An original copy of the scarce Colne & Nelson Times War Album coving the first 14 months of WW1
War Album 1914 & 1915 - 500 portraits and biographical sketches produced by the Colne & Nelson Times. Landscape format, staples rusted and thin card covers a bit tatty and mainly detached, but the rest of it is tight and clean with little evidence of the passing years. And wow, what a read!
Unsurprisingly men who served with Lancaster and Lancashire affiliated regiments are well represented, especially the territorials of the 5th East Lancashire Regiment who were at Gallipoli. There are a fair number to the West Riding Regiment (Duke of Wellingtons), a surprising number to the Coldstream Guards, the Shropshire LI and a smattering of other regiments and corps, the Royal Navy and a couple to the dominion forces.
Interestingly, it covers those wounded, recovered and taken POW as well as killed or died as a result of enemy action, accident at sea or training in the UK. One of the themes covered in the book is a section of 13 obituaries with photos of the local St John's Ambulance Association men (including the only two sons of one family) who lost their lives in the course of the wreck of the Hospital Ship Rohilla off the coast of Whitby on the 30th October 1914. See the following article for fascinating read of an early WW1 casualty of the sea:
https://www.benjidog.co.uk/MiscShips/Rohilla.html::text=Rohilla%20was%20a%20British%20India,on%20board%20by%20several%20lifeboats.
There is a section of photos to five recipients of DCMs and casualties from the locality who were lost on the Lusitania, in fact the only two portraits of women fall into this latter category. I also loved the named group photos of the Church Lads Brigade who joined the CLB Battalion KRRC, Colne Ambulance Association men recently returned from their adventures in Antwerp, the public school boys who had joined the 20th PS Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers; many now noted as serving as officers in other units and finally the group photo of the Colne VTC members in mufti with a note stating they were not obliged to wear uniforms but would be issued with the GR armlets. 156pp of sheer joy for anyone with an interest in WW1, especially to the areas covered by the towns in the North East of Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire.
Oh, and I enjoyed learning that a company of the 12th Lancers in Dublin joined the Royal Munster Fusiliers on learning about the heavy casualties in the Dardenelles.
Coxswain Smith of the Tynemouth Life Boat got his gallantry award (later converted to the George Cross) for the Rohilla incident. See my postcard of him at my item 55581 or read all about lifeboat gallantry in the enthrallingly detailed and entertaining Life Boat Gallantry Book by Barry Cox, my item 55590.
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Code: 62800