Category Archives: WW1

Epitaphs of the Great War

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Epitaphs of the Great War: The Somme by Sarah Wearne (Uniform Press) was published on 1 July 2016. Sarah Wearne is the archivist at Abingdon School.

‘If you think Twitter’s 140-character rule restrictive, the families of those killed in the First World War had a mere 66 to compose an inscription, an epitaph, for their relation’s headstone. Throughout the centenary, @wwinscriptions will publish some of these thousands of inscriptions, revealing a voice that has not been heard before, the voice of the bereaved. A voice that speaks of love, sorrow, pride, grief and despair, it quotes the bible, literature, hymns and popular songs, and it tells us something about the dead, who they were, where they lived, what they looked like and how they died.’

For more see information, see www.epitaphsofthegreatwar.com or @WWinscriptions

An article in The Telegraph on the book is available here.

CWGC Living Memory Project

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The Living Memory project remembers the “forgotten front” – the 300,000 war graves and commemorations right here in the UK.

In 2016 the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) in partnership with Big Ideas Company are asking the public in the British Isles to re-connect with the war dead buried in their own communities.

CWGC has 200 large sites in the UK, almost all in big city cemeteries and linked to the hospitals: the majority of these men either died of their wounds in hospital or (in 1918-19) died in the influenza epidemic. In total CWGC graves in the UK are located in over 12,000 locations. They must not be forgotten.

The CWGC Living Memory project is offering funding and resources to community groups to enable them to help us raise awareness of war graves in the UK. They are looking to support activity throughout the 1414 days of the Somme Centenary from the 1st July – 18th November 2016.

They are particularly keen to work with community groups who would like to visit and plan some activities around Oxford Botley Cemetery, one of the most notable sites in the UK. See here for further information on Botley Cemetery.

Living Memory project documents:
Living Memory Resource Pack low res
Living Memory Information for networks
Living Memory Funding Application Form

KCL Conference Report: Jutland, History and the First World War

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King’s College London’s Defence-in-Depth blog has posted a conference report on Jutland, History and the First World War.

This is the fifth in a series of posts connected to a King’s College First World War Research Group and Corbett Centre Event to mark the centenary of the Battle of Jutland. Recordings of all of the papers from the event can be accessed for free on the site.

Wolvercote WW1 Aerodrome Memorial

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The community project, Wolvercote WW1 Aerodrome Memorial, aims to establish a new memorial to 17 airmen who died in accidents associated with this WW1 aerodrome on Port Meadow. The project is a repository for photographs and information about Wolvercote Aerodrome and its WW1 heritage. Pembroke College has some affiliation with pilot training undertaken at the aerodrome, accommodating RFC/RAF cadets undergoing theoretical/ground based training at the No.2 School of Military Aeronautics, before a posting to a flying school such as Port Meadow.

The project’s latest development is the decision over an agreed memorial design and location. They have now commenced fund raising.

A very brief overview of the history of aviation on Port Meadow, which had its peak from mid 1916 to mid 1919 is here: Aerodrome history overview July 2015

Their project Facebook page has an overview of the project and lots of other information.

A BBC WW1 At Home feature, entitled ‘Port Meadow Aerodrome, Oxfordshire: Challenges of Training with the Royal Flying Corps‘, was broadcast in June 2014. The casualty list has expanded slightly since then with two airmen identified who were killed near Ascot while on an official flight from Port Meadow.

Call for volunteers: ‘FWW Family Day’, Museum of Oxford, 1 August 2016

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The Museum of Oxford has an exciting opportunity for PhDs or postdocs interested in a very short-term community engagement project. They’re hosting a “FWW Family Day” on August 1st, and are looking for some help in planning the activities and writing information sheets. The museum is centrally located in the Town Hall (right near Carfax Tower).

This would at most involve attending four short planning sessions before August 1st, with optional (but very welcome) attendance on the day itself. A good opportunity for anyone looking to add some FWW-related community engagement to their CV.

They are fairly desperate for assistance with this, and we’re hoping that with such a strong community of FWW experts in Oxford, including ~20 PhDs and postdocs, that someone will be able to help them out!

If interested, please contact Chloe Cadge at the Museum of Oxford, ccadge@oxford.gov.uk.

WW1 research competition

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TORCH (The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities) and Academic IT Services have launched a WW1 research competition whereby they invite students, early career researchers, college/museum and library staff to submit proposals to present new perspectives on the War and its impact through either a blog post or short (audio/video) podcast.

They will support selected entries to develop their digital content which will then be featured on some of the University’s key channels, including Oxford iTunesU, Podcasts.ox.ac.uk, the Oxford Centenary Programme and World War One Centenary: Continuations and Beginnings websites.

The awards will be judged by a panel of specialists on public engagement and WW1. Prizes will include an iPad Mini and the exciting opportunity to network with experts at the 2016 International Society for First World War Studies conference.

Deadline: midnight, 1 August 2016.

For more information, see here.
Download flyer: WW1 digital content competition promotional text- final(1)

Views of an antique land: Imaging Egypt and Palestine in the First World War

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Supported by the Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund Our Heritage programme, this University of Cardiff project will focus on collecting and making accessible images of Egypt and Palestine as they would have been seen by people during the First World War.

Much of the commemoration of the First World War has focussed on the Western Front and so gives the impression that the war was entirely one of mud and trenches with very little movement. However, the war in Egypt and Palestine was much more mobile and often fast moving, it was also fought in hot and dry conditions and posed a whole range of challenges to those who fought there. It is also a surprise to many that such a great number of personnel did actually serve in Egypt and Palestine at some point during the war with units regularly being withdrawn from the Western Front to serve in the area before returning to Europe later on. Egypt also served as a staging post for the Dardenelles Campaign and Thessalonika.

The aim is to collect photographs taken by service personnel, postcards, lantern slides and stereoviews. The project is not collecting the actual views but rather scans of them which, with the owners permission, will be uploaded to a dedicated website where anyone interested in seeing what their ancestors saw or who is interested in how the ancient monuments, cities, towns and villages looked during the First World War can get that information.

For a full overview of the project, see here.