iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 18h

Wearing my Engineer's hat - & being very familiar with architectural design philosophy in the IWGC, I just can't sit easily with that😲 Costings for cemetery design were VERY tightly controlled (IWGC "Cemetery Files") & logic tells me that standardised designs & manufacture would be de rigueur.

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 21h

I was never able to find an IWGC book (etc) of standard designs for cemetery gates in the cwgc archives. Have you ever come across such a thing ?

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Rectangles could be marquees ? Red circles, bell tents ?

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Volume 2 of "Zero Hour Z Day" just makes 700 pages & is really on the (practical) handling limit for a hardback book. With yours a 400 / 200 split makes a lot of sense, BUT that introduces all sorts of logistical & cost problems. IDEALLY the print run would be 50/50, but one vol 600pp = pragmatic.

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Gordon Bennett😱 - I'm the bloke with friends who won't let me stand in the same room as their laptop if it is switched on, - BUT EVEN I have had no problems with Bluesky Social🤔

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Hello Chris - given today's email "requesting" three more medical tests & two more face à face appointments, 10 Oct looks attractive👍 I'll DM details, but be warned, it'll look a bit bizarre😱 Please ignore "obvious answers" & just look at what the file shows.

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Current circumstances prevent me from visiting TNA Kew soon, but I need info from a WW1 officer's file😒 A VERY QUICK search. I'd expect a result 30 > 60 seconds after the file is opened, - a yes or no type answer. If you can held please DM me👍

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

It may surprise some to hear that there are many men from the Battle of Loos 1915 buried in Cabaret Rouge BC post war reburials). cwgc refuse to acknowledge proven cases there.

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I don't think it would pose any threat to Surrey residents, so why don't they just blow it up🤔 - problem solved👍

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Obviously apologies for rubbish photo, but a tiny subject. Photo taken on forecourt of Buckingham Palace. Man has just been awarded MC & Bar per London Gazette 18/9/1918, but what does ribbon bar show, - and hence when was photo taken (1918 - 19 ?). Man's service medal entitlement was 14-15 Trio.

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Chief of Staff, Lieutenant-General Sir Lancelot Kiggell, visited near the end of the 3rd Ipres campaign and reportedly broke down and said: "Good God, did we really send men to fight in that?"

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

New Zealand, Canada, Australia. Mind you, when I was 20yo the UK was a different country, a VERY different country. If I was 20-30 now, I wouldn't be here.

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Yes, we have encountered each other. William Frederick MacHutchison www.cwgc.org/find-records... Post rededication press release was VERY interesting. (I spent several years researching & identifying that officer, - nb > "I" is singular).

cwgc.org

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

a throw-away comment by a foreign Military Attache at a cemetery rededication ceremony in France.

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I have a folder full of correspondence between @cwgc & myself about the DISASTROUSLY WRONG replacement headstone illustrated below left. That was 20 years ago, & the "policy" was quickly reversed. The genesis of the first "policy" change was ridiculous in the extreme, & resulted from a >cont>

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

photo to cwgc & ask them what the pattern No is & how it came to be there (I'd be interested to hear the explanation).

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I'm not at all "keen" on the implications here😒 The initial indexing reflected norms when written & should NOT be changed. Supplement explanations are fine, by change to suite corrent woke fadism - NO😲

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

The IWGC schedule for Andrew's headstone shows a pattern 1212/1D, which is below. I've never seen the badge on his headstone (a cwgc replacement ?). The inscription on the stone cost Andrew's wife 12s & 6p (61 pence decimal) but £40:88 in 2026 prices. Suggest to send a copy of the headstone >cont>

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Peronne Rd Cem is interesting for many reasons (its a "Ghost Burial" site), but headstones in recent times have been of especial interest. I've known it for 50+ yrs & the stones have ALWAYS BEEN VERY DIFFICULT to photograph (dark & mottled). In the last 2 years that's changed, & I don't know how🤔

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I've swum along the base of the cliffs where "Naverone" was filmed (deep water), & climbed to the top of the cliffs where ancient ruins were used as film backdrops. That was a long time ago, & I was then a good scuba swimmer (& there was, er, another newly met person involved 🥰).

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

You should not replace language which was in contemporary use when first recorded. Providing ADDITIONAL explanatory / alternative wording is acceptable, but historical substitution should be a non-starter.

