I hope you have had a peaceful and enjoyable Christmas 2014. If you are in the middle of trying to decide whether or not to brave the Christmas Sales, instead, spend some time to surfing the ‘net and looking at some of my Advent Calendar 2014 websites.
Over the next 4 days, I will be recapping the sites and books which were in my 2014 Advent Calendar. Happy hunting and reading!
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This year, my run up to Christmas has been very hectic with some very last minute excitement as a historian and blogger.
On the 18 December 2014, just over a week ago, I published on my regular monthly slot on the Worldwide Genealogy Blog, a post about the First World War’s Christmas Truce of 1914. You can read my post here – Christmas Day Truce 1914. It is the full story of the famous Truce between the British and the Germans as it was reported day-by-day throughout the length and breadth of Britain in local and national newspapers.
My story was picked up by the British Library – whose The British Newspaper Archive own the digital archives for these newspapers – and a shortened version was printed on their website on the 19th December: The story of the 1914 Christmas Truce, as reported by WW1 newspapers. From this, one of the producers of the BBC World Service read my story and asked me to do an interview for the radio station about the Christmas Day Truce. So I did two audio interviews (from my kitchen!) – one very late on Monday 22nd December, and another early in the morning on Tuesday 23rd December – the latter being a live broadcast so was very nerve-wracking.
One of the main points asked in my interview was, did the Germans and the British play a game of football in no-man’s land? My answer is: There’s a lot of hearsay that several “kick-abouts” either happened or were proposed to take place. But I could find no evidence or eye-witness accounts in the local newspaper within the British Newspaper Archive that a formal match had taken place. Below are extracts from reports in newspapers dated December 1914 to January 1915 where a game of football (or a kick-about) was mentioned.
From the evidence below, you decide. Did one (or more) football matches take place between Britain and Germany along the Front Line on the Western Front at the Christmas Truce of 1914? All are eyewitness accounts, mainly written down in letters sent home by soldiers in the Front Line and reprinted in local newspapers.
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“The Germans left some of their trenches and came over to talk with our men, and I hear a football match has been arranged for New Year’s Day. I cannot swear to this statement, but seeing that they did visit us on Christmas Day, the event is possible.”
Hull Daily Mail, Wednesday 30 December 1914
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“The day after Christmas, they cried across if we would play them at a game of football, but as no football was forthcoming, there was no match.”
Aberdeen Journal, Friday 1 January 1915
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“On Christmas Day we agreed to a play a football match, and we got a football but their colonel would not let them play, so we had a bit of a game on our own.”
Liverpool Echo, Saturday 2 January 1915
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“Higher up the line – you could scarcely believe it – but they were kicking a football about between the trenches.”
Gloucester Journal Saturday 2 January 1915
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“Elsewhere along the line I hear our fellows played Germans at football on Christmas Day. Our own pet enemies remarked that they would like a game, but as the ground in our part is all root crops and much cut up by ditches, and as, moreover, we have not got a football, we had to call it off.”
Western Daily Press Wednesday 6 January 1915
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Did a football match take place between Germany and Britain?
You decide!
Nottingham Evening Post – Saturday 02 January 1915
Daily Mirror – Friday 08 January 1915
All extracts and images above appear by kind permission of The British Newspaper Archive / The British Library Board.
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Wishing all my readers a very happy Christmas. I hope your Christmas celebrations are much more relaxing than the Louis Wain cats shown below.
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To put in you the festive mood, each day from now until Christmas, my blog will be publishing images from postcards sent during the First World War. Click on the picture to be taken to an external website which will be of interest to historians of English history or local history or family history. Each day, the link will take you to a different website and, hopefully, help you discover resources new to you. Just like a traditional advent calendar, you’ll not know what you’ve got until you’ve opened (or clicked) the door.
My Advent Calendar is my Christmas gift to you. Happy Christmas!
What’s behind the door?… Click on the picture above to be taken to an external website of interest to historians. When you’ve finished viewing the external website, come back to my blog and, in the comments, tell me what you think of the website you’ve just visited.
This blog
If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe by using the Subscribe via Email button. If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do Like it with the “Like” button or Facebook button and/or leave a comment below.
To put in you the festive mood, each day from now until Christmas, my blog will be publishing images from postcards sent during the First World War. Click on the picture to be taken to an external website which will be of interest to historians of English history or local history or family history. Each day, the link will take you to a different website and, hopefully, help you discover resources new to you. Just like a traditional advent calendar, you’ll not know what you’ve got until you’ve opened (or clicked) the door.
