Vol. 1 No. 2, Oct. 17 1914
Last year I purchased ten issues of an interesting journal called Bristol and the War. It was originally issued fortnightly for a penny however by the autumn of 1915 it had become a monthly publication costing two pennies. In the spring of 1916 it switched formats again and became a bi-monthly publication. Whether the change in pattern was due to paper shortages or to declining subscriptions I cannot say.
These are fascinating documents, especially to those of us researching First World War soldiers. I’ve scanned all eight pages of the earliest issue I have, Vol. 1 No. 2, published on 17 Oct 1914 and placed them on a Bristol & the Great War photo set on Flickr. This issue contains some excellent information and nice photos of the 4th Gloucesters marching and training in and around Bristol. It also includes names and photos of a number of “Bristolians on Active Service”. I’ve named them below to ensure they are indexed by the search engines: Gnr B.P. Lear (Marine Artillery), Pte A. Burge (Grenadier Guards), Pte T. Marsh (1st Somerset Light Infantry).
If you find this information useful please leave your comments below. If there is enough interest I will scan and publish the remaining nine issues.
Categories: Bristol & the War, Flickr, Researching
Doing Our Bit 
It will be interesting to see if there’s any overlap with the bellringers from Bristol I’ve picked out from reports in the ringing newspapers of the time.
Hi David,
Thanks for your comments. Quite a few people have viewed this page in the last couple of hours so it looks like posting the remaining issues would be well received. Hopefully someone out there will discover a photo of their ancestor and perhaps they will be a bell ringer too!
These are really interesting and useful, and I for one would be really grateful if you did scan the rest.
Thanks for the feedback Sarah. I will put the other 9 issues online, likely in one’s and two’s. I’ve already started on the second issue.
I believe a letter from my great uncle was published in the 1 July 1915 issue. Do you have this edition.
Hi Rachel … I checked the magazines that I own and I’m afraid I don’t have 1 July 1915 edition. Sorry I couldn’t be of help. Cheers, Steve.
Thanks for checking.