Although it would be another three years before the war was over, Douglas Gillespie had a vision for the future. “I wish that when peace comes, our government might combine with the French government to make one long Avenue between the lines from the Vosges to the sea,” he wrote.

He has a historian’s enthusiasm and sharp eye for spotting good stories, many from the battlefields he is passing by The idea was initially proposed in 1915 by a New College Old Member while serving in WWI. 2nd Lieutenant Alexander Douglas Gillespie of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders wrote a letter home from the front line to tell of his vision of ‘a via sacra’ (a sacred road), a route for peace between the lines; Too young for the orphanage, he was fostered by one Jewish couple after another, until eventually adopted by Marks and Eva Slobodian, Russian émigrés who may or may not have known his parents. So much for “the war to end wars” as, following the title of a 1914 H.G. Wells book, the First World War came to be known. “Peace”, at least at a national level, held in Europe for twenty years after the armistice before forces, unleashed by the war and its aftermath, propelled the world into an even greater conflagration after September 1939. Before 1914, Europe’s great powers had been at peace, mostly, for a hundred years since the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 had brought the last great continental war to an end. Is peace, then, merely the absence of war? Or is it something altogether deeper?’ Seldon 2022, 22-23 These victories brought the German army to its knees and they were forced to sign the Armistice in November.The family eked out a living converting the downstairs room into a haberdashery shop despite the family business suffering from periodic burglaries; but they felt safe at last from mortal danger. Where too was the bounty of peace for the children, the women and the parents, like Douglas and Tom’s family, deprived forever more of those they most loved and needed? A DECADE ago, the historian and former head teacher Sir Anthony Seldon was researching a book on the First World War and its impact on public schools. About one fifth of the public schoolboys who fought in the war died, and it had a devastating impact on the survivors. As a travel writer, Seldon is not particularly effective - he is much more a historian, which means that there is no doubt that the reader gets a strong feel for what both soldiers and civilians along the Front experienced between 1914 and 1918. Early in the book Seldon comments 'I had noticed as a teacher how gripped my students were by the First World War - far more so than they were by the Second.' I can't say this reflects my own experience - when I was at school, the Second World War was far more prominent and engaging as a historical subject - but Seldon's passion for the horrific events of the period comes through strongly and I learned a huge amount. The repeated sets of details of numbers killed, atrocities and more certainly hammer the point home, though over time it can feel a little repetitive. The two truly iconic British actions on the Western Front were, of course, the Somme in 1916, with its 12 bloody battles over four and a half months, and the Ypres salient where four major engagements stretched over four and a half years. Five men of OSP were killed on the first day of the Somme, 1 July 1916; nine more in the following months. Walking the route near Mametz Wood, Seldon observes “it is hard to conceive that the gentle undulating soil saw such horror”. And at the end of this sector, he wrote “it took 20 kilometers to walk the length of the entire battlefield: 30,000 paces, 33 casualties for each pace”.

There’s something about doing things deliberately, and intentionally finding things which are going to be challenging at the end of your life, and taking them on.” Are there other places or contexts where ‘walking for peace’ has been suggested – or could be beneficial?This walk is best described as a journey. By continuing along its path, Seldon provides a rod that keeps this book from falling into a depressing litany of grief, blisters, thirst, dog and insect bites, angry motorists, and loneliness. Through fortitude and a little humour, Seldon keeps the reader upbeat; in one case, including an amusing interaction with a homeless Frenchman. It is encouraging, too, to read of individuals who showed kindness to Seldon on his way. After all, the walk was undertaken during the pandemic. You could forgive people for being wary of a stranger.

He was promoted to commander of the Australian Corps in mid-1918. His meticulously planned operations would see the Australian Corps spearheading the British victories at Amiens, Peronne, and on the Hindenburg Line. A timely, eloquent and convincing reminder that to forget the carnage of the past is to open the door to it happening again.' George Alagiah IT IS very easy to lead “blunt” lives, he believes. “One thing I’ve noticed, writing about Prime Ministers, most people don’t really think through what it is they are doing. Life just happens.” (His books include biographies of Winston Churchill, John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, and David Cameron.) I for one am happy to devote the rest of my life to seeing Gillespie’s magnificent roaring dream become a reality,” he ends the book, before quoting from Matthew 5.9: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.” Anthony Sheldon [00:01:34] I became interested, I think, at a young age at school. But then when I became a school teacher and saw the syllabus and started learning about it, there's nothing better than to learn about anything than to start teaching. So I started teaching it. In my first year I directed Journey's End, the famous J.C. Sheriff brilliant play .. and I I took my cast across. I remember phoning the Imperial War Museum and said, I've never been, and they thought I was very green and they told me where to go including Beaumont Hamel and Sanctuary Wood, Thiepval and La Voiselle. We went to all those and it was huge fun. And that was the first, I think, of 70 trips that I've taken in the 35 years since So I mean, a pretty high level of interest probably.Timely, poignant and passionate. Seldon skillfully weaves the personal with the historical.' Katya Adler Out of an estimated Anglo-Jewish community of around 250,000, about 50,000 Jews enlisted. Many fought with the Jewish Brigade in Mandate Palestine. But others fought and died on the Western Front.