My Advent Calendar is my Christmas gift to you. Happy Christmas!
What’s behind the door?… Click on the picture above to be taken to an external website of interest to historians. When you’ve finished viewing the external website, come back to my blog and, in the comments, tell me what you think of the website you’ve just visited.
This blog
If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe by using the Subscribe via Email button. If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do Like it with the “Like” button or Facebook button and/or leave a comment below.
To put in you the festive mood, each day from now until Christmas, my blog will be publishing images from postcards sent during the First World War. Click on the picture to be taken to an external website which will be of interest to historians of English history or local history or family history. Each day, the link will take you to a different website and, hopefully, help you discover resources new to you. Just like a traditional advent calendar, you’ll not know what you’ve got until you’ve opened (or clicked) the door.
My Advent Calendar is my Christmas gift to you. Happy Christmas!
What’s behind the door?… Click on the picture above to be taken to an external website of interest to historians. When you’ve finished viewing the external website, come back to my blog and, in the comments, tell me what you think of the website you’ve just visited.
This blog
If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe by using the Subscribe via Email button. If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do Like it with the “Like” button or Facebook button and/or leave a comment below.
To put in you the festive mood, each day from now until Christmas, my blog will be publishing images from postcards sent during the First World War. Click on the picture to be taken to an external website which will be of interest to historians of English history or local history or family history. Each day, the link will take you to a different website and, hopefully, help you discover resources new to you. Just like a traditional advent calendar, you’ll not know what you’ve got until you’ve opened (or clicked) the door.
My Advent Calendar is my Christmas gift to you. Happy Christmas!
What’s behind the door?… Click on the picture above to be taken to an external website of interest to historians. When you’ve finished viewing the external website, come back to my blog and, in the comments, tell me what you think of the website you’ve just visited.
This blog
If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe by using the Subscribe via Email button. If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do Like it with the “Like” button or Facebook button and/or leave a comment below.
To put in you the festive mood, each day from now until Christmas, my blog will be publishing images from postcards sent during the First World War. Click on the picture to be taken to an external website which will be of interest to historians of English history or local history or family history. Each day, the link will take you to a different website and, hopefully, help you discover resources new to you. Just like a traditional advent calendar, you’ll not know what you’ve got until you’ve opened (or clicked) the door.
My Advent Calendar is my Christmas gift to you. Happy Christmas!
What’s behind the door?… Click on the picture above to be taken to an external website of interest to historians. When you’ve finished viewing the external website, come back to my blog and, in the comments, tell me what you think of the website you’ve just visited.
This blog
If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe by using the Subscribe via Email button. If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do Like it with the “Like” button or Facebook button and/or leave a comment below.
To put in you the festive mood, each day from now until Christmas, my blog will be publishing images from postcards sent during the First World War. Click on the picture to be taken to an external website which will be of interest to historians of English history or local history or family history. Each day, the link will take you to a different website and, hopefully, help you discover resources new to you. Just like a traditional advent calendar, you’ll not know what you’ve got until you’ve opened (or clicked) the door.
My Advent Calendar is my Christmas gift to you. Happy Christmas!
What’s behind the door?… Click on the picture above to be taken to an external website of interest to historians. When you’ve finished viewing the external website, come back to my blog and, in the comments, tell me what you think of the website you’ve just visited.
This blog
If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe by using the Subscribe via Email button. If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do Like it with the “Like” button or Facebook button and/or leave a comment below.
To put in you the festive mood, each day from now until Christmas, my blog will be publishing images from postcards sent during the First World War. Click on the picture to be taken to an external website which will be of interest to historians of English history or local history or family history. Each day, the link will take you to a different website and, hopefully, help you discover resources new to you. Just like a traditional advent calendar, you’ll not know what you’ve got until you’ve opened (or clicked) the door.
My Advent Calendar is my Christmas gift to you. Happy Christmas!
What’s behind the door?… Click on the picture above to be taken to an external website of interest to historians. When you’ve finished viewing the external website, come back to my blog and, in the comments, tell me what you think of the website you’ve just visited.
This blog
If you want to read more from my blog, please do subscribe by using the Subscribe via Email button. If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, then please do Like it with the “Like” button or Facebook button and/or leave a comment below.
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