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Book Update
By Jim Massey
The year 2014 has proved to be a bumper year for new books about the Regiment. We have not been able to proof read them all, but we thought it would be helpful if people knew about them. It is hard to keep up with the pace of production, as two of the books appeared the week that this article was written.
Honours & Awards –
The Staffordshire Regiments 1919 – 2007 by Jeff Elson
This book lists every award from the Victoria Cross to Mentioned in Despatches; foreign awards and even some battalion awards, to members of:-
The South Staffordshire Regiment 1919 – 59
The Sherwood Foresters in the Easter Rising Dublin 1916 by Cliff Housley
There four Sherwood Forester Battalions involved in the Easter Rising and this is a fascinating history of the part played by them. Although there is some background on the rising itself, the author focuses primarily on the actions of the four battalions on a day by day basis. The battalions were the 2/5th, 2/6th, 2/7th (Robin Hood) & 2/8th Sherwood Foresters. At the end is a list of the 31 Sherwood Foresters who were killed and the known wounded. This is an important contribution to a campaign that few in Britain have read about.
Price £10-00 this can be ordered from The WFR Museum ISBN 978-9927731-1-3
First Lines by Joss Musgrove Knibb
The gripping letters, stories and first hand
accounts of four Staffordshire Regiment
men serving in the trenches of WW1. Joss
Musgrove is Editor of the Lichfield Gazette
and promotes the events of The Staffordshire
Regiment Museum. The four men described
are all utterly individual. Syd was brave,
irreverent and shrewd. James was romantic,
honest and courageous. Alfred was capable
and fair and Jake was a great and far sighted
communicator. This is beautifully illustrated
and the author has gone to the trouble of writing some worthwhile background information.
Price £9-99 this can be ordered from The Staffordshire Regiment Museum.
ISBN 978-0-9930574-0-3
The Final Years – A History of the Sherwood Foresters 1957 – 1970 by Cliff Housley
This fills an important gap in the history of The Sherwood Foresters as the previous 216 years have been covered (1741 – 1957), so Cliff Housley has neatly bridged the final period, until the formation of The Worcestershire & Sherwood Foresters in 1970. The book includes two operational tours; the latter part of the Malayan Emergency in 1958 – 9 and Cyprus in 1963 – 4. The remaining chapters describe life in UK and Germany, the Presentation of
New Colours in 1965 and the amalgamation in 1970. This is recommended reading for people from a Sherwood Forester, WFR or 2 MERCIAN background.
Price £10-00 this can be ordered from The WFR Museum ISBN 978-0-9529648-9-6
The War History of The 1/6th Battalion, The Prince of Wales’s (North Staffordshire Regiment) (T.F.) 1914 – 1918 by Jeff Elson This is a brilliant book which describes the history of the Battalion
in Loos, the Somme and the Hindenburg Line. It also contains
seven appendices which list Honours & Awards, Medals, Casualties and Tamworth’s Territorials. The gem though, is that the Battalion’s Part Two Orders were found and the Appendix on Punishments & Hospital Stoppages is most illuminating. One of the reasons Jeff wrote this book is that there were books written on the 1st, 2nd, 5th, 7th & 8th North Staffords in the Great War, but not the 6th Battalion. There is also a list of where it was deployed throughout the entire conflict.
Price £20-00 this can be ordered from The Staffordshire Regiment Museum.
The North Staffordshire Regiment 1919 – The Staffordshire Regiment 1959 – 2007. This is a must for anyone who has served
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in any of these regiments or 3 MERCIAN, as
you will know many of the people listed, some of whom are included in the fascinating biographical section. A copy lives in Regimental Headquarters Lichfield and it is used virtually every week to answer queries.
Price £39-95 and can be ordered from The Staffordshire Regiment Museum.
ISBN 978 1 908828 13 2
Poetry From The Trenches of the Sherwood Foresters 1914 – 18 Edited and Arranged by Cliff Housley
This is a beautiful book as it lists dozens of poems written throughout the Great War.
Cliff Housley deserves immense credit for finding them and collating them. Some were from the famous Wipers Times produced by the 12th Battalion and many are from the Sherwood Foresters Museum collection. The poems combine graphic information and dry wit.
Price £10-00 this can be ordered from The WFR Museum ISBN 978-0-9927731-0-6
The Life And Times of Charles Masefield MC by Graham Bebbington
Charles Masefield served with 5th Battalion,
The North Staffordshire Regiment and died
of wounds in August 1917, received from an
action, the previous month at Lens. Graham
Bebbington’s book is a biography of the
Cheadle born poet and author. On one level
the work tells of how his ideals were severely
put to the test by what he and his comrades
experienced in Flanders. On another level the
author gives an insight into how the Great War
affected the life of communities in North Staffordshire and sets this into the context of national events. Sarah Elsom (who was Curator of the Staffords Museum) wrote the Foreword.
Price £9-95 this can be ordered from The Staffordshire Regiment Museum.
THE MERCIAN EAGLE