Between 1839 and 1842, British-Indian forces fought a war with Imperial China that served the interests of opium smugglers. Their resulting victory opened up the lucrative Chinese trade to British merchants.
Ted Senior was captured by the Japanese during the Second World War and forced to work on the Thai-Burma ‘Death Railway'. The diary he kept reveals the horrific conditions that he and his fellow prisoners endured.
In January 1945, the overarching priority for the Army remained winning the war, and – for its soldiers in Europe at least – seeing off the cold, wintry weather.
The struggle against the Turks in Egypt and Palestine began with a test of endurance and engineering in harsh desert terrain. It evolved into a fast-moving mobile campaign, which resulted in Allied victory and the fall of the Ottoman Empire.
The war against Iraq in 1990-91 saw the largest single deployment of British troops since the Second World War. Altogether, about 35,000 British servicemen and women served in the campaign.
From 1943 to 1945, the Allies fought an attritional campaign in Italy against a resolute and skilful enemy. Far from being the ‘soft underbelly of Europe’, Italy became one of the Second World War’s most exhausting campaigns.
Today, the UK government makes financial provision for the spouses and partners of soldiers who have died in the line of duty. But this has not always been the case, and there have been a number of changes along the way.
Artificial poppies were first sold in Britain in 1921 and have since become one of the main symbols of Remembrance. This Scottish poppy dates from the early days of the Poppy Appeal.
