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The Great War
Okay, so let's be honest with ourselves: basically everyone has heard of the First World War - which was, in its day, known as the Great War (or later, simply "the World War"). However, very few people spend much time learning about it. Instead, those with a passing interest in military history tend to focus on the Second World War. The Second World War is more recent, seemingly more relevant, involves more familiar military technologies, includes pretty cut-and-dried good and bad guys, and ends up being fairly uplifting because the good guys won. Right? So, why would anyone bother with studying the First World War?
Honestly? Because the Great War is, in many ways, more immediately relevant and - arguably - more interesting than the Second World War. So, how did I come to this conclusion?
As a high school student, we spent one or two days in high school studying the First World War, and I was aware of my great grandfather's service during the conflict: he was conscripted and began training in mid-1918, and was discharged when the war ended. That was about it.
Then, in late 2012, while studying for my MSc at the University of Aberdeen, my buddy Evan joined me for a few days. We were looking for an activity to fill our last afternoon together, and after getting ourselves cleaned up at the Turkish barber shop, we made our way out to the Gordon Highlanders Museum, which is listed as one of Aberdeen's top attractions. Those listings don't lie: the museum is one of the best museums I've ever visited, and certainly ranks in the top tier of military museums. As the museum was about to close for the evening, we took two surveys with us for me to return another time.
Months later, as I was preparing to move out of student housing, I found the forms, and decided to take them in. For some reason, the docent who was working that afternoon told me that I should meet up with the Curator to discuss volunteering opportunities. This made very little sense to me, as I was preparing to leave Aberdeen, but I made arrangements to do so. We met, and agreed to brainstorm potential opportunities that I could do during my impending sojourn in Orkney. A few days later, as I was preparing to board the ferry to Orkney, I received an E-mail:
Hi Tom,
Hope the move out of Hillhead went ok and here's a thought for a project you could help with - Orcadians who fought in the ranks of the Gordons in the First World War. I don't know if anyone has actually undertaken research on this before. There is a journalist on Shetland who has done a lot of work on Shetlanders during WW1, as they were part of the Gordons recruiting area, so that set of islands is covered. But Orkney? Could be something in this. Plus you'll be in the ideal location for local research and study. What do you reckon, does this sound like something you might be interested in?
Jesper Ericsson
Curator
The Gordon Highlanders Museum
Well, if it was about Orkney, and about the legendary Gordon Highlanders, I decided that the Great War - the centenary of which was around the corner - might be worth researching. As I learned more, I became fascinated with this legendary conflict that had been so fully overshadowed by the ensuing conflict. The Great War offered virtually everything that Second World War history could offer, and even more. So, I got to work resaerching what I could in Orkney, knowing that my time was limited. I worked with a couple of local experts, then continued studying the conflict and compiling data about the Orcadians once I had graduated and moved home.
It's ten years later, and my manuscript continues to languish - full-time employment, marriage, and a Weimaraner will really fill up your day! - but I continue to work on the project as I'm able. In the meantime, my personal manner of study has produced a variety of products that are worth sharing. And with that...
About the Great War Archive
When you work on a project for a decade, even intermittently, leads one to accumulate a variety of resources. That's definitely been the case with regard to my own research into Orcadians who fought as Gordon Highlanders during the Great War. So, what valuable resources do I have to offer to the average Great War researcher?
Tom's Epic Great War Timeline (Pending): During my postgraduate course in Strategic Studies, I wrote an in-class essay on the topic of changes to the strategic landscape between 1815 (the Battle of Waterloo, which ended the Napoleonic Wars) and 1914 (the outbreak of the First World War). I compiled a note sheet of major developments during the century in question, which I later expanded into a massive spreadsheet covering the century preceding the Great War, the Great War itself, and its aftermath. My goal is to provide this resource initially as a .csv database file, and later as a searchable file.
The Great War Bibliography (Pending): I've compiled a bibliography that pertains both to my own manuscript, and to a variety of ancillary topics. In particular, I want to highlight books that are featured in various podcasts, that might not be immediately recognized in other online bibliographies. My goal is to provide this resource initially as a .csv database file, and later as a searchable file.
The Great War Podcast Index (Pending): I've been a podcast aficionado since 2007, and when I began researching the Great War, I immediately dug into the available volume of podcasts. This corpus has grown since 2013, and my goal is to provide it with appropriate categorization based upon topical year (e.g., 1914); topical campaign or theater (e.g., Dardanelles Campaign); and speciality topic (e.g., Indian troops). My goal is to provide this resource initially as a .csv database file, and later as a searchable file.
The Great War Document Library (Pending): During the course of my studies, I've collected a variety of documents about the Great War specifically, or about ancillary aspects of the conflict. These will be included and indexed here.
To search the Great War Archive, click here. Click here to return to the HARDAC index.