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Research and Resources
Historical Context
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Cemeteries and Memorials
We provide detailed records, personal biographies, and cemetery information for soldiers from Falkirk District who served in the Ypres Salient during WWI. Explore our Roll of Honour and other dedicated sections for comprehensive insights.
Welcome to the Ypres Salient
This site presents the story of the First World War in the West Flanders region. The various categories provide a wealth of information about a range of subjects.
The Roll of Honour category is where you will find the details of all the men from Falkirk District who are buried or commemorated in the Immortal Salient.
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A Walk Around The Palingbeek – The Bluff
This WW1 Tour is a rewarding walking tour of The Bluff, Palingbeek, Ypres battlefields and it is designed for free independent enthusiasts of the Ieper (Ypres Salient) who like to explore and are not interested in being led to the usual suspects of an organised tour. It includes the five CWGC cemeteries on the north side of the canal First DCLI Cemetery, The Bluff, Woods Cemetery, Hedge Row Trench Cemetery, Chester Farm Cemetery, Spoilbank Cemetery, and one on the south side,
Mar 2012 min read
Douglas Haig: Controversial Commander and Champion of Veterans
Douglas Haig is often remembered less as a brilliant commander and more as a symbol of catastrophic leadership — a general who sent hundreds of thousands of men into near-certain death while clinging stubbornly to outdated tactics. Critics argue that his faith in attrition bordered on callousness, turning the Western Front into an industrial slaughterhouse. To some, Haig represents not heroism, but the deadly cost of arrogance and strategic blindness.
Feb 1412 min read
Boesinghe-A Walk Along Huddleston Road, Ypres
This WW1 Tour is a rewarding walking tour of Ieper (Ypres) battlefields and it is designed for free independent enthusiasts of the Ieper (Ypres Salient) who like to explore and are not interested in being led to the usual suspects of an organised tour. The sector around Boesinghe and Huddleston Road is one of the important areas of the Ypres Salient to explore, often dismissed by visitors as having little significance due to the industrial units obliterating all the battlefie
Jan 1111 min read
Next of Kin
Next of Kin, Accounting for the dead, The army, despite the accusations of how good or bad they were at fighting, knew how to count and they had created returns and lists for everything. In addition, roll calls were regularly held as the men had to be paid, fed, equipped, and sent on leave. One of the critical parts of the accounting process was that of recording the dead, simply because the army did not like paying for soldiers who no longer had a usefulness and the army lik
Sep 20, 202514 min read
Walking the Ypres Salient - A Guide to the Eleven Cemeteries west of Vlamertinghe
This WW1 Tour is a rewarding walking tour of Ieper (Ypres) battlefields and is a circular route that takes in all eleven cemeteries located in and to the west of Vlamertinghe of the Ieper (Ypres) Salient World War I. It is designed for free independent historians like myself, or enthusiasts of the Ieper (Ypres Salient) who like to explore and are not interested in being led to the usual suspects of an organised tour.
Jun 5, 20252 min read
It was a regular Valley of Death – The action at Wytschaete on 14 December 1914
Imagine sending a battalion alone to attack a strongly wired position up a hill and over mud a foot deep, under frontal and enfilade fire....
Feb 8, 20257 min read
Walking the Ypres Salient - Five Cemeteries Walk, South of Ploegsteert
This WW1 Tour is a rewarding walking tour of Ieper (Ypres) battlefields and is a circular route that takes in all five cemeteries located on the southern tip of the Ieper (Ypres) Salient World War I sites south of Ploegsteert. The WW1 battlefield here saw some of the early fighting of 1914 and 1915, including the Christmas Truce of 1914. This Ypres battlefields walk will take a full day to complete however, if you are pressed for time you may wish to use your car or your bike
Jan 9, 20253 min read
A Glimpse of Wartime Reninghelst
The area around Reninghelst was heavily populated with gun pits, camps, Field Ambulances,
Nov 30, 202417 min read
The Ypres Salient in Ten Themes
I have chosen ten themes each of which takes you through the Salient. Each, features a poem, painting or a photograph, and has a narrative that adds context and is intertwined with the stories of the men from Falkirk District who are buried or commemorated in the Salient. The ten themes have been designed to be read as bite size pieces and cover Death, Wounded, Last Leave, Trench Life, Behind the Lines, Prisoner of War, Clearing Station, Pilgrims, Remembrance, and Toc-H.
