Category Archives: commemoration

commemoration, competitions, exhibitions, film and TV, military, museums and archives, schools

Gallipoli and Scotland

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On the 4th June 1915 Scottish troops of the 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division were landed on beaches on the Gallipoli peninsula to join the land campaign against the Turkish defenders. Further landings brought thousands of Scots into action over the coming months, alongside soldiers from France, Australia, New Zealand, and the other parts of Britain, with high levels of loss through injury and disease. In 2015 the contribution by Scottish units to actions in Gallipoli and the impacts back at home are commemorated through a series of events in Stirling, the Scottish Borders, and elsewhere.

Stirling University was the focus of commemorative events around the 4th-6th June 2015. A public lecture by historian Professor Sir Hew Strachan was hosted by Stirling University, and a video recording of his presentation is available online. Local school pupils created an outdoor installation of poppies made from recycled materials. A screening of the cinema drama ‘Tell England’, and a workshop with university academics from Scotland and Turkey, completed events over the weekend.

The University also launched ‘Creating Gallipoli’, a creative writing competition for secondary schools. “The aim of the project is for school students to engage imaginatively with the experience of Gallipoli from a variety of perspectives by writing a poem of up to 40 lines or a short story, in the form of a letter, of up to 750 words. The letter may be addressed to a family member, a friend, a lover, a newspaper etc”. Poems and stories should evoke the human side of the conflict, giving a sense of what it felt like to be a participant at Gallipoli in 1915. Workshop sessions for pupils and teachers will be run in Autumn 2015, to help students engage with the topic and enhance their writing skills. Full details of the competition are available on the web.

Over the next few months there will also be local commemorative events and exhibitions in parts of Scotland where there is a strong community connection to the Gallipoli fighting. For example, at Hawick in the Scottish Borders the local Museums service will stage an exhibition titled ‘Hawick to Gallipoli’, about the stories of young men from the area who served with the King’s Own Scottish Borderers regiment.

 

commemoration, competitions, schools

Primary Schools competition winners

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Legion-ScotlandLegion Scotland has announced the winners of its 2014-15 Primary Schools competition.

In August 2014 Legion Scotland invited primary school children across Scotland to take part in a competition, to become First World War family history detectives. Pupils were asked to research and uncover real life stories of how the outbreak of World War One affected local families and communities. Primary school pupils from P5, P6 and P7 took up the challenge of investigating ‘what impact did the outbreak of war have on children and how do families remember this now?’

The competition asked schools, in pupil groups of ten, to enter 500 words and three photographs for the competition. Schools from all over Scotland took part. Ten schools were shortlisted, and placed online in a public vote which received thousands of votes. From the top three in the public vote, one winning school was picked by a celebrity panel including Scottish Government Veterans Secretary Keith Brown MSP, historian and broadcaster Trevor Royle, and a representative from the Co-operative Funeralcare – the schools competition sponsor.

The top three that went in front the of the judges were:
Annick Primary School in Irvine’s ‘A Friend of Age, a Guide of Youth’; Craighill Primary School in Tain’s ‘World War I Uncovered’; and Glasgow Academy’s ‘The Galbraith Legacy’.

Legion Scotland announced details of the winners on its website, and the story includes a link to the top-placed entry.

Congratulations to the overall winner, Annick Primary School, North Ayrshire. The team won a VIP trip to the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo this summer.

The judging panel was so impressed by the quality of entries that funding was found for a runner-up award, to a pupil team at Craighill Primary in Tain, Highlands, who win tickets and travel for a trip to the Tattoo.

A great effort by all concerned.

 

 

commemoration, military, remembrance, war memorials

Quintinshill rail disaster

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Commemorative events have been held to mark the centenary of a 1915 rail crash at Quintinshill near Gretna, Dumfriesshire, Britain’s worst ever rail disaster. The collision of 3 trains killed more than 200 people, most of them soliders of a Leith-based 1/7 Battalion of the Royal Scots who were travelling down to Liverpool to catch a troopship to the fighting around Gallipoli. Our new World War One microsite provides details and links.

