The Wildgoose Chase

For The Fallen by Laurence Binyon With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children, England mourns for her dead across the sea. Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit, ...

http://walterwildgoose.blogspot.com/2011/11/remembrance-day-2011-for-fallen.html

I've been trying to get tickets to the play "War Horse," currently running at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theatre, for a couple of months. It's the story of a horse named Joey, taken for d...

http://walterwildgoose.blogspot.com/2011/06/war-horse.html

The Royal Hospital Chelsea on Sunday 31, October 2010.

http://walterwildgoose.blogspot.com/2010/11/autumn-day-at-royal-hospital-chelsea.html

Remembering and honoring all veterans, but especially the ones who survived for that first Armistice Day, November 11, 1918. A couple of weeks ago, I was in London and paid a visit to the Roy...

http://walterwildgoose.blogspot.com/2010/11/remembering-november-11-2010.html

For Walter who made it through World War I to live a nice, long life, and for his brother Bert, who died at the Battle of Aubers Ridge in 1915.

http://walterwildgoose.blogspot.com/2009/11/in-remembrance.html

Harry Patch, the last survivor to have served in the trenches in World War I, died July 25, 2009. Born in 1898, he was eight years younger than Walter. Patch was injured in the battle of Passch...

http://walterwildgoose.blogspot.com/2009/08/farewell-to-last-tommy.html

Women are now accepted as Chelsea Pensioners .

http://walterwildgoose.blogspot.com/2009/03/i-think-walter-would-approve.html

Walter would have been 119 today. In commemoration of his birthday, I want to celebrate three things I learned from this special guy. DON'T GRUMBLE (at least, not for long), whatever the situat...

http://walterwildgoose.blogspot.com/2009/02/wildgooses-119th-birthday.html

A tribute to the 90th anniversary of the end of World War I on this 11 day of November 2008. According to Walter's letters, he was "in Rugeley Camp in Staffordshire when the Armistice was declar...

http://walterwildgoose.blogspot.com/2008/11/90th-anniversary-of-armistice-november.html

It’s astonishing to me the way that Walter’s stories and experiences find their way to others who have an interest in a particular topic. For example, within the last couple of months, I’...

http://walterwildgoose.blogspot.com/2008/01/connections.html

"Yes Mary, when you mention World War I. Fancy being now 65 years ago, and yet I can remember many things that happened. I laid in hospital having been brought home from France in 1915. I wen...

http://walterwildgoose.blogspot.com/2007/11/in-honor-of-walter-november-11.html

I've already written about Walter's adventures aboard Pacific Steam Navigation Company's steamer Oropesa. Thanks to the internet, it's easy to track a bit of the ship's history. Here's a bit fr...

http://walterwildgoose.blogspot.com/2007/07/oropesa-postcards.html

After 22 years in the Army, Walter returned to civilian life in 1930. It was a chance to settle down after all the years of living overseas. Finding work was top of the list, and May's brother C...

http://walterwildgoose.blogspot.com/2007/04/after-army-civilian-job.html

After the war, Walter's 204 Battalion Machine Gun Corps shipped out to India and the Northwest Frontier. After a few months at Rawal Pindi, his battalion was sent to the Jamrud Fort area, one of...

http://walterwildgoose.blogspot.com/2007/01/winter-in-khyber-pass.html

Break of Day in the Trenches by Isaac Rosenberg The darkness crumbles away. It is the same old druid Time as ever, Only a live thing leaps my hand, A queer sardonic rat, As I pull the parapet'...

http://walterwildgoose.blogspot.com/2006/11/poppies-whos-roots-are-in-mans-veins.html

I was in England last week. Since I was there on business and most of my time was well and truly scheduled beyond my control, I had no chance to nip into the Imperial War Museum or British Army ...

http://walterwildgoose.blogspot.com/2006/11/poppies.html

Here's the story according to Walter: . . . I had a letter from May, asking me what was my intentions regarding her future, as she wanted to know how she was situated. I was quite perplexed, an...

http://walterwildgoose.blogspot.com/2006/10/walter-and-mays-91st-wedding.html

Every few months, I revisit the internet to see if any new information or pictures have shown up about the workhouse or training ships or British Army in India, etc. I came across several new (to...

http://walterwildgoose.blogspot.com/2006/09/new-clio-pictures.html

Right now, I'm still flitting from subject to subject with Walter's story. I think it's just too hot to settle on anything. But looking at the timeline I've constructed based on Walter's letters...

http://walterwildgoose.blogspot.com/2006/08/august-1914.html

As I work my way back in to Walter's world after my hiatus, the list of little mysteries in the story keeps begging for attention. I don't know how many of them are solvable. Some things need bl...

http://walterwildgoose.blogspot.com/2006/07/on-wildgoose-chase-solving-mysteries.html

Sorry I've been away from this site for so long. It has taken longer than I thought to close down my life in Atlanta and move it up to New York. However, Walter and his story are never far from...

http://walterwildgoose.blogspot.com/2006/06/wildgoose-vacation-over-junes-of.html

The next few weeks are going to be very busy for me, as I prepare for a new job and move from Atlanta to New York City. Alas, my writing and research for my book about Walter has had to take a b...

http://walterwildgoose.blogspot.com/2006/03/walter-takes-holiday.html

Found an interesting resource at the Sheffield Central Library/Local Studies Center that discussed the ways the Homes handled problem children. From Sheffield Union: The Scattered Homes for Chil...

http://walterwildgoose.blogspot.com/2006/03/dealing-with-incorrigibles-at.html

One of the most intriguing resources I uncovered while researching at the Imperial War Museum was a 2-volume set of actual field messages from the first battle of Ypres in autumn 1914. Well, tru...

http://walterwildgoose.blogspot.com/2006/03/1st-ypres-via-field-messages.html

Back in September I posted an excerpt from Walter's letters concerning the Battle of Hill 60 in April 1915. At that time I'd had a hard time finding much about the Battle of Hill 60, though I co...

http://walterwildgoose.blogspot.com/2006/03/more-on-hill-60.html