WW1 Stories required for classroom

[Viktoria]

I can see it would be a great help, especially the direct links to present day people.

I must photocopy the project my grandson did, just one soldier, captured and so a POW pretty early but some family background too.

I find it hard ,as I was brought up with it all, that people don’t know ,but that could have been said of me re earlier conflicts such as The Crimean War, yes Florence Nightingal,The Light Brigade, Balaclava ,but the every day life of the troops was never mentioned, their home backgrounds etc.

I would love to be in that classroom .
Viktoria.

[tazzie]

My sons students discovered family members  and added photos. A couple found they lived in houses or near to houses of the soldiers, one planted a poppy corner. He had some lovely comments at parents evening about it as well.

[ALAMO2008]

Volunteered during Covid to become a Researcher for The Liverpoolpals Memorial website Roll of Honour
Was Allocated Surnames A to M and Research those Fallen Pals who had No Age Known and No Biography listed
Starting with Only a Name, Serial number and Date of Death - I ploughed through some 2000 cases and ensured they all had an Age and Biography ( except two cases- One Canadian and One Scotsman who enlisted under false names)
Here is a Link to an Example of one of the cases that I created from nothing known.


https://www.liverpoolpals.com/soldier/?i=17/25705-Pte-frank-ainsworth

[ALAMO2008]

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

Matt - Use this link for a street near you and expand UK map and zoom in on your East Midlands Area to see those lost in WW1 in your area.

https://astreetnearyou.org/#=undefined&lat=35.84156446066883&lon=18.74999284744263&zoom=3

[GrahamSimons]

I drive through a Thankful Village quite frequently.  They have added that fact to the signs as you enter the Village. I believe that there are no Thankful Villages in France.

[brigidmac]

My grandfather and his younger brother lied about their ages in order to join WW1

He rarely talked about his experience
But once he did tell my sister about the time his comrades either side of him were shot .
She remembers him veering off in the park as he told the story probably to go to the gents so he she wouldn't see him cry ...she didn't realize where he was heading and was so engrossed in story nearly went inthe gents toilet too.

He was also terrified off mice ..we thought that was funny but later learning of the rats in trenches which bit soldiers we realized it was a more rational fear than his wife's fear of cows !

[jim1]

Something that may resonate with your students is that it is
estimated that over 50,000 underage boys volunteered during the war.
A few years ago I took this picture at Essex Farm Cemetery of
Valentine Strudwick of the 8th. Rifle Brigade.
He died age 15.

[Matt R]

Hello everyone,

Firstly, can I please just say a sincere thank you to everyone who has responded to this thread until now and to those who have messaged me privately to send on your stories/memories/photographs. I am currently away for the weekend but I wanted to check-in so that you all don't think I'm ignoring you. I'm truly thankful that so many of you have shared stories that are so personal so please accept my humble thanks.

I am having a meeting with my head of department next week to finalise our curriculum plan for Term 2 (when we teach WW1) and I will use these stories as sources to inform our lessons and PowerPoints. I will also be able to read them in more detail and respond to PMs once I have done this.

I've had a lot of responses so please accept my apologies if I don't respond right away.

Thanks again - my students are going to find this all extremely useful and informative.

MattR

[GrahamSimons]

On 'boys' at war: Jack Cornwell, Boy 1st Class, was awarded a posthumous VC aged 16 for his courage at Jutland.