Dannyboy

In Sydney on conference duty at the moment (and my cockles certainly don't need warming, cos the weather here is _great_), but I will raise a glass to all of your efforts, and especially PP's, come November 11. Well done.

Artist's Rifles - originally Middlesex volunteers, then a battalion of the London Regiment (1908-1937), then a battalion of the Rifle Brigade, then Territorial SAS: details here

I had a look on 'Soldiers Died in the Great War' - the CD database which includes additional details about the British dead of 1914-18 - at the National Archives yesterday. It is searchable by place of birth and of abode. The former returned 293 soldiers who had told enlisting officers that they were born in Dulwich. I didn't have time to do more than a quick scan through about half the records, but most of them still lived close by when they joined up or were conscripted. Almost all of them were infantrymen serving in 'southern' regiments - the London Regiment, the Middlesex, the Royal West Kents, the East and West Surreys. Some had travelled quite a way to enlist - including one man living in Peckham who went to Enfield to enlist in the Middlesex Regiment at the start of the war (presumably he knew someone already in it). Fascinating, and despite the paucity of really detailed information, very moving - only at this level that the reality of mass bereavement starts to become even partially comprehensible. I was a bit rushed for time, but I'll try to get back to it and get a list of names (for birthplace and abode) printed off.

ratty - depends where your Dad's house was in E1, but the Tower Hamlets Local History library on Bancroft Road has a copy of the local 'bomb map' which is very striking. I've got a (much photocopied) version I use for teaching - if you pm me your postal address, I'll send you a copy. It won't tell you when though - I think that is probably a National Archives/London Metropolitan Archives job.

Very glad that you've been able to find some time to keep working on it pp - good effort! 1914-1919 is pretty standard for war memorial dates - not just because of the (very small) forces that went to Russia, but because the actual peace (rather than the 11 November Armistice) wasn't signed until July 1919. I don't doubt that some of those who put up the memorial might have seen service. But if the Dulwich Volunteer Battalion amalgamated with the Surrey Rifles, the likelihood is that it happened (at least officially), well before the First World War. The Surrey Rifle Volunteer Battalions were amalgamated/renamed into the Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surreys) in 1881 - and the battalion list doesn't have a Dulwich unit: http://regiments.org/regiments/uk/inf/002WSurr.htm. Local volunteers might have thought of themselves as a 'proper fighting force' - and they might either have gone together to a local TA battalion pre war, or joined up with the regulars together in 1914. But no official 'Dulwich Volunteer Battalion' (or 'Surrey Rifles' come to that) saw active service in the First World War. The list of wartime battalions and service here - http://www.1914-1918.net/queens.htm - suggests to me that if pre-war volunteers did join up together in the West Surreys they would either have added to the war establishment of the Territorial units formed in Croydon, or joined the Service battalions of the regiment formed in Battersea, Brixton and Lambeth. There's an account of the wartime career of two junior officers from Clapham, one of whom joined the Battersea battalion of the WSR, here: http://www.1914-1918.net/heroes/lane_robson.htm. It might be worth contacting the Surrey regimental association and the county history section. But remember that although theoretically geographically bounded, in fact recruitment was very flexible and confused. Volunteers from SE London might well have joined the London Regiment, the West Kents, the East Surreys or even the Middlesex Regiment - and that's just the infantry. Once conscription was introduced in 1916 (and that's probably the _political_ reason for putting 'Volunteer' on a memorial), local affiliations were further reduced. Other than reasons of historical precision, I'm not sure that whether it was a 'fighting force' or not matters. We've got to remember both the variety of military service and the total nature of the First World War. Plenty of those who were in uniform never saw action, or did so only at a distance. Many of those on the Home Front rendered service that was as valuable even though they never bore arms (arguably, in that sort of conflict, the work of accountants and logisticians behind the lines is as important for deciding victory as anything else). The politics of local war memorials are interesting, however, and worthy of further investigation and research. Macroban - I take it this is an archival listing? Where is it from?

The only reason I can see for playing 'I've had the time of my life' at your funeral is if you're going to get a Patrick Swayze-alike to do that lift with the coffin and carry it out to the applause of the mourners. I can't quite see this working for my corpse, though, unless I die from a really bad wasting disease or the lifter is more Capes than Swayze. What about the mighty ?

