WW1 Stories required for classroom

[Matt R]

Hello Rootschat,

As some of you may already know, I am a History teacher working in a secondary school in the East Midlands.

I have recently been asked by my Head of Department to take a lead on planning and resourcing our WW1 Scheme of Learning and I am pivoting towards a study of how the First World War impacted on ordinary people, e.g., the soldiers who fought in it and the families who lived it.

As part of this, I intend on using real-life examples of families during this conflict as well as experiences and stories by ordinary men on the front lines in extraordinary circumstances. My philosophy when teaching History is to make it as relevant and as powerful as possible to engage students' understanding.

In this vein, I have a polite request. If any of you have any stories or photographs of First World War soldiers/families that you would like to be incorporated into my lessons then I would love to hear from you, either publicly or privately.

I'd like to stress that as a teacher I will be making no profit from such work and if chatters wish, I'd be more than happy to share the lesson PowerPoints so that you can see how I have your family's stories of sacrifice to bring history alive for the next generation.

I hope that admin can accommodate this request; I don't believe such a request has been made before and I'd love to have real, authentic experiences of ordinary people during this time to share.

I'm looking for the following in particular, including images if they are available:

- Stories of loss on the front. Did your ancestor serve with friends who died in service?
- Stories of heroism or humanity shown on the battlefield, whether it be with friends, comrades or perhaps even the enemy?
- Stories of men who were taken as Prisoners of War.
- Stories of how families struggled back home.
- Stories of women who worked in munitions factories or who drove the ambulances near the front lines.
- Stories of soldiers who married their nurses.
- Stories of families losing more than one son/brother to the war and of course the awful stories of battle and warfare that the men experienced.
- Stories about soldiers being punished or tried for what the army deemed as cowardice.

I promise to treat all of the above with the respect and sensitivity they deserve. They are, after all, our family history. I'll be sharing the story of my great gran's cousin Peter who signed up with his friend; they had consecutive army numbers and served in the same machine gun battery, only to be killed on The Somme 24 hours apart.

Please reply or drop me a message if you are interested!

Kind regards,
Matt

[mckha489]

You have forgotten
Soldiers who were MIA & Prisoners of war.

[Matt R]

Thanks mckha489,

I have now added this to the list.

Kind regards,
Matt

[Treetotal]

Maybe you should include the "Conscientious Objectors" too.
Carol

[GrahamSimons]

The family story that gets me every Remembrance Day tells of one young British officer killed near Ypres and his German brother-in-law, also a young officer,  killed on the other side of the lines. Their deaths were a few weeks apart. I can give some detail if you would like to use this example.

[Viktoria]

Hello, What a wonderful project.
My father was in a sort of reserve scheme ,The Derby Scheme, Earl Derby
was a local Aristocrat ,local being Lancashire

After the enormous losses of The Somme ,another battle in Belgium was planned ,at Passendale.
My father was called up in September 1916.
His mother died just then but there was no deferment ,and he had to report to Manchester Town Hall.September 1916.
His Regiment was The King’s Liverpool .
After the initial training at Pirbright he was shipped to France.
This would be Spring 1917, he was captured at Freilingen in May and spent the next years as POW.
This meant he did not serve at Passendale, and that probably saved  his life.
Repatriated in early 1919 .
I will send more which might help .
May I recommend a book ,about “ The Somme “ by John Harris ,
c
Covenant with Death ,it leads up through training a group of lads from the same town - a Pals’ Regiment , to the dreadful first day of “ The Battle of The
Somme”.
If you can’t find a copy let me know ,it describes so well how it was.
The aftermath was a town that had lost a high proportion of its’ young
men .

There are many stories available , just one , Billy McFadzean, in the front line trench on the first day of “ The Somme” .
Waiting for the signal to go over the top.

Soldiers were passing boxes of grenades along the front line trench .
Someone dropped a box which spilled out its contend, some had lost the safety pins ,so Billy flung himself on the spilled grenades and was blown to bits .
However his action minimised the effect of the exploding grenades.
His name is on the huge Thiepval memorial .

The last words in the book I mentioned are true of many of those “ Pals’ Battallions “
“ Two years in the making ,ten minutes  in the destroying.”
I will P.M you if you think I have anything of  interest.
You would find the book a great help.
Published a good while ago by The Companion Book Club London .
However the original,publishers were Hutchinsons .
Viktoria.
P.S just looked it up and it is back in print ,at Waterstones there is a number but does not say it is an ISBN —- 9780090012602.
Not expensive about £7 ,paperback.
Viktoria.

[eadaoin]

I also recommend "Covenant With Death" - I have here beside me as I type.

[GrahamSimons]

If you can find a copy - Anne Powell's anthology A Deep Cry about soldier-poets of the Great War is an excellent read.
[conflict of interest declaration - we are cousins]

[Viktoria]

Yes eadaoin, I think it was The Sheffield Pals but could have been any of those Pals regiments
Sheffield Park is a little enclosure on the Somme, if I remember correctly The Accrington Pals memorial is there, an Accrington brick wall ,those very hard engineering bricks, The Chorley Pals was a plaque on a tree.
I have the Roll of Honour for the district ,sad heartbreaking reading ,brothers and fathers sons etc. Many with the same name and address,so a family .
All gone.
The  first  morning when the telegrams were arriving ——

It is good that the youngsters know, I was brought up with it ,many have no idea.
All we have to give is remembrance ,costs nothing either.
Viktoria.