Peter Doyle

Viking war materiel on display in Oslo; they will be moving to a new Viking museum.

The Fram. A star of the heroic Polar age, Fridtjof Nansen’s faithful servant preserved in Oslo

Two days into my holiday in France, and I’ve already added a Tirailleur Sénégalais and a Chasseur à pied to the miniature army… On les Aura!

Machine (it, the computer): ‘Rewrite this paragraph with Copilot’ Human (me, the writer): ‘No [insert expletive]. By the way, it’s Co-pilot’

An old cart shed at the Thames Chase Forest Centre in Essex. Constructed from reclaimed beams, some 500 years old, this building stood through the Great War as its farm supplied food for the Home Front. In 1915, a year of military reverses, a worker daubed the fateful date on the timber. Why?

Thank you apple tree. Planted in the garden of a 1930s inter-war ‘housing boom’ house, you must have experienced war and peace, and gave sustenance to generations. Thank you for being there, and for shading me as I reflect on your life.

Unique freaks!

Honestly, has it really come to this?

Having first seen DEVO decades ago, I saw them again, days ago. And what I’ve learned over this period is that their message is even more relevant today, as it was then.

Princess Mary’s Christmas gift for ‘Every Sailor Afloat, Every Soldier at the Front’ to a sailor of HMS Queen Mary, sunk with almost all hands at Jutland, 110 years ago. This frame could either be a poignant memory of a lost sailor, or survivor’s memory of his once proud vessel.

Interesting insights from David Olusoga at this evening’s lecture in London’s Cadogan Hall

#OTD in 1941, St George's Cathedral in Southwark was bombed. Father Dixon inspecting the damage. #WW2 #HISTORY

I am delighted to be speaking at The WFA Somme 110 Conference on 4 July at the Army & Navy Club! I'll be talking about the Indian cavalry alongside @profpeterdoyle.bsky.social Linda Parker, & Stephen Badsey. Plus our president Spencer Jones will be chairing a panel discussion. Booking is now open!

This story always makes me smile, especially the reference to the fate of the Bismarck… www.stowmarketmercury.co.uk/news/2150960...

Your Britain: Fight For it Now - 1943/2026. Abram Games’ hard-hitting poster depicted modern health care (Finsbury Health Centre, with want and degradation lurking in the rear; a future worth fighting for in 1943- and today

Reminders of the ‘first blitz’

The Salient. The physical remains of a war that still reminds us of how easy it is to slip into conflict, and how difficult it is to escape entrenched positions

@profpeterdoyle.bsky.social kindly spoke at our Annual Conference in 2024. You can catch up with it here....and all of our other conference talks and zoom lectures. youtu.be/gyJol5djRHA?...

HNY!

Merry Christmas to all

theconversation.com/presents-fro... A piece I wrote a few years back on this iconic gift from 1914, a précis of my book on the topic.

greekreporter.com/2025/12/23/c... thought this might need airing…

It’s become a ‘thing’ for me to re-read this classic at this time of year…

Festive frivolity (+ historical commentary)

#HistBookChat trailer #2 for my book. Coming from @barnthorn.bsky.social in the New Year.

I was almost tempted… (as seen in Copenhagen this week)

Now open: call for the Royal Historical Society's First Book and Early Career Article Prizes, 2026. Eligible titles, published in 2025, may be submitted by the author before the closing date of 15 December. Further details and how to apply: bit.ly/3KnR47v #Skystorians

Liverpool Cenotaph two weeks ago today.

Details of Tyson Smith’s bas relief panels from Liverpool Cenotaph. On one side the armed men from Liverpool in angular, tight ranks, stern faced; on the other the drawn faces and stooped figures of the families

The Hill80 report was completed some time ago, but only now officially submitted — which means I can finally share it! It’s in Dutch, but I hope you’ll still enjoy the content. 🔗 Read it here: oar.onroerenderfgoed.be/publicaties/...

Hoylake & West Kirby War Memorial with sculptures by Charles Sergeant Jagger, a frontline soldier wounded in action. The sculptures are dark, intense: a brooding soldier and a mourning figure with a crown of thorns. Away from the busy street, this monument, rich in detail, depicts a deep wound

Port Sunlight War Memorial. Commissioned from sculptor Goscombe John by Lord Lever while the Great War was in progress. It commemorates the employees of Lever Brothers killed in the war; its bronze statues are amongst the most dynamic and detailed to be seen anywhere. Its detail is breathtaking

The Castello, an Italian WW1 machine gun position on Costabella Ridge in the Dolomites.

The best view in WW1? An Austrian machine gun position on Lagazuoi Piccolo in the Dolomites.

A trip to the Post Office, a chance reading of a sentence in Arthur Mee’s volume on Devon sat in the car park, and a returned cross I had no idea existed discovered. #ww1 #memory

Incredible to see this maquette of Gilbert’s design for Troon War Memorial at Hartlebury Castle yesterday. It’s an unusual design, a product of the Bromsgrove Design Guild, who produced both the Liver Birds and the gates to Buckingham Palace