Seamstress Hides Secret Message in Kilt in WW1

Hiding secret messages? World War 1?  Sounds like a James Bond Spy Novel - but it isn't quite. Recently a woman found a secret message hidden in the folds of a kit which had been in her family for many years. The kilt had never been worn and was obviously made for a soldier heading off to the front during WW1. 

The message read: "I hope your kilt will fit you well, & in it you will look a swell. If married never mind. If single drop a line. Wish you bags of luck, & a speedy return back to Blighty." Underneath was the name of Helen Govan, of 49 Ardgowan Street in Glasgow. 

Who was Helen Govan? Perhaps she was an unmarried seamstress hoping to hear back from a possible future husband. Perhaps she was simply a kind-hearted woman who wanted to brighten a soldier's day. 

Did Helen stuff a note into every kilt she stitched? Or was this a one-time occurrence meant specifically for a man who had ordered the kilt? There are so many unanswered questions but how wonderful if we knew what happened to Helen in Glasgow. 

Continue reading at Secret message found in WW1 kilt

Credits: Image  thardy1 on flickr,com
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/

Washington State World War I Service Statement Cards, 1917-1919 online

The World War I Service Statement Cards, 1917-1919 (Department of Veterans Affairs), indexed by Washington Historical Records Project volunteers, are available and searchable online at the Washington Digital Archives.

Information contained in the records includes full name, serial number, race, place inducted, place of birth, unit assignments, ranks attained, engagements fought in, wounds received, dates served overseas, date of demobilization, and degree of disability (if any).

Choose Military Records from the drop down "Record Series" Menu. There are other Military Records online too. I searched for MASSEY and got these hits:

* Department of Veterans Affairs, World War I Service Statement Cards, 1917-1919 4
Pierce Military Records - 9 hits

* Snohomish Military Records - 11 hits

* Spokane County WWI Soldiers Miscellaneous Lists - 2 hits

* Washington State Department of Veterans' Affairs, Orting Soldiers' Home, Member Files, 1891-1987 - 4 hits

* Washington State Department of Veterans' Affairs, Veterans' Home - Retsil, Member Files, 1910-1977. - 1 hit

Lost WW1 Photographs

A treasure trove of First World War photographs was discovered recently in France. Published here for the first time, they show British soldiers on their way to the Somme. But who took them? And who were these Tommies marching off to die?

At least 400 glass photographic plates preserving the images were found in the loft of a barn at Warloy-Baillon and cast out as rubbish. In recent months, the plates, some in perfect condition, some badly damaged, have been lovingly assembled and their images printed, scanned and digitally restored by two Frenchmen.

Read the rest of this amazing story in The Independent. Readers are being asked to view the photographs and help identify locations, soldiers, regiments and so on.

You must register with LiveJournal before you can leave a comment, then wait for your email address to be verified. It can be frustrating, as it seems that many usernames are already in use. I had to try 6 times using different usernames before I was able to register.

I left a comment on the photograph called "A Shortage of Overcoats My username is olivetree99 and the comment was given to me by Neil Cameron who asked me to post on his behalf.

Please take a look at these wonderful photographs and give input if you have any information at all.

Canadian War Dead 1914-1918 Vigil

At sunset November 4th through to sunrise November 11th, http://1914-1918.ca/ will present a vigil commemorating the 68,000 Canadians who lost their lives in WWI. The names of the 68,000 war dead will be projected over a week of nights onto the National War Memorial in Ottawa, buildings in other regions of Canada and onto the side of Canada House in Trafalgar Square in London, England.

More than 9,700 names will appear each night. Each individual name will appear only once during the seven nights. These include those killed in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, the Canadian Merchant Navy and the Canadian Army Medical Corps.

On http://1914-1918.ca/ you will see the Ottawa National Vigil streamed live from the National War Memorial. It will run for seven nights, starting at 5:00pm each evening. The first name appears at 5:15pm. Each night’s vigil will be 13 hours long, ending at sunrise the following day. The vigil will then recommence at 5:00pm and run another 13 hours. The last name will appear as dawn breaks on November 11th.

The vigil will commence November 4th 2008. To find the exact night and time when a specific name will appear, use the Search Names tab located at http://1914-1918.ca/ The names appearing in the vigil will have no order or ranking. Each man or woman was equal in death.