The commemorations took place in three locations connected to the crash: At Larbert, where the soldiers joined their train for the journey south; at Quintinshill near the crash site; and at Rosebank Cemetery in Leith, where so many of the dead troops were buried.

A BBC TV news story “Quintinshill: a terrible day for the regiment” provides further reporting. Coverage in national and local media included this story in the Sunday Post about the impact on one family in East Lothian.

In the Edinburgh Pilmeny area a local project to ‘Remember the Leith Battalion’ ran activities to include young people in the commemorations; these included poppy stencils on pavements on the route to the cemetery; a ‘Tree of Life’ display at the local Drill Hall, and a stained glass window.

A new theatre production, “Persevere“, was also staged by local drama groups. The play is based on local soldiers, their farewells, and the impact of the deaths and injuries in the community.

A service was also held at Carlisle Station, as some of the train crew came from the Carlisle area and many of the wounded were taken to hospital in the city.

BBC TV screened a documentary about the crash, “Britain’s deadliest rail disaster”, presented by historian Neil Oliver.

The BBC also published an iWonder online resource about the tragedy.

arts and music, commemoration, exhibitions, museums and archives

Families and the Great War

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next of kinThe ‘Next of Kin’ exhibition developed by National Museums of Scotland and presented at the National War Museum in Edinburgh has now embarked on a tour of Scottish venues which continues until May 2017. The touring programme includes learning activities at each museum, using a object handling resource aimed at school and community groups.

Its materials, objects and images give a powerful insight into the lives of some of the individuals and familes who felt the impact of the war. Personal stories are used by many educators as a means of illuminating the realities of the war and also helping to make sense of the huge numbers involved as combatants and  casualties.

A blog post describes the contents of the object handling resource, and gives examples of how it has been used to engage groups of pupils.

 

commemoration, museums and archives, schools

Gallipoli and education

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The military and naval campaign around the Gallipoli peninsula from April 1915 to January 1916 is the subject of many resources and projects for teachers, often produced to tie in with the centenary commemoration period. Here is a selection from recent material made available by museums, cultural and media organisations, from British, Australian, German and Turkish perspectives.

The Gallipoli Centenary Education Project has been working with schools in Scotland, Education and Turkey, and has already staged one school group visit to the Dardanelles.

Imperial War Museum has many assets on offer to educators, from which I picked their “Podcast 14: Gallipoli” and a feature on an artist / seaman in the naval forces who produced wonderful sketches during the campaign.

A Commonwealth War Graves Commission newsletter for April 2015 gives details of the initial troop landings and the use of Scottish ship SS River Clyde.

An Australian government website provides an overview of ANZAC resources for teaching about Gallipoli.

Europeana’s piece entitled “Gallipoli from a different perspective” tells the story of a German pilot fighting on the Turkish side in the campaign.

“Gallipoli through Turkish eyes” is an Australian historian’s view of the Canakkale campaign as seen from the Turkish defenders’ perspective.

 

 

 

commemoration, military, schools

Gallipoli commemorations

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ANZAC day screen smCommemorative events are now underway to mark the centenary of the Gallipoli campaign of World War One. The 1915 campaign on Turkish soil around the Dardanelles was an attempt by the Allied nations to force the Ottoman Empire out of the war, but failed at great cost in lives to both attackers and defenders.

On the 25th April services of remembrance took place in key locations in Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Turkey, to mark the start of the land campaign and the landing of British and Empire troops on the beaches around Gallipoli. BBC news covered the multinational ceremonies in Turkey, and the ANZAC involvement. The BBC website also published other stories about the Turkish approach to commemorations, and commemorations back in Australia.

In the UK, Gallipoli related events will be taking place on different dates and locations over the coming months. The Queen led a ceremony at the Cenotaph memorial in London.

In Scotland the usual ANZAC commemorative event on 25th April was given extra emphasis to mark the centenary, with a service at the Scottish National War Memorial in Edinburgh Castle. Wreaths were laid on behalf of Scotland, Turkey, France, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Newfoundland. The service was also broadcast to a big screen on the Castle Esplanade for the benefit of a large gathering. The BBC news story “ceremony to mark Scots role” covers the event.

