Christmas Truce in authors’ book

Sir Andrew Hamilton, of Walton near Wellesbourne, and Warwick Historian Alan Reed, have commemorated the centenary of the iconic and topical Christmas Truce of 1914 through the publication of We Good.. We No Shoot.

The book is an extension of their previous works on the 1st Battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and includes another eight battalions in an in-depth investigation of Christmas in the wider Plugstreet Wood area.

Sir Andrew - whose grandfather Capt Robert Hamilton, an officer in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, helped to instigate the truce - said: “We have collected a wealth of contemporary evidence to create, we hope, a fascinating and vivid picture of what happened over the festive season in 1914.

“We investigate why soldiers were so keen to fraternise ‘without permission’, who allowed them to do so, and how the authorities reacted to such ‘unwarlike’ behaviour.

“Soldiers of all ranks recall, in their own words, the events of the few days when the War stopped and British and German soldiers laid down their arms and met in No Man’s Land.”

The book, which follows on from previous publications Meet at Dawn, Unarmed and Stolen Lives, includes 80 photographs and a little known trench map - dated December 1914 - of the St Yves area.

Sir Andrew will be giving an illustrated talk about the Christmas Truce at Newbold Pacey church on Sunday from 3.30pm.

For tickets call 651558.

Copies of the book will be available at Warwick Books and Kenilworth Books, Waterstones in Leamington and online at www.meetatdawnunarmed.co.uk next week.