Disco Inferno already lined up for my cremation. Burn baby burn! More seriously - have to be a choice between Ike Quebec playing Blue and Sentimental - probably a bit long, bit cheesy by title, but a good tune to sob to - and the Cowboy Junkies' Lost my Driving Wheel - should have all my loved ones bawling their eyes out. Just need to start saving up to make sure I can cryogenically freeze them, then thaw them out to play it live.

Ultraconsultancy - surely these words have different derivations? I'm no linguist, but north of the tay and east of the spey doesn't seem likely to me to have the same Anglo-Saxon roots as quente. Incidentally, you can buy a great Chaucer T-shirt with 'How quente' on it, though I don't know anyone with the courage to wear it. Lounge, anyone?

*crawls through door, shoulders tight round ears, muttering to himself* Why is that the people who live above me put their small child in clogs on the days I work from home? And why is it that the only time when the little darling is not running up and down the length of the flat, they turn on their stereo with the bass up? I mean, it must be asleep, right? Only, how is it sleeping with that noise? I DON'T UNDERSTAND. *Tatiana, with knowing look, sets up a pint of best and a double gin* *necks both* Same again luv.

From experience, I'd say that once your car is identified as being 'breakable in to' it will keep happening. My poor Citroen AX (obviously empty and worth zilch) survived 4 years in Bow without a scratch. Within a month of moving to the top end of LL, I had the door levered open twice. Once was for the tax disc, the second time seemed to be just for sh*ts and giggles. The third time, the sods put a brick through the window and tried and failed to hot-wire it. I was standing looking at it in despair when a cop showed up... only to ask me if I could provide full ID to prove it was mine. I was tempted to ask why anybody other than the owner would be standing in the rain in a suit, trying to get a 17 year old car with the driver's seat full of glass to work. Sigh. Ended up scrapping it. An alarm might work, but if the car's become a learning device for the little scrotes, you need to find somewhere dramatically different to park it.

I've been trying to persuade work that I really _need_ a deactivated SMLE, gas mask and tin helmet to use as learning aids in my Great War seminar. When I win that argument, I'll go in.

Yeah, saw it on the way down Oxford St (in the other direction) on the 176. Nice looking ladies, and obviously extremely grateful for the sunshine. Caused tourist in front of me to use up half his memory card in digital photographs and have a barney with his unamused wife. Some sort of interweb thingy, is it?

Aha, Dulwich Mumski! Just as well there isn't a Rose of Volgograd competition: I'm sure you'd walk it :) Actually, I was thinking of a Dulwich entrant for the male escort section. I'm not sure if it would be fair to the other female contestants to allow any of the gorgeous women of Dulwich to enter the Rose competition itself.

Definitely not London. Personally I'd go for Limerick Rose, but bearing in mind past winners, Florida Rose should probably shade it. More importantly, it looks like they're still picking male Escorts to accompany the Rose (surely they could have found a better word?). Obviously we need to arrange a Dulwich entrant. Anyone feel suitably qualified?

'Judges consider many different attributes of the Rose including, in the words of William Mulchinock?s song The Rose of Tralee, an indefinable quality that captures ?the truth in her eyes?. The Rose of Tralee International Festival celebrates modern young women in terms of their aspirations, ambitions, intellect, social responsibility and Irish heritage.' I don't know what truth is in 1985's eyes, but it's a dark, disturbing one.

Would that be Lionel Blair, former competitor on 'Give Us a Clue', who once got himself into trouble as he tried to pull off Twelve Angry Men in two minutes? (No apologies for blatant Radio 4 gameshow plagiarism, but still not as good as Mockney's gag).

Cheers all. Going on a trip to have a look at some/all of them tomorrow. Assuming that I don't just pick the last one I end up in 'becosh it jusht feelsh really schpechial', I will report back.

I've just realised that my 30th birthday is sneaking up on me without me paying much attention to it. So I find myself in need of organising a birthday party in about two and a half weeks' time, having done nothing to arrange it so far beyond asking a few mates to save the date. It is possible that I am in denial. I'm fairly new to ED, and a busy couple of months at work have meant that I don't really have a sense of the afternoon/night life or the drinking dens. I'd thought about either hiring a room/booking some space in a pub, preferably with some outdoors options on the off chance it's a nice day, and spending Saturday afternoon into evening getting gently boozed up with about 15-20 friends. Decent beer would be an advantage. Food might be a nice idea. Lots will be coming from north of the river or further afield, so ease of location would be good. What would forumites recommend? Anybody in particular I should speak to? PS: I should point out it's a varied mix of friends, some older (maybe a couple of kids in tow early doors), some younger. Crucially, however, the only one who I suspect owns a pair of crocs and has 'ironic' glasses is out of town that weekend. PPS: Yes, I know this could turn into a general invite to a forum to which I've only made a couple of contributions, which would be a bit weird. But if you make a decent suggestion and I end up there, I'll definitely buy you a drink.