Scottish involvement in the Gallipoli campaign was extensive, through the involvement of the battalions of the 52nd (Lowland) infantry division and other forces. Heavy losses of dead and injured had a great impact in large parts of Scotland. National commemorative events will be held in Scotland on the 4th June, to mark the centenary of the landings of Scottish troops, with activity in Stirling, the Borders and other locations led by local authorities and regimental associations.

commemoration, remembrance, schools

Commemoration in Woodland

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woodland trustThe commemorative period which started in 2014 has already seen examples of innovative thinking about how to mark the centenaries of World War One and the sacrifices made by the British population. The Woodland Trust has developed ambitious plans to establish thousands of acres of newly-planted woodland. There will be four Centenary Woods around the UK, one in each home nation, with the Scottish wood located at Dreghorn Woods in the Pentland hills just south of Edinburgh.

Individuals and organisations can remember family members and local servicemen by dedicating a tree in their name, and people can also volunteer to help with the planting. Local groups, such as the RAF Air Cadets, are also participating in the effort to plant and create the woodlands.

The Woodland Trust is also giving away free trees to schools, youth groups and communities, for planting in their own land to create a living memorial. Details of this part of the programme are available on the website.

commemoration, military

Gallipoli

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25th April 2015 will mark the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Gallipoli. Education Scotland have created new resources to support secondary teachers with this topic. The resources approach the topic from the specific Scottish context and the involvement of Scottish regiments.

The resources can be found here on Glow: http://bit.ly/gallipoliWW1

52nd Division
Scotland’s impact on Gallipoli was enormous and in fact, Gallipoli’s impact on Scotland was even greater. A whole Scottish division, bar two battalions, served at Gallipoli. The losses of the 52nd Division were so enormous that for the Scottish Lowlands it has been dubbed a ‘second Flodden.’ On 3rd July 1915 the division numbered 10,900 men of all ranks; by the 13th it had lost over 4,800 men. The impact on Scottish towns, villages and families in the Borders was so immense that scarcely a household between the Tweed and Forth did not mourn a loss. Hawick hosts its own Gallipoli Commemoration Event every year on the 12th of July to honour and remember all of the soldiers who lost their lives at Gallipoli whilst serving with the King’s Own Scottish Borderers.

Quintinshill Train Crash
Poignantly, 210 52nd Lowlanders lost their lives before they had even left the country. Tragedy struck on 22 May 1915 when a train carrying the battalion HQ and two Companies of the 1/7th Royal Scots crashed in an accident at Quintinshill near Gretna while on route to Liverpool to meet the troop boat. 3 officers and 207 men died while 5 officers and 219 troops were injured. This is thought to be the worst rail crash ever to have occurred in Britain. Not only did the death toll reach 227 after two collisions but a secondary fire left very little behind.

commemoration, competitions, sport

Football, Christmas, and World War One

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We are now approaching the anniversary of the first Christmas of World War One, and there is great interest in the story of the  Christmas truce in December 1914 on sections of the Western Front. Details of what actually happened a hundred years ago are not easy to confirm, but the idea of a temporary truce which reaffirmed the humanity of man in difficult circumstances is very appealing.

A football game between soldiers of the two opposing armies is perhaps the best known part of the story. This week there is a national programme to encourage football clubs, amateur teams, schools and the public to commemorate the truce through staging a football match, taking a photo of the teams, and uploading the image to the Football Remembers website. Professional teams in the UK took part last weekend, and photos of Scottish teams such as Raith Rovers and St.Mirren are already on the site. A Scottish Professional Football League press release gives some background. On Twitter the hashtag #footballremembers brings together many contributions.

Many schools are getting involved. For example, on 10th December at Kilmarnock FC’s ground school and college teams will take part in short games with a charitable and educational purpose.

The British Council‘s education pack “Football Remembers” is a very useful resource for teachers preparing their students for this particular commemorative activity, and also offers material for learning in other areas.

