Tomorrow we gather at Lutyens’s Cenotaph. One of his final works is far less known: an oak Roll of Honour in Norwich City Hall with 3,544 names. He went over its £500 budget, then waived his fee and paid the difference himself.
Rob Kirk tells its story:
westernfrontassociation.com/world-war-i-ar…

‘Truly it was the Devil's Orchestra.’ Pte Ernest Sneath, 1st Norfolks, an Old Contemptible, fell on the Aisne on 15 September 1914, one of the 3,544.
In 1926 the Old Contemptibles began meeting at the Cenotaph on 11 November. Since 1994 the WFA has carried it on. Tomorrow, 11am.

On Wednesday, 11 November, The Western Front Association will once again lead the Armistice Day service of remembrance at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, as we have every year since 1994.
WFA members are invited to join us.
westernfrontassociation.com/news/2026/nove…
#ArmisticeDay #LestWeForget

Joining us on Wednesday? Meet at King Charles Street at 10am. The parade moves onto Whitehall at about 10.50am for the 11am silence, then our annual service at 12 noon in the Guards’ Chapel, Birdcage Walk.
Security will be tight: please arrive early.
westernfrontassociation.com/events/2026/no…

‘We were nobody’s children; we had no set role; the Navy distrusted us; the Army ignored us.’
Gilbert Smylie on the airmen at Gallipoli – one of seven RAF Staff College papers in a new article for the WFA website.
westernfrontassociation.com/world-war-i-ar…

Same ground, 26 years apart. Prof Gary Sheffield compares the BEF’s retreat from Mons in 1914 with the road to Dunkirk in 1940 – what the two campaigns shared, and why 1940 was the harder fight.
youtu.be/Z3eGZEPh9oM

Mocked as naïve public schoolboys in 1914–15, subalterns had become the managers of the platoon attack by 1917–18. Fraser Skirrow explains how, in a lecture from the WFA’s 2024 Conference.
youtu.be/m7IdRYcLeSs

In Admiral Nelson’s Norfolk village, four of the nine names on the war memorial are Futter. None were brothers or cousins. Dr Alan Hawkins and Rob Kirk show how the pension records saved by the WFA helped unpick the puzzle.
westernfrontassociation.com/world-war-i-ar…

Useless cavalry, blundering generals? Prof Stephen Badsey takes on some of the most persistent myths of the Western Front and makes the case for British cavalry as a valuable, if controversial, arm.
youtu.be/yHxkpnPe9b8

The WFA Calendar 2027 is now available. It features twelve members’ photographs of First World War battlefields, on the Western Front and beyond, each with a commentary that sets the scene. Sales support the work of the WFA.

Order online: westernfrontassociation.com/about-the-wfa/…

A British trench map drawn in April 1917 has helped a French government service investigate ground movement at Beaumont, Pas-de-Calais. The map, found in the WFA’s TrenchMapper, records the ground before a century of rebuilding.
Pierre Rouvillois reports: westernfrontassociation.com/news/2026/sept…

Who are the MOD’s ‘War Detectives’?
Rosie Barron of the Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre explains how her small Gloucester team identifies First World War soldiers recovered from old battlefields and gives them a named grave at last.
youtu.be/5pzewQzATqE
@wardetectives

Call for papers: @TheWWImuseum 2027 ‘Paris at War’ digital summit, 2 February 2027. Early-career and postgraduate researchers especially encouraged – established academics and independents also welcome. Deadline 20 November 2026.
westernfrontassociation.com/news/2026/sept…

This will be our new home from the 4th December 2026. Please could all @TheWFA branches please share

The 2026 Colin Hardy Essay Award, open to students aged 16–18, has its winners: First Prize to Elodie Salter and James Kehoe, Second Prize to Samuel Crosby. Read their essays, and find out how to enter in 2027: westernfrontassociation.com/news/2026/sept…

‘One wife, two brothers’: Private Percy Hadaway and Driver Edward Hadaway of Elham, Kent, both died in the First World War – and, it seems, married the same woman. Rob Kirk investigates: westernfrontassociation.com/world-war-i-ar…

The JCCC (otherwise known as ‘The War Detectives’) have announced the following First World War burials and re-dedications in September and October:
westernfrontassociation.com/news/2026/sept…

Three weeks to go: Milton Keynes branch presents ‘A Great War Cornucopia’ at The Old Bathhouse, Wolverton.
Four talks, displays, living history, and books!
£30 per person incl. lunch. All welcome.
westernfrontassociation.com/news/2026/sept…

Reminder for teachers: the WFA’s 2026 Autumn Competition is open. Students aged 12–14 write, draw or compose in response to the Battle of the Somme – just one lesson and one homework session. Books and certificates for winners. Closes 20 November.
westernfrontassociation.com/about-the-wfa/…

War memorials. Commonwealth graves. Local factories. Streets of missing men. The Malcolm Doolin Award asks school pupils to find the 1914–18 story on their doorstep. Open to primaries and secondaries. Registration closes 31 January 2027.
westernfrontassociation.com/about-the-wfa/…