WWI - Harlaxton Park maps, plans, photographs and miscellaneous

• war/1/1 Copy of sketch map of Harlaxton Park showing mock German and British trench lines and 'No-Man's Land' in-between.
• war/1/2/1 Overlay of sketch map above on satellite image
• war/1/2/2 Overlay of sketch map over Ordnance Survey map extract
• war/1/2/3 Satellite image enlarged with lines of trenches marked
• war/1/3 Copies of Tactical emplacements in Trenches - 9 cross sections and plans labelled A-H, J [A4 size monochrome photocopies] Available online: https://harlaxtonmanorarchives.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/qr2_trenchblueprints.pdf [accessed 06/04/2017]
• war/1/4/1 Copies of 3 photographs from the 1917 Machine Gun Corps Instruction Manual, showing machine gunners being trained in Harlaxton Park [Donor: Bob Alexander]
• war/1/4/2 Copies of 2 photographs from the 1917 Machine Gun Corps Instruction Manual, showing machine gunners being trained in Harlaxton Park, trench detail
• war/1/4/3 Email correspondence from Jan Beckett dated Oct. 2010 regarding research by Bob Alexander and Bob Hirst on MGC training area at Harlaxton
• war/1/4/4 Contemporary colour photographs of Harlaxton Park showing the site of the trench warfare training ground
• war/1/5/1 Hirst, Robert, J. (2009) Machine Gun Corps Memorial Window. Historical notes V. The Catholic Parish of St Mary the Immaculate, Grantham.
• war/1/5/2 Hirst, Robert J. The Catholic Parish of St Mary the Immaculate, Grantham. A list of historical notes and other booklets
• war/1/6 Imperial War Museum. Royal Flying Corps aerial view. Copyright: IWM [1 x A4 scan of photograph held on CD and MRD]
• war/1/7 Canada Library and Archives. 8 scanned photographs relating to RAF Harlaxton. Copyright: Canada Library & Archives [held on CD and MRD]
• war/1/8 Fleet Air Arm Museum Bruce-Leslie Collection (JM Bruce/GS Leslie). 16 scans of photographs relating to RAF Harlaxton. Copyright: FAAM [MRD]
• war/1/9/1 Pages from Parti Patter, June 1919, Harlaxton Aerodrome. Transcription of Last Parade name list. [scanned on MRD]
• war/1/9/2 Transcription of article from Parti Patter, June 1919. Cow Pasture Yachting.
• war/1/10 Images from RAF Museum relating to RAF Harlaxton [scans on MRD; approximately 50] See also: https://www.flickr.com/photos/royalairforcemuseum/6890760909/in/album-72157629355231503/ [accessed 06/04/2017]
• war/1/11 50th Aero squadron photograph, Harlaxton 1919 [scan on MRD]
• war/1/12 Images of RAF Harlaxton from Falkirk Archives [2 scans on MRD]

During World War One, Harlaxton Manor was home to two of the newest additions to the United Kingdom's armed forces: The Machine Gun Corps and the Royal Flying Corps/Royal Air Force (motto: Per Ardua ad Astra). The MGC had a training area in Harlaxton Park. This aerodrome trained pilots to be both fighter pilots and reconnaissance pilots. In France, the fighters defended the latter as they carried out the vital photographic reconnaissance needed by the Army; using the skills they had learned in England. These pilots and their mechanics came from across Britain and the British Empire, from Australia, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand, they also came from across the United States. They were Harlaxton's first 'global citizens' travelling to the English countryside to prepare to fight in a World War fought, quite literally, at the cutting edge of modern technology. What the heir to the estate, Philip Pearson Gregory, who won the Military Cross at Passchendaele in 1917, would have made of all this technology and training when he came home on leave can only be surmised. With the end of the Great War all evidence of both training facilities was removed. (Source: Bujak, Edward (2016) Harlaxton Manor Guidebook)

• World War I and II box
• Items on Manor Research Drive "\\hx-file\StaffShares$\Manor Research\war_RAF Harlaxton" [internal access only]

Added by Linda Dawes, College Librarian, April 2017

Ongoing

Bujak, E. (2015) Reckless fellows : the gentlemen of the Royal Flying Corps. London: I B Taurus.