Category Archives: military

battlefields, commemoration, military, remembrance

CWGC Internships in France and Belgium, summer 2017

January 17, 2017 User deactivated Leave a comment

cwgc The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is inviting applications for paid internships working at their sites in France and Belgium over the summer of 2017. These posts are for 18-25 year olds, and will last four months. The duties focus on welcoming visitors to the cemeteries and memorial sites managed by CWGC, providing a service which is informative and supportive, to help them gain full benefit from their visit.

It is an opportunity for young people leaving university or college with a strong interest in the history of World War One. They will gain a deeper understanding of the work of CWGC, and participants will develop valuable employability skills in working as part of a team and dealing with people.

Full details are available on the CWGC website, with applicants needing to meet a deadline of 27th January.

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

Battle of the Somme

June 13, 2016 User deactivated Leave a comment

The 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

June 6, 2016 User deactivated Leave a comment

On 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

June 6, 2016 User deactivated Leave a comment

Scotland 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

June 3, 2016 User deactivated Leave a comment

Commemorative 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.

battlefields, commemoration, exhibitions, film and TV, industrial, military

Jutland – preparing for the centenary

May 27, 2016 User deactivated Leave a comment

The centenary of the Battle of Jutland, the most important naval battle of World War One, will be commemorated over the next few days. Major events will take place in Orkney and on the Firth of Forth, near to the major bases for the British fleets of 1916 around Scapa Flow and Rosyth. For events in Orkney, go to the VisitOrkney website.

On the Forth, an exciting addition to local events will be Scotland’s Dazzle Ship – a vessel repainted to the design of artist Ciara Phillips, as part of the 14-18 Now cultural programme.

A Daily Telegraph article give some background to the battle. BBC produced a timeline of the battle, and also an iWonder resource “Did anyone win the Battle of Jutland“, that probes the issue of which side in the conflict gained most from the fight.

In the lead up to these events there has been a lot of media coverage online, often focused on the personal stories of individual servicemen and sailors. Examples: the letters of a teenage sailor; another Scottish sailor who had a premonition of death; and a BBC piece about boy sailor Jack Cornwell who won the Victoria Cross for his bravery during the fighting.

Several TV channels ran special documentary programmes about this clash of two great navies, its impact and importance. BBC 2 broadcast “Battle of Jutland: the Navy’s bloodiest day“, which is available to watch on the iPlayer catch-up service for one month.

In Invergordon, where many dead sailors were buried after the battle, a ceremony of remembrance has already been held at a local war memorial.

Special exhibitions are also attracting public interest. For example, ‘The Forth at War’ at the Scottish Fisheries Museum in Anstruther, Fife.

The image of HMS New Zealand, one of the ships involved in the battle and built on the Clyde, was kindly provided by Fairfield Heritage. The heritage centre at this Govan shipyard actively promotes the role of shipbuilding as a war industry, and works with local schools.

battlefields, commemoration, competitions, military, schools

Legion Scotland primary schools competition – Vote!

March 18, 2016 User deactivated Leave a comment

Legion Scotland, the veterans organisation, themed its Primary schools competition for 2016 around the Battle of Jutland 1916 (with great things planned for the centenary in May and June). School pupils that participated in the competition investigated the lives of the crews of the warships of the British fleets and thought about the impacts of the battles these sailors faced.

The task for pupils entering the competition was to produce a report in the style of a newspaper story, with an associated image (such as the photo of HMS New Zealand, which took part in the battle. Photo by kind permission of Fairfield Heritage)

The work of twelve schools has now been shortlisted by the judges, and the public can vote for their preference among the entries displayed on the Legion Scotland website.

Vote now!

battlefields, commemoration, libraries, military, schools

Scotland and the Battle of Loos

October 2, 2015 User deactivated Leave a comment

On 25th and 26th September 2015 the City of Dundee staged a series of commemorative events to mark the centenary of the Battle of Loos. In 1915 the whole nation suffered, as thirty thousand Scots from different regiments were involved in this battle in northern France, and the heavy loss of life and huge number of injuries caused widespread distress. Dundee men were present particularly in the battalions of the Black Watch.

“Remembering Loos”, the national commemoration in Dundee, included the lighting of the beacon at the war memorial on Dundee Law, a service of remembrance, a parade, and music performances. The events were organised by Dundee City Council and the Great War Dundee partnership, with support from the Scottish Government through the national Scottish Commemorations Panel.

School pupils in the city worked on a project to remember Loos by researching and creating information panels, which were exhibited to an invited VIP audience and to the public. Dundee City Council education staff and students worked with Education Scotland and partners such as the Black Watch Museum and Dundee University Archives service to achieve a great deal of new learning.

The BBC News story “The Battle of Loos: how Dundee marks its ‘black day'” describes some of the commemorative activity and the historical background to it. The Dundee Courier story “Battle of Loos remembered 100 years on” includes a video clip from the events.

Another BBC News article, “The piper who won the Victoria Cross“, tells the story of Piper Daniel Laidlaw of the Kings Own Scottish Borderers and his bravery under fire. Laidlaw’s playing of the pipes rallied troops to join the assault, after a German gas attack temporarily stalled the advance.

A news story in Glasgow’s Evening Times, “Remembering the Govan men who died at Loos, a century ago” reports on a local man who has researched the Govan High School men listed on the school’s Roll of Honour. Eight died at Loos.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission website has a section dedicated to the cemeteries around Loos.

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

Gallipoli and Scotland

June 19, 2015 User deactivated Leave a comment

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, military, remembrance, war memorials

Quintinshill rail disaster

June 3, 2015 User deactivated Leave a comment

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.