IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0099 KCLMA MISC 69
Held at: Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King's College London
Title: Misc: World War One trench newspapers, 1916
Date(s): 1916
Level of description: Collection (fonds)
Extent: 1 file
Name of creator(s): The New Church Times and The Kemmel Times, 1916.
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
The Wipers Times was first produced in Feb 1916 in Ypres, Belgium. Apart from occasional gaps when some of the larger battles of the Western Front were being fought, it ran until Dec 1918. Except for the final number, the paper was never printed out of the front area and at one time the printing press was within 700 yards of the front line and above ground. The founder and editor of the paper was Capt F J Roberts, 12 Bn Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regt), 24 Div, British Armies in France. On 4 Sep 1914 24 Div was concentrated between St Pol and Etaple and for the remainder of the war it served on the Western Front in France and Belgium. Shortly after the Battle of Loos, Sep 1915, 24 Div moved to the Ypres Salient, where the Wipers Times was founded. From 1916 to 1918, the Wipers Times incorporated the New Church Times, the Kemmel Times, the Somme Times, the BEF Times, and the Better Times, each of which consisted of lampoons and reflections, poems and 'advertisements' satirising the military and political situation of World War One
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Facsimiles of four editions of World War One Western Front trench newspapers, The New Church Times and The Kemmel Times, each of which was incorporated within The Wipers Times, 8 May-3 Jul 1916. While the names of many of the contributors have not survived, the chronicles they presented in the newspaper detail vividly the war conditions on the Western Front. Articles were often spontaneous, preserving the jargon, slang, character, and conversation of the soldiers' surroundings. Although the reader is confronted with all the stark images of the Western Front, these are masked with a humourous irony which demonstrated the spirit of comradeship that prevailed in the British Army
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
Conditions governing access:
Open, subject to signature of reader's undertaking form
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, attention of the Director of Archive Services
Physical characteristics:
Finding aids:
Summary guide entry on-line at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/top.htm, and available in hard copy in the Centre's reading room.
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Presented to the Centre in 1998 by Mr John Carpenter via Dr Andrew Lambert, Department of War Studies, King's College London
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
Publication note:
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Date(s) of descriptions: Date of compilation: Nov 1999