The last meeting of the Society on the 11th April was a talk by Harold Heys on the War Poets.

Throughout the reign of Queen Victoria, Britain were the tops in industry and in exploration. During these years most of the world maps had large areas coloured pink showing the extent of the British Empire. The Army uniforms of the period were mainly red, but due to the battles with the Mahdi in the Sudan and the Boer War they had changed to khaki by the time of the First World War.

During this conflict there were numerous poets, Rupert Brooke, Laurence Binyon, Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen and Eleanor Farjeon among them. For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon contains the famous lines, They shall grow not old, as we who are left grow old, age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them. Which are delivered at Remembrance Services. Sassoon used his poems to have a dig at the establishment. He met Owen in Edinburgh while both were recovering from wounds. Eleanor Farjeon wrote her poems after a friend had left for the front The Branch has a considerable library of BMD’s for Bury and the surrounding areas as well as a full holding of the microfiche published by the LFH&HS.

The next meeting on the 9th May, will be a talk, DNA for the Family Historian by Rodney Brackstone.

Meetings are held in the Blackburne Hall, Church House, The Wylde, behind Bury Parish Church, at 7.30pm. Visitors are welcome.