Hellfire Jack and the Manchester Moles
Episode description
In our latest episode, we look at the life and work of one of the Great War's most colourful characters, Major John Norton-Griffiths.
Conservative MP, philanthropist, jingoistic, and imperialistic to his core, Griffiths took the skills he had learned as a mining engineer, to reap a trail of destruction against the Germans through his campaign of mining across both the Western and Eastern Fronts.
Opinionated, passionate, and by all accounts extremely difficult to work for, Griffiths toured the battlefields in a battered and decrepit Rolls Royce, enjoyed port for breakfast, and bribed any officer who came in his way with copious bottles of port and fine claret. The 20 men recruited from his Manchester sewer building project, who formed the nucleus of the first tunneling company, found the geology of Flanders much to their liking, and the legend of the Manchester Moles was born.
Griffiths was one of the great eccentrics of WW1 - this is his story.
Support the podcast:
www.buymeacoffee.com/footstepsblog
www.patreon.com/footstepsofthefallen