Monthly Archives: June 2016

arts and music, battlefields, commemoration, film and TV, military, schools, war memorials

Battle of the Somme

Leave a comment

sommeThe Battle of the Somme was fought in northern France over 141 days in 1916, from 1st July to 18th November, in a series of bloody and costly actions on this small section of the Western Front. The centenary in 2016 will be marked by a number of commemorative events across the UK and in France itself.

A Department for Culture, Media and Sport news release describes plans for commemorations at national and international levels, and encourages the development of local events. A high-level international commemorative event will take place at Thiepval Memorial in France on 1st July 2016, with participation by representatives of many nations.

In Scotland a national vigil service will be held at the Scottish National War Memorial in Edinburgh through the night of 30th June / 1st July. In the coming months, other vigils will be staged at locations around Scotland organised by regimental associations and others to tie in with key dates and battles involving individual regiments.

New education resources will assist teachers who want to help their students learn about the nature and importance of this particular campaign. The National Army Museum resource includes a video about the battle; PowerPoint slides which offer photographs and images from 1916 with detailed captions, which can be re-used by teachers. (such as the image used in this blog post, by kind permission); and NAM also offers downloadable exhibition panels to which local material can be added. A British Council pack ‘Remembering the Battle of the Somme’ offers material for wider aspects of the fighting.

There are many online assets which cover aspects of the conflict. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission has a dedicated Somme site. Imperial War Museum covers the history in text, images and audio. The BBC iWonder resource “Why was the Battle of the Somme film bigger than Star Wars” discusses the huge public appeal of a 1916 documentary film shown in cinemas, which has now been digitally re-produced and made available by Imperial War Museum for showings in local venues. A BBC news video clip describes one section of the tunnels under the battlefield.

 

 

 

 

 

 

commemoration, military, remembrance, war memorials

HMS Hampshire disaster, Orkney

Leave a comment

memorial marwick headOn 5th June 1916 warship HMS Hampshire struck a German mine off the coast of Orkney and sank with the loss of 737 men. Only 12 sailors survived.

This weekend commemorative events were held at Marwick Head, close to the site on which the ship sank, to mark the centenary of the loss and the deaths of so many men. The Orcadian published a report.

The wreck made national news at the time partly because of the presence on board of Field Marshal Lord Kitchener, the Secretary of State for War, travelling to Russia on a diplomatic mission to meet with Britain’s Russian allies.

After the war a memorial was constructed on the headland overlooking the sea, but it focused solely on Kitchener and was named after him. To mark the centenary, and respond to the need to commemorate all the men who died in the sinking, the memorial has been refurbished and a new wall built around it with plaques naming all the victims.

A Scotsman article reports that a book to be published later this year will offer fresh information about the history of the HMS Hampshire disaster.

 

 

arts and music, commemoration, military, schools

Dazzle Ship Scotland

Leave a comment

dazzle ship leithScotland now has its own Dazzle Ship, berthed in the Prince of Wales dock in the port of Leith. The inspiration for this particular vessel’s design comes from artist Ciara Phillips, who was co-commissioned by Edinburgh Art Festival and 14-18 Now. A BBC news story describes the work.

Phillips’s work is entitled “every woman” and celebrates the roles played by women during the war; for example, as painters in the shipyards implementing dazzle designs on warships.

Edinburgh Art Festival staff are developing a Learning programme to engage children and young people with the ideas behind the project and encourage visits to the ship. This includes an introductory guide for teachers, and teacher workshops; a Family “Dazzle Day Out” will take on Sunday 19th June 2016 from 1300-1600. Further activities will follow over the summer. During the Festival there will also be a Dazzle Hub in a shop unit at Ocean Terminal shopping centre. Contact the EAF team for more details.

Financial support for this project was provided by 14-18 Now, the UK-wide cultural programme which marks the centenaries of World War One with a series of artistic and cultural projects specially commissioned to engage the public and create an artistic legacy.  The Tower of London poppies are the best-known of previous projects, with a range of other successful projects and more work still in process and to be commissioned.

The original Dazzle concept was a response by artist Norman Wilkinson to World War One submarine warfare in the Atlantic and the threat to British shipping. Ships which were repainted in dazzle designs were thought to confuse the German U-boat submariners trying to target ships for torpedo attack. A BBC iWonder resource “How did an artist help Britain fight the war at sea” describes this work.

 

battlefields, commemoration, military, war memorials

Battle of Jutland – commemorations 2016

Leave a comment

hms malayaCommemorative events to mark the centenary of the 1916 Battle of Jutland are now complete, and attracted great interest from the public. Events in May and June 2016 were focused in 3 particular locations: Orkney (the base for the British Grand Fleet); the Forth (and the naval base at Rosyth); and in the North Sea on the Jutland Bank.

A BBC news story  and a Guardian article describe the activities at the different memorial sites, including the ceremonies in Orkney at St.Magnus Cathedral and at Lyness cemetery, which were shown on TV.

The photograph shows a memorial cross in Lyness Cemetery dedicated to the men who lost their lives on H.M.S Malaya.

 

Further stories on the web add extra dimensions to the story of this great naval battle. A Daily Record article tells the personal story of a war grave gardener in Glasgow who discovered that a grandfather had fought at Jutland. A Glasgow University project blog post describes how medical staff at Jutland treated battle casualties.

The Scottish Commemorations Panel  has produced a booklet ‘The War at Sea 1914-1918’, which was distributed among people attending public events. It will be made available online shortly.