You can find help on how to download and listen to our podcasts in our quick guide to getting started. My character, John, is born in England and fights with the BEF, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the British West Indies Regiment, composed of black British subjects from the Caribbean. Often fighting alongside African American troops, 170,000 Senegalese troops fought during the war, 30,000 of whom lost their lives. From 1921, Artificial poppies started to be sold as a means of raising money for the Earl Haig Fund which supported ex-servicemen and families of those who did not come home. Payments made using National Book Tokens are processed by National Book Tokens Ltd, and you can read their Terms and Conditions here.

His allegiance was to King George V, to his Mother Country and to British people all over the world. During the First World War, John Archer, a former Mayor of Battersea, became an important leader for Britain’s black community.Via our American contributors we have sets of photographs documenting African American soldiers including the famed 369th Infantry Regiment, otherwise known as the Harlem Hellfighters, so named by the Germans due to their reputation for never losing a man, a trench or foot of ground to the enemy. Detective Sergeant Holby said he had made enquiries at the local recruiting office and they told him they could not enlist because of their colour, but if application was made to the War Office no doubt they could enlist in some regiment of Black men. A century or so after Paul's photograph was taken, it is right and proper that every soldier is remembered; the Black Poppy Rose campaign aims to honour and commemorate the thousands of black men from Britain and beyond who played their part.

The experiences of those on the battlefield are documented, as well as the efforts of other key figures, such as nurses, Red Cross ambulance drivers and musicians who played in wartime concerts.The men were probably based at Seaford, Sussex, where the first battalion of the BWIR was raised in the autumn of 1915. He is a graduate of the London College of Printing and received a MPhil from De Montfort University.