Trenches recreated in Glasgow

December 15, 2015 User deactivated Leave a comment

This summer the ‘Digging In’ project has been active in Glasgow’s Pollok Park, constructing its first trenches in a programme of work to support learning about World War One by the public and school students.

The reconstructions have created short sections of trenches modelled on those used by British and German soldiers on the Western Front battlefields of France and Belgium in the period 1914-1918. The design work was informed by Army field manuals, soldiers’ diaries, and evidence from excavations in Flanders conducted by historians and archaeologists.

The trenches have already been open for public and school visits for a few trial sessions, with expert facilitators to guide them through the experience of the life of a combatant in such a hostile environment. Hands-on activities and teaching packs will complement the classroom learning of pupils.

The project partnership is lead by Northlight Heritage, with partners including Glasgow City Council, Glasgow University, and Stewart’s Melville College. A grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund enabled the project to get underway, and new partners and sponsors are supporting the project’s development.

The project website provides details about the site excavations and facilities, and assists learning about aspects of WW1 such as trench experiences, the roles of women, advances in medical treatment, and conscientious objectors. The project is also attracting interest through Facebook and Twitter.

The project launch is described in a Glasgow City Council news release, and a BBC news story.

The location within Pollok Park also allows possible tie-ins for school visits to Pollok House (a National Trust for Scotland property), which functioned as an auxiliary hospital during World War One.

There are many resources online which could be used by teachers for preparatory work before a site visit. For example, a BBC Schools education resource about Food in the trenches.

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.

arts and music, exhibitions, museums and archives

Next of Kin exhibition touring Scotland

September 7, 2015 User deactivated Leave a comment

The ‘Next of Kin’ exhibition developed by National Museums of Scotland and presented at the National War Museum in Edinburgh is touring venues in Scottish towns and cities. The touring programme includes learning activities at each museum, using a object handling resource aimed at school and community groups.

A recent blog post describes the activities that took place during the exhibition’s stay in Dumfries, and its new residency at Rozelle House in Ayr. The website has been updated; a new resource section provides links to online resources created for the project, and the learning programme section provides information about associated learning activities at each museum, and will be updated for each venue.

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, competitions, schools

Primary Schools competition winners

June 15, 2015 User deactivated Leave a comment

Legion 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

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.

arts and music, commemoration, exhibitions, museums and archives

Families and the Great War

May 21, 2015 User deactivated Leave a comment

The ‘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

May 21, 2015 User deactivated Leave a comment

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

April 29, 2015 User deactivated Leave a comment

Commemorative 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

March 12, 2015 User deactivated Leave a comment

The 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.