Why?

In four short years, from 1914 to 1918, over 10 million men and women serving in armed forces on fronts around the world were killed, while double that number were wounded, disabled and disfigured; and at least another 7 million civilians lost their lives as well. Most died horrific deaths. But as time passes by we tend to forget, a century later, how many sacrifices were made day after day on both sides of one the most deadly conflicts in human history. Civilized Productions has produced a wonderful choral album, Sacrifice and Solace, which features an octet called the Toronto Valour Ensemble who sang these carefully selected and uniquely composed songs from that era. It is available on CD Baby. The simple translation of the Arabic word "jihad" is struggle.

Friday, September 23, 2016

The Struggle at home during The Somme

On August 11, 1916, Princess Helena Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein, granddaughter of Queen Victoria declared open the Shakespeare Hut in London - while fighting raged along the Western Front, between the armies of Britain, France and Germany (and their allies) at Verdun and along the Somme.
The hut, however, provided a temporary refuge, a place of solace, for over 100,000 troops throughout #WW1 travelling either to or from the battlefields.
Catering mainly to soldiers from New Zealand, offering tea and billiards and many staged performances, it was a conscious attempt to keep the men from the temptations of nearby Soho - and its many pubs and brothels...
"The vast mock Tudor structure was the largest of thousands of prefabricated sheds hastily erected by the YMCA in the UK and on all the first world war battlefronts," according to The Guardian. "Vintage photographs show it with fireplace, gramophone and potted palms, packed with cheerful looking uniformed men."
(Meanwhile on another front, the diplomatic front, Romania was about to declare war in August against the Central Powers, and soon Romanian troops were fighting Austro-Hungary for control of the contested province of Transylvania.)
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