In the summer of 1914, Britain's regular army marched to war.

Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany referred to the British Expeditionary Force as a contemptible little army,

and they soon dubbed themselves the old contemptibles.

Who were these men? What's the story of their old comrades association

formed after the war? And what about John Parr? Was he the first old contemptible to be

killed on the battlefield? Well, welcome back to another trench chat. I'm really pleased

this week to be joined by Andrew Thornton, who's a great war

researcher and historian and has worked as a battlefield guide on the Royal British Legion GP-90 events

in 2018 and also for Armistice 100. Thanks for joining us, Andrew. Really pleased to have you here.

Thank you for inviting me, Paul. It's a pleasure to speak to you again.

So in terms of your own, I always ask everyone that comes on this, the same question, in terms of your own interest in the Great War, where did it start for you?

My interest started when basic from when I was born. At the time I was born, my dad was in the army. He was stationed

with the household cavalry mounted regiment at High Park Barracks. He was in the Blues and

Royals. So I was surrounded from day one by things military. And obviously he came out of the army

in 1974, sort of when I was coming up to three years old

but that interest never left me and obviously developed from playing with toy soldiers

and action man and things like that and then as I got into my teenage years I started

reading books about particular subjects but with regard to the great war, the catalyst for me, I'd had an

passing interest in it, but the first time I went on the battlefield to, I was school battlefield

to when I lived in the North East in February 1988 was the real Kickstarter for me

to concentrate my interests on researching aspects of the Great War,

particularly the experiences of those who served on the Western Front in particular.

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