Tag Archives: War

Ian Thornton On The John Thornton Young Achievers Foundation

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johnthortonThe John Thornton Young Achievers Foundation (JTYAF) supports young people in a wide range of youth organisations and provides them with scholarships to support their personal development and the pursuit of their ambitions. It was established following the death of my younger brother, John, on active service in Afghanistan in 2008. John, a Royal Marines officer, achieved an incredible amount in his short life and so the provision of opportunities for young people to live their dreams, like he was able to do, seemed the perfect way to honour such an inspirational person. Since its formation we have made awards totaling nearly £250,000 to over 550 young people. A legacy that John would be both amazed by and proud of.

There are a wide variety of ways in which people can help or contribute. We have an amazing network of volunteers, without whose help our numerous fundraising events wouldn’t get off the ground. The amount of people who have also helped through organising sponsored events is also overwhelming; from tea parties in local care homes to successfully summiting Mount Everest, our supporters have completely blown us away with their imagination, commitment and passion for this cause. People can also simply donate via our website www.jtyaf.org, or can follow links to fundraising webpages set up by those who are supporting us. Every penny truly helps and, with no premises to fund or paid staff to take into account, very nearly all of every pound donated goes directly towards the young people that we provide opportunities for.

The JTYAF certainly does keep the spirit of John alive. By the age of 22 he had climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, flown with the Red Arrows, qualified as a free-fall skydiver, travelled across New Zealand, learnt musical instruments and played a wide variety of sports, and had worked in both Iraq and Afghanistan as a Royal Marines officer. He achieved more in such a short space of time than many do by the time they reach old age, and being able to help others realise their ambitions and conquer their own personal challenges is so fitting. The sheer scale of the support we receive really is testament to the uniquely inspirational person that John was more than anything else.

Putting together “Helmand” was hard in that it revisited a truly traumatic moment in my life in it’s references to my brother’s death. That said, it was also a therapeutic experience as it gave me the opportunity to look in detail at how he spent the final weeks and months of his life, and to learn about how his experiences fitted in with those of the Officers and Marines that he was deployed alongside. Including my own diary of my time in Afghanistan, some 4.5 years later, was something I was not initially comfortable with as I only ever wrote for my own benefit and to keep a record of everything that my Platoon and I went through together. It was never meant for anyone else’s eyes. However, in hindsight, to have the opportunity to hopefully do justice to the experiences of the soldiers I fought alongside is both rare and an honour, and at the same time I think the ability to contrast my tour with that of John gives the reader a true sense of the incredible progress that was made by the British Armed Forces in Afghanistan in those few short years.

I would like to write another book at some point in the future, but think that it may have to wait until my career in the Army has ended…I doubt I’d have the time to do so until then!

It’s difficult to say whether or not military personnel get the treatment they deserve on returning to civilian life as I am yet to make that jump. I certainly hope that they do. I think that the public perception of the Armed Forces is the most positive it has been for a long time, due largely to a respect for our sacrifices in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I hope that this manifests itself in the upholding of the military covenant for those who make the big decision to return to civilian life.

When I deployed to Afghanistan I felt so many emotions. In the time leading up to deployment excitement gradually gave way to apprehension about the unknown and ultimately a sense of fear prior to stepping out of the gate on patrol that first time. That fear however was not of personally dying or being injured as, ultimately, your training gets you so used to the idea of both that you kind of expect it to happen. The fear that I felt was of letting those around me down, and of what it would do to my family if the worst would have happened again. Letting people down is something on the mind of, I believe, everyone experiencing combat for the first time. Until you have been shot at for the first time you have literally no idea about how you will react. For me personally, the fear of putting my family through another loss so soon after we lost John was something that was on my mind constantly. I know that both of my parents struggled with me being away and spent the entire 6 months hoping and praying that lighting wouldn’t strike twice. To me though they were so supportive – despite their fears they knew that it was the only thing I wanted to do and as my Mum said, “as a parent all you want is for your children to be happy”. Before I deployed I remember saying: “Mum, this is my World Cup”. I wanted to make sure that if the worst did happen, she would know that my time came when I was doing something that I loved.

The best advice I have ever been given came from John, which was simply: “Don’t worry, everything will turn out for the best – because it always does”. I think that’s a good outlook to have on life.

Steaming To Victory: How Britain’s Railway Won The War Michael Williams Book Review

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steamingtovictorybookreview My grandfather was a railway man for years. It left him with a lifelong love of the railway. He was also in the RAF during World War II, which veers off topic from this book, although the obvious love and respect Michael Williams has for the railwaymen and women who won the war for Britain is obvious on every page.