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

nb - recommendation - get a rubber boat & and outboard, & throw away all paperwork. You'll be treated like royalty & whisked through😀

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I cross Dover - Calais - Dover regularly. "Pulled" at Border Control going out - 70% chance. Border Control chance of finding anything of concern ? - 0.001%. "Efficiency" of French Border Control either side - Hopeless😒 259% "efficiency" of everyone involved with delays - that's the one👍

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

“The world is not threatened by evil people, but by those who allow evil to take place.” Albert Einstein

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

"The webpage below doesn’t give the exact evidence ..." 😂 It doesn't give ANY EVIDENCE at all😒 Do you know who made the submission ?

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Remanded in custody, which tells you a lot. Why are they in the UK ? - the same reasons we get almost daily boatloads of undocumented economic migrants who cost the British taxpayer a fortune, severely stress our infrastructure, & feed the black economy, - weak politicians & happy-clappies😒

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

"Family stories" have so often proven to be an absolute travesty as far as accuracy is concerned😒 I once had a conversation (1990's) with a well known author who had not examined service files, leading to his having published an "account" of an officer's background which was absolutely hilarious😲

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

"Communication. /kəˌmjuːnɪˈkeɪʃn/. Noun. The imparting or exchanging of information by speaking, writing, or using some other medium." Not the first time that there has been a failure to keep the public / site users up speed with things "going wrong at Maidenhead😒

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

retrospectively compared MoD "reports" with original file contents, - Oh Dear 😱 Francis, for example, was "Very severely wounded" 1/7/1916 at the Somme. File is full of MB papers, wound gratuity issues, etc. The MoD took the fees, & lied😒

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Lt Francis Campion EARL 12th York & Lancs Regt researched for a future zerohourzday.com Before WW1 British officer files were released to the PRO (now TNA) late 1990's direct nok could apply (& pay) for a "search & report" by the MoD. When the files began to be released & researchers >cont>

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Just logged onto "Trash Nothing" www site to give something away & pretty "surprised" to see 3 ads requesting free things by a "collector". Old British banknotes + one for British & foreign coins, & this one for medals. Surprising to see such a basic error by "a collector"😒

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

"That’s just an artefact of how it’s been cropped between Wordpress and here." My ability to be able to not understand anything computer related is probably legendary, so translating that into "Tom talk" = "Merk com denk crooped zong Wordithong plong."😂

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

The photo shows a CAS Pratt😱 “Knowledge is power, but information is the fuel that allows that power to be ignited and directed toward a specific purpose.” (nb - 10/10 for not misnaming the regiment a-la IWGC).

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

A pity that his IWGC record is so vague about who he was serving with when he died. "Technically" his headstone is incorrect of course. Does a service record survive / what do his service medal records show / have you pursued war diaries ?

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Just to hopefully help those with a blinkered outlook > "Agent provocateur; /ˌaʒɒ̃ prəˌvɒkəˈtəː/ ; noun. Person who induces others to be violent or commit an illegal act in order to incriminate them or discredit a cause:" (Trust that that may have been enlightening👍).

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Loads of people. The "COMPUTOR SAYS NO" messages appearing on screen vary & don't seem to reflect any pattern. One message rec'd today says > "Why introduce something that doesn't work, fucking idiots." Another correspondent is convinced its a prelude to cwgc charging for access.

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

If you want to call it that😒 Now have a hospital appointment tomorrow afternoon. Another one next Tuesday. Two physical samples to submit. etc. 😲

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Finally managed to connect to a NHS surgery linked form midday today. Filled it in. Sent it. Thirty minutes later I had a 'phone call, - can I come to the surgery 3:30 this afternoon. Ho-hum😒

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

IWGC papers give no clue, but show nok as living post war in Lancashire.

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

tried the surgery www direct. That gave me two options to book an appointment – so I’ve tossed a coin & opted for a cervical smear next Monday. NHS is not what it's cracked up to be😒

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Adolf H & that Ava bird DID breed, & at least one of their descendents works near me😱 - reception @ my GPs. Visited today to TRY TO GET a GP’s appointment. Told I have to now do it online. Sent me an email with a link - which told me NOT TO USE this page to try to get an appointment. Then >cont>

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Maricourt, a few days ago. This is where the British & French lines met prior to jumping off on the morning of 1st July 1916. The very southern & "relatively successful" right flank of first day of the 1916 Battle of The Somme.

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Tom Tulloch-Marshall @sommephantom.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

But not the best military tactic ever devised🤔

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