True, but these will be lists of former pupils rather than a reflection of the communal effort.

Perkster Perhaps I wasn't clear enough - I don't think you will find a list of the dead, because the ones from this battalion wouldn't have gone off to war, although they would have known plenty of others who did. Again, think of it like the Home Guard in WW2 - this was probably a unit made up of old men/reserved occupations/the medically unfit, serving on a part time basis. Similar with the colours - I guess the battalion might have been affiliated to a regular regiment, but there was no formal connection so far as I can see. Someone from the local history society might be able to offer more info I would hope (and I am making a lot of educated guesses here). I still think that they should be remembered - voluntary effort was absolutely crucial to Britain's First World War, and its impact on the Home Front (other than supposedly revolutionising women's lives) is too often forgotten. I realise that it would be nice to have some details to accompany any restoration (and also probably important in reparative, citizenship terms?). There might well be a Roll of Honour (ie a list of those who served) or a Roll of Sacrifice (those who died) in the church itself: these were often kept by parishes. If there isn't, there might still be a way to get some names. After 1918, the War Office compiled a list of 'Soldiers Died in the Great War' which lists the dead by birthplace and place of enlistment. It's been put onto CD rom, and is therefore now easy to search - but it's costly. Fortunately, I see that the Department of Printed Books at the Imperial War Museum has a copy. I'll be in there next week, so I could try coming up with a list of dead soldiers from Dulwich for you (although it might be pretty substantial). But I'm presuming that these wouldn't be added to the memorial: it was put up the way it is for a reason. Sorry for the long post - I'm consciously not trying to write a volume on memorialisation here!

The YOT stuff does indeed sound like a plan, and if I can do anything to help, let me know. I've been a bit busy with work, so this is a bit conjectural, but so far as I can work out, the Dulwich Volunteer Battalion who set this up would have been one of the Home Guard style units raised for Home Defence and guard duties during the First World War. The Dulwich Society newsletter refers to them as 'ill fated', but I can't quite work out why, since such units didn't see active service. Perhaps something to do with organisation? There was no battalion of the London Regiment with a specific Dulwich allegiance (as there was for, say Camberwell, or Islington) and those who joined up for active service from Dulwich probably either went into the East Surrey or the Royal West Kent Regiment. The people behind the memorial might help to explain both the phrasing of the inscription and its form: I suspect that it was put up by those who stayed at home, mainly to mark their gratitude to those who served and died overseas, but also, of course, to demonstrate that they were part of the same body of 'veterans'. There isn't really a good book on the home defence volunteers as a whole, but I'll keep doing the odd bit of digging and I'd be very interested to hear from anyone who is a Dulwich (as opposed to a WWI) expert. D

This kind of relates to my day job, so I ought to know a bit more about the memorial than I do. I'm posting up a query about it on The Great War Forum to see if anyone there knows more about this specific memorial or the Dulwich Volunteer Battalion in particular - it's unclear to me whether they would have been a unit set up for home service and to which Regiment they would have been affiliated. If I can find some time, I might have a chat to the library as well and see if they've got anything. The memorial is on the UK National Inventory of War Memorials, but there's not much information - so anyone who can find out some more should email them to add it on.

Been implementing this smiling and saying hello thing for a couple of days and it does seem to work better when the sun's out. Think it's a cracking idea - used to work on an army site where it seemed practically obligatory and it improves the day. But isn't it horrible when you get ignored - or worse, rejected? Greeted one of my upstairs neigbours with a (really probably too loud) 'Evening' last night and he looked at me like I had taken too little medication. But I shall persist.

I have a weakness for the crunchier Crawfords Fig Roll. But what you really want is a really, really big biscuit - like these.

We could of course argue that a roundabout is a potent symbol of politics under Tony Blair, in that however strong the desire to turn left, it is necessary to give way to the right. Sorry. I'll get me coat.