This books is riveting and well researched. It is a compelling book that is easy to read, full of information and yet also manages to give a brilliant overall of the war and it’s lasting effect on the people who lived through it. Another thing I learned from this book is that in 1936 a train raced from London to Glasgow in less than six hours, seventy-eight years later, it takes just under five and costs an extortionate amount of money. This book harked back to an amazing period for trains and the railway, it is sadly a long-forgotten period for the British railway industry, let’s hope it can become great again.

In the seven decades since the darkest moments of the Second World War it seems every tenebrous corner of the conflict has been laid bare, prodded and examined from every perspective of military and social history.

But there is a story that has hitherto been largely overlooked. It is a tale of quiet heroism, a story of ordinary people who fought, with enormous self-sacrifice, not with tanks and guns, but with elbow grease and determination. It is the story of the British railways and, above all, the extraordinary men and women who kept them running from 1939 to 1945.

Churchill himself certainly did not underestimate their importance to the wartime story when, in 1943, he praised ‘the unwavering courage and constant resourcefulness of railwaymen of all ranks in contributing so largely towards the final victory.’

And what a story it is.

The railway system during the Second World War was the lifeline of the nation, replacing vulnerable road transport and merchant shipping. The railways mobilised troops, transported munitions, evacuated children from cities and kept vital food supplies moving where other forms of transport failed. Railwaymen and women performed outstanding acts of heroism. Nearly 400 workers were killed at their posts and another 2,400 injured in the line of duty. Another 3,500 railwaymen and women died in action. The trains themselves played just as vital a role. The famous Flying Scotsman train delivered its passengers to safety after being pounded by German bombers and strafed with gunfire from the air. There were astonishing feats of engineering restoring tracks within hours and bridges and viaducts within days. Trains transported millions to and from work each day and sheltered them on underground platforms at night, a refuge from the bombs above. Without the railways, there would have been no Dunkirk evacuation and no D-Day.

Michael Williams, author of the celebrated book On the Slow Train, has written an important and timely book using original research and over a hundred new personal interviews.

This is their story.

Steaming to Victory: How Britain’s Railways Won the War is available here.

First World War For Dummies Book Review

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firstworldwarfordummiesbookreview The First World War has been an endless source of fascination for decades now. The inhumanity, the loss of life. To a lot of people war seems unfathomable, it is not really something that has happened to my generation.

 

This book is brilliant. Well-researched and full of anything you would want to know about World War 1. Dr Seán Lang certainly knows his stuff, and we will have an interview with him soon.

 

The books gives an amazing overall education on the complex causes that led to war, the key battles, the Generals and how the war changed the world, along with the lasting effect. This book has everything you could ever want to know about World War 1. I learned a substantial amount and the book also pieces everything together beautifully, leaving you with an overview of the whole war and the key players. Even though this book has a ton of information and some harrowing history, it is always easy-to-read and the format makes retaining the information easy. Good for learning.

 

I also loved the Part of Tens section, with its list of wartime writers and poets, along with a list of films about World War 1. Over 380 pages of well researched and enjoyable to read, if sometimes sad, history. A must for history buffs.

 

First World War For Dummies is available here.

 

 

Green Beret Gives Gwyneth Paltrow Some Stern Words After She Compares Mean Tweets To War

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Gwyneth PaltrowGwyneth Paltrow got a lot of criticism for saying that reading mean tweets about herself was like ‘war’, but the best response comes from Green Beret and Purple Heart recipient Bryan Sikes on Clash Daily. Read on and tell us what you think.

This is what Paltrow said: “You come across (online comments) about yourself and about your friends, and it’s a very dehumanizing thing, It’s almost like how, in war, you go through this bloody, dehumanizing thing … My hope is, as we get out of it, we’ll reach the next level of conscience.”

To Miss Paltrow,

I’d first like to start out by saying how terrible I feel for you and all your friends that on a daily basis have to endure mean words written by people you don’t know. I can only imagine the difficulty of waking up in a 12,000 square foot Hollywood home and having your assistant retrieve your iPhone, only to see that the battery is low and someone on twitter (the social media concept that you and all of your friends contribute to on an hourly basis to feed your ego and narcissistic ways), has written a mean word or 2 about you. You’ve hit the nail on the head, war is exactly like that. You should receive a medal for the burden you have carried on your shoulders due to these meanies on social media.

