Signals dated 11th November 1918

Signals or "flimsies" (so called because of the very thin paper they were written on) were confidential reports sent by units or important individuals to one another during the war. By 1918 there was an enormous amount of "signal traffic" being generated from the rear to the front and vice versa.

This image shows a signal reporting that "hostilities ceased at 11.00" on the 11th November 1918, the Armistice of World War One. The report was found amongst the papers of Frank Blackburn and brought into the submission day at Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library on 8th April by Mr John Blackburn.

The Memoirs of Joseph Whitham

Composed after his return to England with the aid of letters sent home during the war, Joseph Whitman chronicles his life as a soldier in His Majesty's Forces during the Great War. Joseph Whitman enlisted in September 1914 and was demobilised in June 1919, serving with 21st Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry and the 2nd & 8th Kings Shropshire Light Infantry where he was on active service in Macedonia, finishing at Batumn, a Russian fort on the Black Sea. These memoirs act as an important personal account of service in Macedonia, of which there are very few.

The diary was contributed by Gordon H. Whitham, Oxford, during the local submission day at Oxford Central Library. The diary has been photographed in full, comprising of 152 images in total, and will be available when the archive is released on the 11th November.