First broadcast on BBC1 on 5th October 1989, “ Corporal Punishment ” is the second episode of “ Blackadder Goes Forth ” , which is the fourth series of the BBC sitcom “ Blackadder ” . In the episode, the eponymous “ hero ” Captain Edmund Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson) faces a court-martial and is sentenced to execution by firing squad for shooting and eating a carrier pigeon. Not just any old carrier pigeon, but none other than “ Speckled Jim ” the finest carrier pigeon in th

On television 'Trench Art' is frequently described as objects handcrafted by soldiers in the trenches of the First World War. The truth is less clear-cut. Find out why as we dispel some myths.

On this day, in the early hours of October 12th, 1915, a British national, still wearing her nurses’ uniform, was led out into a yard at Belgium’s national rifle range in Brussels. Alongside her was Phillipe Bancq, a Brussels-based architect. Shortly after dawn, two German firing-squads, each of eight men, were paraded in front of the pair. When ordered, the soldiers fired executing both Bancq and the British nurse - Edith Louisa Cavell.

On This Day, January 12th, 1976, crime writer Agatha Christie dies aged 85. In her posthumously published Autobiography, she briefly details her experiences as a Red Cross nurse in the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD). Find out more about the nurse of the VADs here.

On This Day, December 24th, 1914, a German seaplane carried out the first air-raid on British soil, dropping bombs on Dover.

What do the letters “SRD” marked on stoneware jars mean?

With 2018 marking the centenary of the end of the Great War, at Waddesdon Manor we recreated a taste of the Home Front in 1918.  Visitors were surprised to discover that many of the things familiarly associated with World War 2 had been instituted just over two decades earlier.