You said, “Its almost like, how in war, you go through this bloody dehumanizing thing and then something is defined out of it.” I could see how you, and others like you in “the biz”, could be so insecure and mentally weak that you could pair the difficulty of your life on twitter to my brothers who have had their limbs ripped off and seen their friends shot, blown up, burned and disfigured, or wake up every morning in pain – while just starting the day is a challenge. How about our wives? The ones that sign on to be there for us through thick and thin, that help us to shake the hardships of war upon our return? And do all this while being mothers to our kids, keeping bills in order because we are always gone, and keeping our lives glued together. They do all this, by the way, without a team of accountants, nanny’s, personal assistants, and life coaches. Yeah, reading a mean tweet is just like all that.

You know what is really “dehumanizing”, Miss Paltrow? The fact that you’d even consider that your life as an “A-list” celebrity reading internet comments could even compare to war and what is endured on the battlefield. You and the other “A-listers” that think like you are laughable. You all have actually convinced yourselves that you in some way face difficulty on a regular basis. Let me be the first to burst your bubble: a long line at Starbucks, your driver being 3 minutes late, a scuff mark on your $1200 shoes and a mean tweet do not constitute difficulty in the eyes of a soldier.

Understand me when I say this: war does not define me. It is a chapter in my life that helped shaped me. Being a husband and father is what defines me. Remember, sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never…be close to what war is.

 

Cindy McCain, wife of decorated war veteran, Senator John McCain also tweeted:

 

A Fort of Nine Towers By Qais Akbar Omar Book Review

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I have to be honest. I have put off writing this review. Which may seem weird considering the fact that A Fort of Nine Towers is one of the most important books I have ever read. Many books change you, give you enjoyment, make you think, even change your outlook: A Fort of Nine Towers does most of these, but it also touches your soul, your heart and then breaks them a little. As a Western woman, with all of the privilege that entails, reading this book is an eye-opener and a game changer.

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I read papers, I watch the news, I watch documentaries and read books. I stay involved in politics and world events, but this tale of a young boy growing up in Afghanistan should be required reading for every one in the Western world (and beyond).

How much the human spirit can endure is both interesting and fascinating. The same with the human body. Qasis Akbar was only eleven when a brutal civil war broke out in Kabul. For Qais, it brought an abrupt end to a childhood filled with kites and cousins in his grandfather’s garden: one of the most convulsive decades in Afghan history had begun. Ahead lay the rise of the Taliban, and, in 2001, the arrival of international forces.

Called ‘poetic, powerful and unforgettable’ by The Kite Runner author Khaled Hosseini, A Fort of Nine Towers is the story of Qais, his family and their determination to survive these upheavals as they were buffeted from one part of Afghanistan to the next. Drawing strength from each other, and their culture and faith, they sought refuge for a time in the Buddha caves of Bamyan, and later with a caravan of Kuchi nomads. When they eventually returned to Kabul, it became clear that their trials were just beginning.

A lot of this book is horrifying, the inhumanity from one human to another, but there is also hope. Qais apologises to the reader for the stories he tells, knowing they will never leave your mind: stories of pits full of skulls, women being gang-raped, a man called ‘Dog’ who tortures and kills people by biting them. Something that happens to Qais and his father, but only after they have seen a row of dead naked people, some tourists, all in a row, horror as their death masks.

This book is also important as a way to dispel propaganda. Rather fascinatingly Qais writes about hearing talk of a rich Arab named Bin Laden (Yes, that one), who lived near Qais in a big house which used to be owned by someone called the Pimp of The King. The place was always covered by Taliban and they would drive black Land Cruisers and have big meetings there. So Osama Bin Laden was in Afghanistan. I am not saying this has made me pro-war, I believe lies were told, but this piece of information, and the stories of the Taliban; what they did, their brutality, what happened to women…Westerners don’t just have a duty to other Westerners and certainly not just to other white people. We can not just turn a blind eye. When I read the book and got to the end, I see how the invasion of Iraq also benefited Afghanistan. I am more educated but I want to learn even more, talk to more Afghans. The book even prints out the rules for women and information the Taliban distributed after it took over Kabul. These include toppling walls on homosexuals (if they live it means they weren’t homosexuals) and women should not step outside of their residence…she belongs to only one man (Husband) or soon she will be property of a man (Husband). And the ironically illiterate: women do not have as much brains as men, therefore they cannot think wisely as man. These ended with ‘Sincerely! The Taliban rules’. Like some illiterate teenager would graffiti on a wall.

I learned a lot reading this book. Some I already knew but it was reinforced: the Taliban are evil. Horrible peasants who use religion as an excuse to murder and torture and rule, the horror of organised religion and the damage it can cause, how privileged anyone is to be born in Britain or the US, how they have no excuse whatsoever not to make something of their lives, when there are people like Qais, who survived a brutal war, who saw the people he loved killed, who saw such horrifying things at such a young age. But more importantly I was more educated after reading this book, more compassionate. I was sadder, emotional but with a fire in my belly: knowing that every human being must do their best, and what happened in Afghanistan should never be forgotten. God knows what will happen when US troops pull out soon. I only hope the Taliban do not return, but I fear that they will. It is too awful a thought to even contemplate and God help Afghanistan if they do.

