Jordan-Maynard.org

Now available as a book - buy it here

The Gallipoli material recently featured on this site is now published in book form, as part of a longer 88-page account of the 29th Division. You can order it here using PayPal, Credit or Debit Card. Here's the blurb:

The Memorial to the "Immortal" 29th Division commemorates the time which the Division spent in Warwickshire and north Oxfordshire in early 1915, as well as its "incomparable services" in the Great War.

The monument is sited near the village of Stretton on Dunsmore in Warwickshire, at the junction of the Fosse Way and the London Road - the point at which King George V inspected the Division on March 12th, 1915.

To mark the 90th anniversary of the inspection, Chris Holland and Tony Jordan describe the Division's formation, billeting, training and inspection. They also tell of the warmth and hospitality that local people showed to soldiers who had no previous association with the area and who had only recently returned to the United Kingdom from overseas.

The three months which the 29th Division spent in the Warwickshire area stand in stark contrast to the savage fighting experienced when landings began on the Gallipoli peninsula on April 25th, 1915. This was the start of a campaign in which the Division was effectively wiped out twice over but in which its soldiers won 12 VCs.

For Tony Jordan, the story has a personal importance as his father, Bob, was one of the Division's solders. Unlike so many of his comrades, he survived the Gallipoli campaign and returned to Coventry to marry the girl he had met when billeted in the city. This is also Bob Jordan's story.