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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Antiques roadshow


Mark Hone

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Whilst I have some sympathy with the criticism of the treatment of the Halliwell's, I must say that I enjoyed this segment as it encapsulated my experience of similar first family encounters with the graves of family members on the Western Front. Some of these I organised and some I just chanced upon.

I appreciate that the BBC conspired to organise this visit and kept the reason for the place that the encounter happened a secret from the family. However, the family apparently have no resentment of this and therefore I cannot feel any myself. Whilst the piece may have entertained people , I think most people who watched it will have been touched and felt empathy - just as poor Bill Harriman did! He was right on the edge there.

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- just as poor Bill Harriman did! He was right on the edge there.

Then he should have asked to do his piece again, after he had got a grip.

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Then he should have asked to do his piece again, after he had got a grip.

I have nothing to do with the TV industry, but surely sentiment sells? Look at how the sentimental back stories on shows such as Britain's Got Talent push those shows into the public eye.

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Then he should have asked to do his piece again, after he had got a grip.

Arguably so, it was really marginal. But it would have spoiled the surprise!

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Yes well done. I know a few banjo jokes :whistle:

Could you possibly post a list of the names on the banjo?

Mike

Thanks to anyone who enjoyed what I did... Yes, I will post the 28 names, many of whom were born in Britain (1 Belgian, 1 Jamaican) I traced all of them as to their Attestations, dob's, nok's etc., and have met two descendant families ( who between them sent 8 to the War) - the lady on the TV show with me was from one of them, lives in Europe. The banjo is now in the Canadian War Museum since Dec/2013 and there is a lot more work to do via UV exam, etc., there is for instance a list which starts out 'Amiens, Ablain Ste Nazaire, Mt Eloi, Farbus and more places indistinguishable.' I know that this Battery was in the Order of Battle for Vimy, and the brother of one of them, also another gt uncle of the lady on the show was fatally wounded at Vimy (8th Battalion - Winnipeg Fusiliers) and died in May 1917. There are also names written on it after it got to England - I am most anxious to trace them as this will be the connection between The Western Front and Darwen, Lancashire, where I got it. I have been trying newspaper articles, etc., but no luck in that direction as yet. I am appending a link below to The Ottawa Citizen article about the banjo. The banjo I played is about the same age, ie late 19thc/early 20thc and would have the same sound...

Sorry, the link is a problem so I'll type it in (fingers crossed everyone)

http://www,ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/Banjo+mystery+from+First+World/9300260/story.html Hope you can find it from that... the names will follow in a separate entry.

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I am appending a link below to The Ottawa Citizen article about the banjo. The banjo I played is about the same age, ie late 19thc/early 20thc and would have the same sound...

Sorry, the link is a problem so I'll type it in (fingers crossed everyone)

http://www,ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/Banjo+mystery+from+First+World/9300260/story.html Hope you can find it from that... the names will follow in a separate entry.

Great information and good luck with the newspaper articles etc. I wasn't able to open your link but I did find this one:

http://blogs.ottawacitizen.com/2013/12/17/banjo-is-a-mystery-from-the-first-world-war/

Anne

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I thought the AR was excellent, far better than I expected (I'm not sure what I expected), I attended a Roadshow valuation years ago in Harrogate, the team were very slick and very professional and they have a huge pool of punters and many hours of film to choose from so the final show does sometimes look over planned, The family reaction at the end of the show was priceless and I think demonstrated what it this is all about.

Mick

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I agree with Mick (just forging an old alliance again!). I thought very good and the family scene at the end was sensitively done and vert moving. Well done to the team and all those who contributed items!

TT

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I thought it was excellent. As well as Egbert, Alec and the final scene I thought the young medal collector explained his (and other medal collectors) hobby very well.

Like StaffsYeoman I thought the pictures were superb; I know without a pedigree it's difficult to value them but I think the valuer erred on the conservative side

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I feel vaguely uncomfortable about the way it seems the centenary of the Great War will be covered. It is of course naïve to expect just a day of dignified commemoration and reflection, or for the media not to indulge in excessive sentimentality and minor inaccuracies such as those mentioned above. I may be criticised by other forum members, but I feel there are unpleasant undercurrents , which maybe loosely defined as band wagon jumping by politicians, commercialisation and a form of mawkish nationalism. To my mind it would be more appropriate for small contingents from all the old Entente's and Central Powers' armed forces to parade together in each others' capitals.

Yperman

Edited by yperman
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I think that we have to remember that everyone has an agenda, especially perhaps politicians, but also everyone who has a book to tout or just wants their 15 minutes of fame. It is rather an easy bandwagon to board.

It will all soon be over and we can go back to discussing real stuff like the place of fig rolls in society and how good certain pals knees look.

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And mine, I'm in shorts all year round now.

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All this talk about knees, shorts and fig rolls has rather confused me - what have I been missing out on these last 60 years? What do members of this forum mean by 'fig rolls'? Seriously, my earlier post was intended merely to express my regret that some aspects of the centenary events may turn out to be decidedly tacky and possibly 'little Englandish'. I agree it is inevitable, but it makes me - and looking at the above posts some other forum members- uncomfortable. But as Auchonvillerssomme points out it will hopefully soon be over.

Yperman

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. To my mind it would be more appropriate for small contingents from all the old Entente's and Central Powers' armed forces to parade together in each others' capitals.

Yperman

Go and sit in a cemetery, and ask them -" would you like that, chaps ?"

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Stoppage drill no one can know if they would like it. As you know they were brought up in a different world and educated to see it in a totally different way to our world view . Their ideas about nationality, imperialism, racial superiority, duty, work, class and even what were/ were not tolerable living conditions were too different. I don't even think we can talk about "they" - some might, some might not - we are talking of millions of individual men after all who served in many different theatres.

My suggestion - and yes it's just "doodling in the margin"- is it would be better to commemorate the centenary by a show of Western European unity, that it is unthinkable another Great War could happen. The survivors certainly talked of a War to end Wars and veterans like Harry Patch believed in reconciliation. Parades of contingents from both sides could symbolise the fact we have moved on.

What worries me is - and I know I am generalising- the insular feel to the centenary events in the UK - when I think it would be healthier for Germans, French, British, Belgians, Austrians, Italians and all the other belligerents to commemorate this war together. Isn't that NATO?

Yperman

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Clip of Egbert just been shown on Gogglebox. It will be repeated on Monday night on CH4.

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Not forgetting the second instalment of this AR Great War Special is on November, yet more stories to follow.

Am I reading correctly #2 isn't until November this year? I've been searching and unable to suss out.

Thought is may have been a bias against us folk in the west counties...

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Clip of Egbert just been shown on Gogglebox. It will be repeated on Monday night on CH4.

Thanx Ant!

I am currently here in Florida and gogglebox can not be viewed here. It is blocked as it is in the rest of the world. Now- do the British TV stations do not dare to show their programs due to general questionable quality of contents to the world, or does it have something to do with the interviewed people that are so rotten bad? :hypocrite:

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It is due to copyright restrictions and a desire to sell the programs overseas... nothing to do with the alleged low quality of content or interviewees!

(IMHO They should make your bit available as a full interview!)

Regards

Ian

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Egbert is shown around 33 mins into the show.

Show repeated this coming monday at 10.50 pm on ch4

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Ok, so it does not work outside the uk. Q: what is gogglebox, a reputated program or a trashy program? Anybody knows whether it is affiliated with BBC? Did they air exactly the same sequence as the BBC did last week?

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