Pace of commemoration activity quickens as centenary approaches

The whole nation is now being alerted to the massive planned programme of commemoration and reminiscence of the events of 100 years ago when the country was plunged into a conflict the tragic outcomes of which the population could have had no imagination in the warm summer of 1914.
Locally, the Tynemouth project has an on-going range of activities which have awakened a strong interest in the local community in many aspects of the Great War. These events include academic lectures at Northumbria University, where we will conclude our landmark series of 2013/14 in May, when Professor Joanna Bourke of Birkbeck College of London University will deliver the final lecture; appropriately entitled ‘Armistice and disability’ –her conclusion of the series will review the aftermath of the conflict.  These lectures are free to attend and the final one takes place at 6.15p on Tuesday, 13th May at the City Campus East of the University opposite Manors Metro Station.

Anthea Lang will be looking at two local men of the area who had interesting parts in the conflict. Her talk to be given as part of the very popular series at the
Low Lights Tavern on Brewhouse Bank, Fish Quay, North Shields is entitled ‘Saint or Sinner – but which was which?  Anthea is looking at two local men from Gateshead, Brigadier Roland Boys Bradford VC the youngest man to achieve ‘field rank’ in the war (aged only 25) and a man named Rix unknown to almost everyone. We shall learn the answer to her question at 730pm on Tuesday 29th April, 2014. Tickets for this talk are free but must be obtained in advance from the Low Lights tavern, our workroom at Linskill Centre or Keel Row Bookshop, Fenwick Terrace.
Anyone interested to learn about the sources of World War One materials which have been assembled by the Europeana Project across the continent, from all nations involved in the conflict can hear a free talk from Alun Edwards of the University of Oxford’s Academic IT Services at 530pm on Thursday evening next week (24th April), again being given at the City Campus East of Northumbria University. The vast archive of materials gathered (mostly free to download) includes material of a local nature as well as from the battlefields [picture].

As the project’s major events approach we are preparing to open a public information point on Front Street Tynemouth in the vacant property adjacent to the Library. This will, when open, be a place where local residents and visitors to the very popular street can learn about the project’s work and forthcoming events.
Initially it will be open on week-ends and Bank Holidays from 3rd May but we hope that it can be open during week-days in the schools’ holidays if sufficient volunteers are willing to give a few hours to staff the information desk we will have to advise about our many activities. Anyone who might be able to offer a few hours a week is asked to contact the project at our workroom at Linskill. The shop will display some of our small exhibitions of materials we have gathered over the past three years as well as giving visitors an opportunity to view our critically acclaimed database of family biographies of local men killed in the conflict..

Memorial Garden – project appeals for your support

Despite the atrocious weather of the preceding few days the members of the Tynemouth Venture Scouts were on hand all day on Saturday 29th March, to work with volunteers from the project to plant out the hundreds of shrubs, roses and other plants generously donated by Brambledown Nurseries and now awaiting some warm spring days to flourish and provide the backdrop for the planned memorial wall  which we intend will contain the details of the more than 1700 men of the Tynemouth Borough who died as a result of the Great War, to be recorded street-by-street to form the town’s only public memorial naming the victims of the war.

We hope the garden- with a large paved area - will be provided with memorial bench seats and other furniture, bird boxes etc. It will become a haven of peace and a space for quiet reflection for visiting family relatives of those named on the wall or anyone interested to see the details of the loss suffered by the community 100 years ago. However, the creation of the garden and wall is only possible if we have the support of the population today just as in the early 1920s when the Jubilee Infirmary extension and memorial in Hawkeys Lane was funded by public donations (see News Guardian story 27th March).

The funding we received from the Heritage Lottery Fund in 2012 for the many activities we have carried out did not provide for this more recent proposal. Therefore we must raise the money for this development before we can complete the full memorial project.    
 
The full programme of commemorative events we have planned for this summer, will provide the fitting culmination of the three years of dedicated work by over 70 local volunteers and our many supporters in the community, including North Tyneside Council and its staff; the news media (particularly the News Guardian and The Journal); and many local businesses and individuals who have generously donated their time and resources, as the project has developed into possibly the largest WW1 commemorative programme in the country.

Now we are appealing to the public today to help us by donations, however great or small to support our programme of commemoration including the memorial garden and wall.
The Borough of Tynemouth suffered twice the national average loss of life in the Great War which our nationally commended ‘casualty map’ has demonstrated to great effect. We hope that relatives of the casualties as well as those with no direct connection to the local victims of the war will wish to help us to establish a lasting memorial and reminder today of the terrible events of 100 years ago which had profound consequences for the town and its families.

