A century ago today, the Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, along with his wife Sophie, lighting the fuse that would soon ignite the First World War.
Here is a British project which invites people to send a time-traveling letter to the young WWI soldier whose bronze likeness stands at Paddington Station.
See my post Western Civilization and the First World War, which references and excerpts Sarah Hoyt’s post on that subject.
Some of those letters are…..I think – a bit strange.
I just came back from WV – my sister, cousin and I spent 2 days cleaning out the room of my 96 year old uncle.
Among his things was a 12″ varnished flag pole with ‘Gold Star Mothers” engraved on it.
His uncle was killed a week before armistice and the government took all the Gold Star Mothers to Europe after the war to see the graves of their sons.
A friend of mine, a retired Royal Army Medical Corps doctor, has made a bit of a career as a travel guide for British families who want to visit their loved ones’ graves. The British do not repatriate bodies so there are British military cemeteries all over the world. He now does medical history tours as well. I’ve gone on a couple. He and his wife are conducting a tour I’d like to be on now. Too many obligations this year. He also has dine some battlefield tours in Europe and I would like to go on one of those.
I did a review of a book a couple of months ago, a biography of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Sophie – something that added a little bit of the human touch to the story. They were a particularly devoted couple, it seems – and devoted to their children.
Who turned out to be the first orphans of WWI.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Assassination-Archduke-Sarajevo-Romance/dp/1250000165/ref=cm_cr-mr-title
Here’s a direct link to Sgt Mom’s review:
http://www.amazon.com/review/R15VKGAK19URAJ/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=1250000165
ground report june 28, 2014 sarajevo