Mostly
Militaria

The second in a series of 7. A reminder from the first Blog on Lachhiman Gurung: In August 1995 I was very lucky to be tasked with looking after the 7 remaining living Gurkha recipients of the Victoria Cross while they were in the UK. They were in the UK as part of nationwide celebrations of the 50th anniversary of VJ day (Victory over Japan 15 August 1945). At least for part of their stay they were staying with us in Church Crookham, the home of the UK Gurkha Battalion at

In August 1995 I was extremely fortunate to be given the responsibility of chaperoning the 7 remaining living Gurkha recipients of the Victoria Cross while they were in the UK. They had been brought to the UK as part of nationwide celebrations of the 50th anniversary of VJ day (Victory over Japan 15 August 1945). VE day is, for some reason, more commonly remembered (Victory in Europe 08 May 1945) but lest we forget, the war continued for another 3 or 4 months until its conc

A SHORT GUIDE TO GREAT BRITAIN WAR AND NAVY DEPARTMENTS Washington, D. C. This really made us laugh and found it a fascinating insight in equal measure! A Short Guide to Great Britain was an official orientation booklet issued jointly by the U.S. War Department and Navy Department in 1942. Its purpose was to help American troops understand British customs, behaviours, and wartime conditions so they could integrate smoothly while stationed in the UK. It was part of a broade

A young Graham! We first met Graham tinkering away on his classic cars when we moved into our new house 6 or 7 years ago. Since then he has been an almost daily part of our lives as he sits smack bang in the middle of our standard dog walking route. Over time we got to know Graham better as well as his love of similar things to us, not to mention his rescue horses in the field opposite. The fact that Graham used to be an armourer has been a great source of interest and adv

This is our second guest Blog and our heartfelt thanks go to Si Mahon who writes wonderfully. We're lucky to have a cousin who does so! It is an absolutely fascinating extract in lessons learned about leadership under extreme conditions and all the more so because I think we can all identify some of these, despite the passage of time. It shows that human nature and group dynamics don't really change that much. A brilliant piece by an industrial psychologist with a backgrou

We are always on the lookout for Guest Bloggers and we are absolutely delighted to introduce you to our very first! If you would like to submit something to our Blog then please email it, along with pictures, to enquiries@mostlymilitaria.com . It can be long or short, funny or serious, an anecdote, something you've learned or experienced, what you collect and why; the list is endless. In fact anything at all really so long as it has something vaguely to do with adventure or,

We've just recently returned from a fabulous trip to the Scottish Highlands, going up the West side, doing a loop and then returning down the East side and through Northumberland back home to sunny Sussex. What a fabulous trip it was! Quite apart from the stunning scenery, wonderful people and endless beaches for Casper (the pooch) to run along, it was also teeming with history throughout. We thought we'd share a bit of that with you. James Bond. You can't miss driving th

Genuine coatee from 1970s epic 'Waterloo' - coatee of different era but adjusted to be representative of the time and includes genuine Georgian buttons. Waterloo (1970) Just because its a film prop doesn't mean its not faithful to an original nor that it doesn't contain many genuine attributes. They're also great fun to look at. There are pieces that have been constructed from genuine articles just not necessarily from the exact time period. These are mixed together with re

In memory of Nonno who loved to tell us about these guys. A wonderful man who used to laugh heartily about his comical National Service in Trieste but reserved high adulation for the Bersaglieri. The Bersaglieri - standing for sharpshooters in Italian - are one of Italy’s most distinctive and celebrated military units. They are best known for their unique traditions, wide-brimmed feathered headdress (using feathers of the Western Capercaillie - a type of Grouse) and 'runni

At Mostly Militaria, we take great pride and interest in many different historical cultures, battles and periods of history. To be specific, our favourite history lies between the Napoleonic Wars, with the legendary clashes between the Coalitions, the mighty French Empire, and the Kingdoms of Prussia and Denmark-Norway. Over the past few years, we have been collecting hundreds of items from this era, many of which we are currently unable to show all on this one blog page. Whe

IYKYK..... All those with an interest in collecting Militaria will be familiar with the need to negotiate the perils of acquiring and storing their cherished pieces whilst concurrently maintaining marital harmony. They'll be all too familiar with some refrains like: "When will I get my bloody room back?!" or "I can't stand the smell of mothballs and gun oil!" (weird, how could anyone not!) or "Get rid of it!" or even "I can't get into the garage any more!". This has led to g

Welcome to our first blog, the first we hope of many over the weeks, months and years to come. We’ll try and keep these as regular as possible; they’ll be completely free form and we’ll simply follow our nose and write about what interests us and, hopefully you from time to time. They may cover topics as diverse as historical events, the practicalities of running a website to support our hobby, our motivations or perhaps a write up of a Militaria fair or car boot sale we’v