You can buy A Fort of Nine Towers here. I highly recommend that you do.

What do you think?

Women and Industry in the First World War At IWM North

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New Photographic Display Outside IWM North
Launching the 2014 First World War Centenary programme at IWM North
From 18 January 2014 – Free Entry; Donations Welcome

Exploring how the First World War changed the society we live in today, a new external photographic display at IWM North, part of Imperial War Museums, in Manchester, reveals images of women working in industry during the conflict.

 

As IWM builds towards a major programme of events and displays commemorating the First World War Centenary, six images by official First World War photographer G P Lewis are being unveiled in huge, 5 metre high frames, outside IWM North, on the Quays in Manchester.

George Parham Lewis, an official photographer of the home front, specialised in documenting heavy industry and photographed women workers in the glass, vehicle and food industries.

The images in the free IWM North display document women’s vital contribution to the war effort in factories across the North West of England almost 100 years ago.

 

Taken from IWM’s renowned Photographic Archive, the images were jointly commissioned by IWM and the Ministry of Information, demonstrating the wide range of roles performed by women during the First World War.

Visitors are invited to contact IWM North on Twitter @I_W_M #IWMNorth or Facebook.com/iwm.north if they recognise family members in any of GP Lewis’ photographs on display.

Graham Boxer, Director of IWM North, said: ‘The First World War was a major turning point that shaped the world we live in today, including the roles of women in society. These six powerful images depict women at work during an extraordinary time. It is a fitting start towards a major programme of exhibitions, displays and events marking the First World War Centenary at IWM North.  Later this year we will open the largest exhibition ever created exploring the role of the North West of England during the First World War.’

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The Women and Industry display opens on 18 January, while IWM North’s major exhibition marking the centenary, From Street To Trench: A War that Shaped a Region, will open on 5 April. For more information, visit www.iwm.org.uk

GP Lewis’ photographs depict the following scenes of woman and industry in the North West during the First World War:

  • Women workers in an Oil and Cake factory having tea, Lancashire, 1918. Oil cakes were used to feed cattle
  • Female worker in Charles Macintosh and Sons’ Ltd rubber factory, Manchester, 1918
  • Female glass worker carrying a tube of rolled glass at Pilkington Glass Ltd., St Helen’s, 1918. The company still exists today
  • Women workers stacking oil cakes at an Oil and Cake factory, Lancashire, 1918
  • Women working in an asbestos factory, Lancashire, 1918. Asbestos, now recognised as a dangerous material, was used in many different ways such as in buildings and enginesWomen workers operating a grain elevator at the mills of Messrs. Rank & Sons in Birkenhead, 1918

Why war still inspires art – Major IWM exhibition | Events

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Catalyst: Contemporary Art and War
Major New Exhibition
12 October 2013 – 23 February 2014, IWM North Special Exhibitions Gallery
Free Entry, Donations Welcome

Imperial War Museums

IWM holds an unrivalled collection of twentieth and twenty-first century British art. Now, IWM North, part of Imperial War Museums, in Manchester is presenting the first major exhibition of IWM’s collection of contemporary art produced since the First Gulf War – placing more than 20 years of work by over 40 artists in this national collection on public display together for the first time.

The exhibition includes Steve McQueen’s Queen and Country, an installation of facsimile stamp sheets bearing photographic portraits of British service personnel killed in Iraq, and Photo Op, kennardphillipps’ very different comment on the war in Iraq, showing Tony Blair taking a ‘selfie’ in front of an explosion. This large-scale, free exhibition features responses to conflict since the First Gulf War by some of the most significant artists exploring war and conflict today – such as Langlands and Bell, Miroslaw Balka, Willie Doherty, Paul Seawright, Ori Gersht, Jananne Al Ani and Edmund Clark.

Catalyst : Contemporary Art and War reveals how war has been crucial subject matter for contemporary artists in the last two decades. Visitors will explore the rich, varied and moving artistic response to conflict in a media age. Hear from the artists themselves and discover what motivates people to create art about conflict. Explore the ways in which art can prompt us to think more deeply about current events, their immediate impact and their long-term implications.

Through more than 70 works, the exhibition will show the broad range of approaches artists use to explore this vast and complex subject. The exhibition showcases installations, photography, film, sculpture, oil paintings, prints and book works; varying from the highly moving to the humorous, philosophical or outraged.

