Welcome to the World War I Centennial Don Martin daily blog, on Armistice Centennial day, November 11, 2018. Don Martin was a noted war correspondent reporting on the American Expeditionary Forces in France in 1918. Regrettably he died of Spanish influenza in Paris on October 7,1918, while covering the Argonne Forest offensive. He missed the joy of the Armistice by a month. Beginning on December 7, 2017, this blog has chronicled each day what Don Martin wrote one hundred years earlier – in his diary, in his letters home, and in his multitude of dispatches published in the Herald newspaper, both the New York and the European (Paris) editions. The blog, for the several days following his death, recounts the many tributes published, his funeral in Paris and his trip back to his final resting place at his home in Silver Creek, New York. To access the daily blogs, click on the three red lines at top right, then in the fold-down menu, click on Archive. There are 316 blogs from D

          We have reached the end of the Don Martin World War I centennial memorial blog. Starting on December 7, 2017, this daily blog has chronicled, in 315 postings, the remarkable story of my grandfather’s contribution to the Great War.               This blog was possible because of the availability of my grandfather Don Martin’s diaries and his letters to my mother, and his published writings in the New York and Paris Herald.             We have followed him from leading political reporter of the New York Herald at the end of 1917, to head of its London office in January-March 1918, and then to France as accredited war correspondent covering the American Expeditionary Forces, based first in Neufchateau, then in Meaux, Nancy and finally for a few days in Bar le Duc. And then, his final return to his hometown in Silver Creek, New York. Don Martin has given us a full and insightful, if grim, picture of the Great War, as witnessed by the American war correspondents. We have seen

          It was, finally, in January 1920 that Don Martin’s remains could be transported across the ocean to New York. With the assistance of the two Don Martin Posts of the American Legion, his body was brought to his hometown of Silver Creek, New York and a funeral took place on January 29, 1920. The Silver Creek News of January 29, 1920 published the  following report. FUNERAL OF DON MARTIN  WAS HELD THIS AFTERNOON Services In Charge of Don Martin Post No. 148  American Legion - Tribute From George R. McIntyre               The body of Don Martin, New York Herald correspondent, who died in France, October 7, 1918, arrived here Wednesday accompanied by Wellington Wright of the Herald staff, Commander of Don Martin New York Herald Post, American Legion. Mr. Wright was in France at the time of Don Martin’s death. Mr. Martin’s body was brought home on the steamship La Savoie which sailed from Havre January 17 and arrived in New York on Tuesday. On the steamer a stateroo

             Tributes to Don Martin continued to be written long after his death. A particularly touching one published on page one of the New York Herald Magazine on Sunday, March 16, 1919, reprinted the tribute Don Martin had written to the Salvation Army. End of the Salvation Army Lass  with a Tambourine Great Organization That Has At Last Come Into Its Own And Is Honored and Revered  and  Adored by All American Soldiers Don Martin’s Tribute               It was Don Martin, who died in France while serving there as correspondent with the American armies for the Herald, who paid one of the finest of tributes to the work of the tambourine girl as he found her on the battlefield, and thereby probably did as much as any one else in directing the American public’s confidence to the organization. He wrote:               “Whenever you see the whiskered old Santa Claus with kettle and bell, who stamps his feet to keep warm as he watches the human currents swirl around him i

        A funeral service for Don Martin was held in Paris on Sunday, October 13, 1918, at the American Church, rue de Berri. The New York Herald published this report on Monday, October 14, 1918. MANY FRIENDS AT CHURCH SERVICE FOR DON MARTIN Simplicity and Sincerity of Character of “Herald” Writer, Theme of Dr. Goodrich’s Sermon                     Funeral services for Don Martin were held yesterday afternoon in the American Church in the rue de Berri. They were simple and impressive. Before the pulpit rested the coffin, over which was spread the American flag. Floral offerings were arranged around it. Flat against the wall behind the pulpit were two American flags and the tricolor, and on either side were standards of these two emblems. Uniforms of the United States army predominated in the gathering of 200 persons composed of friends Mr. Martin had known for years at home and friends he had made in France. The depth and beauty of character which drew these old and new