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The Great War Archive

ChrisM

ChrisM

Super Moderator
Staff member
The Great War Archive was brought to our attention by a forum member, chris123456, earlier this year when contributions were being sought. It has now been launched on this the 90th anniversary.

The link is: https://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/gwa/ The archive is a section of a website which goes under the rather clumsy title of "The First World War Poetry Digital Archive" (which might attract some visitors but will discourage others). But there is a lot of original material there - images, letters, diaries, memories and so on - if one is prepared to dig it out.

A couple of tips about searching within the site which I have learnt this morning:
1. When using the search facility, one has to ensure that the Great War archive rather than the poetry section is checked (in the box on the left-hand side of the screen); and
2. then one has to be particularly careful about the search definition. Just as an example, if one is looking for Royal Flying Corps references, such definitions as "RFC", "R.F.C"., "Royal Flying Corps", "RAF" etc will each bring up a different set of results. It's too pernickety and needs to be made more intelligent. In the meantime one needs to be a bit long-winded. But worth the effort.

Chris
 
Thanks Chris for the link and the information, I've put it in my favourites.

Graham.
 
Part of my interest in this site is because there is a chunk of my own work in it - not that I expect many people to find it!

Some years ago I transcribed a large numbers of letters home written by a New Brighton boy, the uncle of a good friend. He was a R.F.C./R.A.F. pilot and saw service in 34 Squadron in the latter half of 1917 (on the Western Front and Italy) and later in 1918 in 206 Sqdn. back in France and Flanders. In addition to much information about life at the time there are a number of references to towns in the area which may interest you a little, Graham, if you care to flick through the material.

This is the link: https://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/gwa/document/9065?REC=1 . The document is there in its entirety, provided you can work out how to look at it. In the box on the left there should be the title of two separate documents. Hover the cursor over it if necessary to see both. In the box click on one of the two titles, and then hit the download button. It is a hefty chunk in .pdf format and is probably suitable only for a broadband connection. The first of the two titles covers pages 1 to 100 and the second, 101 to 212.

There is regrettably no Brummagem connection but I hope that it might be of general historical interest.

Chris
 
For anyone interested in Great War aviation....

I have now included the R.F.C./R.A.F. material mentioned earlier on my own website where it is more accessible. The main document is still slow to download; but I have put in a better introductory page showing the entire contents and this is quick and easy to glance at, in case anyone wants a overview.
https://www.staffshomeguard.co.uk/L5WithFondestLoveTrev.htm

There's no detailed index but the pdf pages of the main document are fully searchable.

Chris
 
as always Chris grateful to you and others who do all the research and take the time on your site and others to keep us informed about this subject even though it takes up a lot of your own time thanks :)
 
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