deerstalker and be a bit of a detective. However, despite trawling through the databases and the files; the obituaries, roll books, pay registers and even the personal diaries of the soldiers who served at that time I couldn't find a damn thing! You can't imagine the irritation I felt at that time, it was as if the poor sod had never even existed!

I had no choice but to reply to the person and tell them that our records held not mention of him and that he should attempt to contact the National Archives and the MOD's Scottish branches for records. I ended my email to them by saying that if they did find anything, would they please send that information to the Museum so that we can add it to our own, it's not fair for someone to be lost in time like that.

I meant it, i just hope to God it doesn't happen to me when I croak...

Milestone!

Thank you all for helping the blog to reach 250 views!

There should be more posts soon, starting my first day at the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders museum on Monday afternoon. Lots to do, lots to discuss hopefully!

Got free time? Why not a historical thriller?

Thirteen Days - BBC Iplayer

A decent film on Iplayer at the moment, covering the fortnight of tensions surrounding the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. When I saw this again after watching Lincoln I saw a fair few parallels in style. If you saw Lincoln and liked it, you should enjoy this one: one century on, another president, another political shit-storm.

History in the Making, Where were you? A Curious Conclave?

Interesting developments in the last few days from the Holy See. As many of you will have heard, His Holiness the Pope has announced he will retire from office by the end of the month, the first Pope to do so in nearly 400 years.

The interesting thing is, Papal elections are performed by the College of Cardinals through Conclave , a election in which the Cardinals of the Catholic Church will elect the next Pope. With the Pope still alive, i'm interested to see how it will be done. Normally, the Pope dies in office and the Papal apartments are sealed  following his death. No wonder the Vatican is less than ecstatic about his resignation, he's forcing them to totally change their policy for elections! 

It'll be fascinating to see how this develops

History in the making! Where were you?

Richard III - The King in the Car Park

Great bit of history that I have been around for, the remains of King Richard III are identified in a car park in Leicester, England 600 years after his death. Successfully identified after the DNA of Richard's descendants was matched with that of the skeleton. Now famous traits such as his hunch and his feminine physique have been seen in the remains and he had a grisly end! Part of his skull appears to have been sliced away, a wound in the skull penetrated 4 inches into his brain and multiple lacerations on the face indicate a furious final battle at Bosworth in which Richard was clearly in the fray!

But how much about what we know about the "evil uncle" is true and what is fiction? Excellent documentary, unfortunately I doubt those outside the UK may view it on 4od, sorry!

A Fair Chance

Welcome back from the Christmas holidays, for me at least! Finally back at Uni after longer down south away from Scotland than I care to mention!

A promising step for me though today! Breaking News if you will!

I managed to secure myself a position for research and work at the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders museum at Stirling Castle. According to the guys who interviewed me my duties will be to get through the archives (which i can say are massive!) and write up papers and new articles for their collections on the Regiment and its history. As if this wasn't enough i'll also be able to have the immense honour and pleasure of talking to Regiment's veterans who liase closely with the museum, to add their recollections to our collections as well.

"The Thin Red Line" The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders at Balaklava 1854

I feel this is a great opportunity for me and also for you! I intend to relay the information and the stories I uncover to you! So those who choose can share in the stories that I can hopefully recover from obscurity ( sounds a bit over zealous doesn't it?)