Sep 23, 20244 min read
The Twelve Poets of the Ypres Salient
Lt Col John Ebenezer Stewart, listed on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing, was glad of the MC he had won, if only to prove that ‘fellows who write verse are not softies.’
Apr 8, 20244 min read
Names That Must Not Wither
This video features a selection of men from Falkirk in the A to L category
Feb 20, 20241 min read
As Dim As A TOC-H Lamp
The phrase ‘As dim as a Toc-H lamp’ you would be forgiven if, like many, you thought that this was a derogatory phrase describing someone as dim witted. The Secretary of the Leicester Toc-H said: ‘Our lamps may have a small flame, but our spirit is bright as ever… Actually, the saying ‘As dim as a TOC-H lamp’ is quite accurate. A lamp is our symbol. We always have one lit at our meetings. But those old-fashioned oil and wick lamps only have a small flame.’
Feb 18, 202415 min read
Prisoners of War: The Forgotten Heroes
It is estimated that between 7 to 9 million prisoners of war were taken in the First World War. In ‘Black Bread and Barbed Wire,’ Michael Moynihan puts the British Prisoners of War at 6,482 officers and 163,907 other ranks. The official British statistics for all theatres including all services put the numbers at 192,848.
The Falkirk District roll of PoWs can be found in the Falkirk Herald of December 1918. By December 1916, there were 81 PoWs plus three internees from Falk
Feb 6, 202418 min read
The Love of a Son: Käthe Kollwitz & Vladslo
Vladslo German Military Cemetery. Authors image The physical act of touching a war memorial, touching the name of the relative, for some...
Nov 28, 202317 min read
The Ypres Salient, Art & the Artists
The First World War has an enduring resonance within the visual arts. In the case of Britain, it was Britain’s war artists whose work played a decisive role in the representation of the conflict. Their work was commissioned by the British government during the First World War in what was an unprecedented act of government sponsorship of the arts. The aim was to show Britain as a bastion of liberal, social inclusion and not to show nationalist, bombastic images that glorifie
Nov 5, 202318 min read
Ypres Salient Airmen
Over the many years I have visited the Ypres Salient and the many cemeteries, I have taken note of the graves of the men from the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), and after 1 April 1918, the Royal Air Force (RAF), and also those of the German Army Air Service. The air war between 1914 to 1918 claimed eight thousand casualties on the Allied side either shot down and killed, taken prisoner, or wounded in action.
Oct 28, 20233 min read
Paths of Glory: Ypres Salient
One of the more enduring popular beliefs is that as the conditions on the Western Front were so grim, in both bottomless mud and the endless artillery barrages, that all the men simply disappeared. They were absorbed into the morass and been consumed by the man-eating monster. This idea is prevalent in the poetry and literature that the war somehow needed to be fed with the lives of the poor bloody infantry. The idea that a man or men could simply just disappear and that the
Sep 24, 202316 min read
SEX AND TOMMY: IN FLANDERS FIELDS
Sex and war is not a subject that readily springs to mind when discussing the First World War. It is an uncomfortable subject for many and is on the margins of British history of the First World War. What is of surprise is not that there was sexual activity along the Western Front, but that it has not been explored in any real detail.
Jun 24, 202322 min read
The Mine Craters of Messines Ridge, Cratering the Ridge
Messines is to the tunneller what Waterloo was to Wellington. Never in the history of British warfare has a miner played such a great and vital part in a battle. The tunnelling and mining operation at Messines were a staggering feat of engineering by the Tunnelling Companies. Today, we accept that twenty five charges had been placed - La Petite Douve was lost to countermining and 'C' gallery at Peckham to geology - and many more were either completed or close to being complet
Apr 9, 202328 min read
Ploegsteert: British Bunkers and Dugouts
The paths, tracks, rides, and fire alleys of the Ploegsteert Wood had been named by various regiments serving in the area at one time or another and many have London names. It was the London Rifle Brigade who were responsible for much of the cartography of the Ploegsteert area. The Strand, Fleet Street, Oxford circus, Rotten Row, Hyde Park Corner and Bunhill Row which is where the London Rifle Brigade had their headquarters. The Strand ran through the wood and bisected Hunter
Jan 4, 20239 min read
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