Category: VAD

  • Cheltenham and the other pandemic – the Spanish ‘Flu

      Many commentators today are likening the Covid-19 pandemic to that of the Spanish flu which hit the world in 1917-1920.  It was named as neutral Spain had no need to censor its newspapers and therefore the  first reports of the ‘flu appeared in Spanish newspapers, particularly  as the Spanish King Alfonso XIII was seriously…

  • Slippers for soldiers

    THE COUNTY COBBLERS and THE BELGRAVIA WORKROOMS No 8 Queen’s Parade, Cheltenham was home to the Gloucester County Association for Voluntary Organisations – a house lent by the Mayor William Nash Skillicorne and his sister Edith.  One of the tasks carried out here was the cutting out and construction of slippers for men at rest…

  • Recognition for WW1 Projection

    Last Friday, Cheltenham Borough Council, along with some key partners, attended the Audio Visual awards in London. The Cheltenham Remembers projection was nominated for public sector project of the year and we were up against some big international names! We were pipped to the post by the European Parliament. It was a fascinating evening and…

  • The Forgotten Female Casualties of WW1

    Over the coming months we will be telling the stories of some of the Cheltenham women who died as a result of their work at Voluntary Aid hospitals during WW1. Nurse Anna Madeline Shaw, known as “Lena “ was born in 1884 in Harbourne, Staffordshire. She is one of Cheltenham’s forgotten female WW1 casualties who…

  • John Chandler : Cheltenham’s Forgotten WW1 Inventor

    The First World War sparked innovation in medicine and technology at a rate unseen in almost any other period of history.  The work of talented metalworker and inventor John Chandler is today largely forgotten but the legacies of his inventions live on. John Edgar Chandler was born in Cheltenham in 1873. A new documentary film…

  • The Story of a Cheltenham Munitions Worker

    This is the story of Ada Shadbolt, a Cheltenham munitions worker during the First World War. Ada’s granddaughter Dawn explains: “Ada (pictured in her munitions uniform) was born in 1887. She was my paternal grandmother and was in service in various places before the war. The only definite detail that I have so far is…

  • WW1 Digital Archive

    Cheltenham Ladies’s College have been digitising many of their WW1 resources which we will be adding to this website. Click on the image to read more about their collection. You can already find many of the documents referred to in the attached guide by visiting our WW1 Library page or by scrolling through the photo…

  • New WW1 Resources

    A fascinating glimpse into life in Cheltenham during the First World War. The gallery below shows a small selection of the material relating to WW1 held at Cheltenham Local & Family History Library (Chester Walk, Cheltenham GL50 3JT). You can also view several wartime programmes and leaflets from their collection by visiting our new WW1…

  • Life in Prestbury during WW1

    Click here  to view the slideshow exhibited at this year’s Prestbury Village WW1 Fete. Learn more about how the village was affected by the war both on the ‘front lines’ and the home front. (Unfortunately we don’t have permission to add the soundtrack and animations to the internet, but there will be another opportunity to…

  • Prestbury Remembers WW1

    Read about some of the men listed on the Prestbury war memorial in this free Memorial Trail eBook by Rebecca Sillence. Prestbury lost more than 40 men during the First World War and many of them lived or worked in the Cheltenham area. This booklet guides you on a loop of the village where you…