“All Together Now” is another initiative, which aims to mark the anniversary through music and for a charitable benefit. The truce was the inspiration for the song of the same name, released by The Farm in 1990. In 2014 a group of music performers (including Scottish band The Proclaimers) have united as The Peace Collective, to re-record the song. “The new track features a backing choir of schoolboy footballers from the English Premier League and German Bundesliga. All profits from the release will go to the British Red Cross and the Shorncliffe Trust. The Red Cross deployed more than 90,000 personnel to help the wounded and injured during WW1″. A video of the recording is available on YouTube.

Finally, one reason why the truce is attracting popular attention is the Christmas TV advertisement made by supermarket chain Sainsburys with the assistance of the Royal British Legion. This tells a fictionalised story based on the football game, and YouTube also has a short documentary piece about the historical background to this advertisement.

arts and music, commemoration

Pack Up Your Troubles: music and WW1

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Why do we remember the poets and not the composers of WW1? The poets of WW1 – Sassoon, Owen, Blunden – have acquired an almost celebrity status. Books about the war such as All Quiet on the Western Front and A Farewell to Arms have become bestsellers. But the work of composers who fought in the trenches has largely been forgotten.

Before the war, music halls were a popular form of entertainment but there was also a thriving classical musical scene. Gramophones were expensive and the radio had yet to be invented, so to listen to music the public had to attend concerts. And they had a rich variety to choose from.

Explore some of the classical sounds from World War One with this brilliant resource from the BBC –http://bit.ly/WW1classical

A more detailed examination of war composers can be found here – http://www.warcomposers.co.uk/

BBC Radio 3 offer lots of sound clips revealing the different tastes in classical music ‘on the brink’ of war in 1914. Music is featured from London, Vienna, Berlin and St Petersburg – http://bit.ly/music1914

The Choir presenter Gareth Malone examines why ‘Pack Up Your Troubles’ became the viral hit of World War One. http://bit.ly/packupyourtroubles

Almost 100 years after it was written, the tune and lyrics remain with us long after the guns of World War One have fallen silent. A firm favourite in its day with troops on the Western Front as well as their families back at home, its popularity didn’t stop there. ‘Pack Up Your Troubles’ went on to enjoy success in Hollywood films, Broadway musicals and even made an appearance in the UK top ten chart as recently as 2010.

It’s been translated into Dutch, German and Spanish, becoming a truly global hit. But in the midst of a world war, what was it about this song in particular that made it such a huge success?

On Firstworldwar.com there is an excellent archive of popular music and other sound recordings spanning the years of the war. http://bit.ly/WW1music

Recently, contemporary music groups from both the UK and Germany have been commissioned to write soundtracks for World War One exhibitions and commemorations.

In late 2011 tindersticks were commissioned by the In Flanders Fields World War One museum in Ypres, Belgium to provide the soundscape for the new permanent exhibition being planned to commemorate the centenary of the Great War and beyond.

Ypres was the epicenter of the Western Front in The Great War and was virtually destroyed by the conflict. It has since been rebuilt to its original plans, finished only relatively recently. The museum is housed in the rebuilt cloth hall that stands in the centre of the town and was once the hub of the towns industry.

Hundreds of thousands died in Ypres and the surrounding area. Allied cemeteries and graves are everywhere. It is overwhelming. The work is an evolving soundtrack to the visitors journey through the exhibition. The music in the museum loops seamlessly all day, everyday. It is music without a beginning , middle or end.

Listen to one of the haunting tracks from the album here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DWPbkm2TIE

The famous Berlin avant-garde group, Einstürzende Neubauten, has composed a completely new piece of music to perform live at the commemoration of The Fall of Diksmuide.

On 10 November 1914 the Belgian bridgehead of Diksmuide fell into German hands after a brief battle involving troop movements. During the subsequent few years Diksmuide continued to form part of the German line, and the town was reduced to rubble and bomb craters from persistent Belgian artillery fire and bombardments.

The members of Einstürzende Neubauten ‘literally’ deconstruct old objects, meanings, history and buildings and convert them into a new futuristic sound. You can see them perform the work in its entirety here – Lament by Einstürzende Neubauten.