Links to interesting related sites

Please advise me if you find any links that are no longer operating, also if you have any suggested links to add to this page.

On-line Essex war memorials

Essex Police Memorial Trust - an on-line memorial to police staff, including reservists, killed whilst on duty, including those who died by enemy action and those called to the colours in both World Wars.

Abberton & Langenhoe - many photographs and detailed personal histories of those from both parishes who died in the two World Wars and who are named on the new joint memorial dedicated in November 2000, plus other war-related pages.

Colchester's Heroes - lists those named on Colchester's main memorial, including World War II civilians, some with personal details, also the memorials at Christchurch (World War I only), Lexden, Mile End and Shrub End (World War I only).

Romford - lists those named on Romford's town centre memorial, including World War II civilians, some of the entries having fuller details. Click on 'Wartime', then 'War Memorial'. This is part of a large site devoted to Romford Now and Then.

Roll of Honour - a site covering the whole country and with an Essex section featuring an ever-growing collection of war memorials, mostly with full transcripts of names and colour photos of the memorial site and the memorial itself.

Essex Villages - a large site devoted to all aspects of Essex villages, each of which has its own page or pages, many of which include a photograph and usually a name list of the parish (and sometimes other) war memorial.

General sites listing war dead

Commonwealth War Graves Commission The CWGC is tasked with maintaining worldwide the war graves and memorials to the missing of British and Commonwealth dead of both World Wars. It also records all those dead, plus the civilian dead of World War II, and the detailed register of those casualties is on the Commission's on-line Debt of Honour register on this site. Search by surname and any other details you may have.

Genealogy / family history sites

Essex Society for Family History This is the Society for anyone with Essex ancestry. It publishes an excellent quarterly journal, holds monthly meetings in several large Essex towns and offers a wide range of printed and fiche publications, plus research services including its own room at the Essex Record Office in Chelmsford.

East of London Family History Society Another first class organisation covering that part of Essex which is now within Greater London, as far east as the London Boroughs of Redbridge and Havering. Similar services and offerings to ESFH above, including an equally excellent quarterly journal.

Haiku and Tanka

British Haiku Society - the oldest extant British haiku group, founded in 1990. There is an excellent quarterly journal, Blithe Spirit, full of haiku, senryu, tanka and haibun written by members, along with related articles and book reviews. There is also a separate newsletter and most years a members' Anthology is published. There are regular meetings around the UK and a number of prestigous annual awards are administered - details of the latter are on the website, along with the previous year's results.

Haiku Presence - another well-established British journal publishing haiku and related verse, haibun, articles and reviews, sometimes other short poems too. Published twice yearly. The website hosts a large collection of poems from previous issues, some grouped by author, others as editor's choice.

Aha Poetry - home of Jane Reichold's haiku and kindred verse publishing empire. A multi-page site with a mass of information and even the text of many books which have become out-of-print. Home too of the annual on-line Tanka Splendor award, including all the selected poems from recent years.

Haiku of Issa - a site run by noted Issa enthusiast David Lanoue and offering more than 3,000 Issa poems in English translation. Sign-up to have a fresh poem e-mailed to you every day.

snapshots - a small press British publisher of haiku and tanka collections noted for the quality both of the verse and the book production.

British postmarks

British Postmark Society - a new (at the start of 2007) site giving details of the BPS and its member services, including its publications for sale. The BPS is a well-run organisation producing an excellent quarterly information and research 'Journal' (until 2007 known as 'the Bulletin') and offering such services as a lending library, circulating packets and regular postal auctions. If the BPS website does not answer all your questions, you can e-mail the Membership Sec for information - John Strachan is at johlen at stracml10 dot freeserve dot co dot uk (as ever, you will need to 'tweak' the foregoing into an acceptable e-mail format).