In recent years the media has become an acknowledged weapon of battle. At a time when our understanding of war is increasingly shaped by the media and the internet, discover how art can prompt us to consider the way the media not only influences our current perceptions of conflict, but how it shapes the way history is written. Rasheed Araeen’s White Stallion explores the role of the media by questioning the nature of propaganda during the First Gulf War, while Paul Seawright seeks an alternative way of photographing war through his images of empty, but lethal minefields in Afghanistan.

Artists are often driven by their own experiences, political views or a desire to protest. Taysir Batniji’s series of estate agent details for destroyed homes in Gaza is a tongue-in-cheek comment on the situation in Palestine. Some artists aim to counter common opinions, while others explore the legacy of their own family history, or the long-term impact of conflict. Willie Doherty’s photograph Unapproved Road, showing a rural makeshift roadblock, suggests a violent past event and reminds us of the significance of land and territory in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.

Langlands and Bell’s interactive installation, The House of Osama bin Laden, where visitors perform an inconclusive search for bin Laden, or Edmund Clark’s photographs of Guantanamo, both reflect on points in time where the traditional boundaries and ethics of conflict are called into question.

Accompanying the work on display there will be a series of new interviews, specially commissioned by IWM, with artists whose work is on display, including Langlands and Bell, kennardphillipps and Paul Seawright.

Catalyst: Contemporary Art and War presents a unique opportunity to view new and recent acquisitions to IWM’s Collections, including works by Taysir Batniji, and Edmund Clark, films by Kerry Tribe and Ori Gersht, and a print series by Miroslaw Balka. The exhibition presents some of IWM’s official commissions: Queen and Country, Steve McQueen’s response to the war in Iraq; Paul Seawright’s photographs of Afghanistan and Langland and Bell’s unnerving interactive installation: The House of Osama Bin Laden.

IWM North itself – designed by world renowned architect Daniel Libeskind to represent a globe shattered by conflict – is a contemporary response to war. A major season of events will accompany the exhibition.

Coinciding with this major exhibition at IWM North, IWM London are hosting IWM Contemporary in autumn 2013 – a new programme of free contemporary art and photography exhibitions and public events.

Connect with IWM North and share your thoughts on Twitter via @I_W_M #SeeArtHere or on Facebook at Facebook.com/iwm.north

Catalyst: Contemporary Art and War is supported by The Little Green Paint Company.

Graham Boxer, IWM North Director, said: ‘IWM North is a venue for challenging exhibitions; a place for visitors to discuss big questions relating to war and conflict and our lives today. Catalyst: Contemporary Art and War contains some of the most important artworks on this theme of the past 25 years – on display together for the first time – and explores why war has inspired such creativity.’

 

This Is Where I Am by Karen Campbell | Book Review

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ThisiswhereIambookreviewI seem to be on a bit of a winning streak when it comes to reviewing books. The last three have all been fantastic pieces of literature. This Is Where I Am is a stunning book. Definitely in my Top 10 of all time now. This story about a Somalian refugee and his daughter fleeing war and immigrating to Glasgow, and their mentor who helps them integrate into society is a book of life, reality, grief, death and hope. This makes it sound like a sad book, in many ways it is, but, like life itself, it is intertwined with happiness and the beauty of life itself, of human connection.

This book by Scottish writer Karen Campbell also made me rather homesick. Although I grew up in the Scottish Borders and have now lived in London for over seven years, it made me miss Glasgow as I lived there for a good few years. The book is also written partly in Glaswegian. You don’t have need a dictionary to read it and I quite like the poetry of it. It adds to the atmosphere of the book. Each Section is a different month and tourist place in Glasgow, with a little bit of historical facts at the beginning. To get you started on some Glaswegian here is a quick guide:

 

Heid – Head
Flair – Floor
Greet – Cry
Messages – Food shopping
Wee – Little
Juice – Cold drinks, not tea
Canny – can’t
Bahookie – Bottom
Tae – to

The brilliance of the book is that you see Glasgow fresh through the eyes of Abdi, the refugee, and Deborah, the Scottish woman mourning her dead husband who mentors Abdi.

The story is brilliant and the difference between white British Middle Class life and that of refugees in Somalia gives an accurate glimpse of the unfairness of life. How circumstance is all the difference between a good life and a terrible one. On the day I finished reading this book there were stories in the papers of displaced women in Somalia, proving that the travesties of war have long-term consequences.

This book is 467 pages long. It is so good I read it in a few days. This Is Where I Am can take its place as a great Scottish book, but also as a great story about human rights. A must read.

This Is Where I Am