Individual donations will be recorded in an on-line Book of Remembrance, at the discretion of donors, which can be made in respect of a family relative or merely as a mark of thanks today for the sacrifice and hardships endured by hundreds of men, women and children of the community as a result of the war.


Donations can be made in person (10am to 4pm) or sent by cheque to the project, at the Administration address at: Essell Accountants, 29 Howard Street, North Shields, NE30 1AR. Donations can be accepted by debit/ credit card in person or by telephone (subject to a small merchant fee) – Tel: (0191) 259 2743 Please do not send cash donations by post. Cheques should be made payable to: ‘Tynemouth World War One Commemoration Project’.
If you wish to make a donation in memory of a particular person please include details of the casualty and his date of death and home address at the time (if known). Our volunteers at the Linskill Community Centre may be able to assist you in this but they cannot accept cash donations.
Anyone who might wish to make a special donation to provide for an item of garden furniture or other special cost can contact the Administration office and a member of the project will get in touch to discuss this further with you.

Sage September Concert

 Commemorative Concert will reflect the War across the North East

Planning is now well advanced for the staging of what will be the biggest event of its kind in the North East this year to mark the contribution of the people of the region to the national struggle over the years 1914-18; as the entire population was affected by the demands of the government to sustain an all-consuming juggernaut of military effort, that changed the nation; both the patterns of employment and social structures, over the four years of conflict.

The concert, in the imposing venue of Sage Gateshead will take place on Saturday, 27th September, 2014 at 7.30pm in Hall One. The Project has joined forces with the ABF – the Soldiers’ Charity to organise this event under the title of The Response which reflects its theme of telling the story of how the communities of the North East played a strategic and pivotal role in the national war effort as well as providing recruits for the armed forces in far greater numbers proportionately to the majority of other parts of the country; and suffered some of the worst losses of life in the many great campaigns on the Western Front and elsewhere over the period of the war.

The project will be using many images drawn from its research findings to illustrate the concert, which will feature popular music of the time, military airs and soldiers’ songs together with poetry and writing of the wartime era.

Young people of today will play a big part in the event with the Northumbrian Ranters school orchestra of Northumberland alongside traditional dancers reflecting the Scottish and Irish cultural mix of the population of 1914; a time when the region was the industrial powerhouse of the nation attracting a huge influx of migrants from elsewhere in the United Kingdom.

The story of the Tyneside Scottish and Irish Brigades and the other local ‘Pals’ battalions of the Northumberland Fusiliers and Durham Light Infantry will be reflected as we remember the tragic consequences of the First Day of the Battle of the Somme (1st July, 1916) and its consequences for thousands of North East families.
Tickets for the event will go on sale from the Sage Box office from 1st June, 2014 and demand is expected to be high for this very special event. All proceeds from the event, one of the ABFs Salute our Heroes concert series, will go to the Soldiers’ Charity and SSAFA  Forces Help

More immediately the seventh in our series of key lectures on the Great War and its consequences will take place at Northumbria University, City Campus East on Tuesday 8th April, 2014 at 6.15pm when Professor Andrew Lambert of Kings College, London University will deliver a lecture on the Royal Navy in WW1.
This is a free event. The City Campus East is located opposite Manors Metro Station and parking is available on site from 4pm in the University car park (chargeable ). Details of this lecture and the final event on 13th May, when Professor Joanna Bourke of Birkbeck College, London, will conclude the lecture series looking at ‘Armistice and Disability’, can be found on the project website.

Growing local interest

Story of the Great War now engaging the population

The Public Information Day organized by the Tynemouth World War One Commemoration Project in collaboration with North Tyneside Council Customer First Centre in North Shields on Saturday 1st March demonstrated the widespread interest of the local population in the story of the Great War as it affected the local community.

Now as the centenary of the outbreak of the war looms, the work of the Tynemouth Project receives recognition across the region as an example of outstanding community involvement and the excellence of its work, in recording the stories of the hundreds of men of the borough who paid the ultimate price in the war.

So far our work in schools has been limited but those that have been willing to engage with us have found that pupils are fascinated by and very respectful of the work of the project. Teachers who have grasped the opportunity, find that our casualty map and access to the database allows them to engage children by reference to the casualties who lived in the streets in which many of them are living in today.

Our work with schools is funded by our Heritage Lottery Fund grant and allows us to provide the services of a qualified teacher/ creative practitioner to go into schools and  work alongside teachers and pupils to learn about the war through art, music, painting and poetry, Some of the work produced has been commented upon as outstanding and allows the pupils to engage with the subject of the war at a personal level by exploring in depth some of the fascinating stories of the men of the borough, uncovered by our work over the past three years

The breadth of our activity has been recognis

Our entry has been submitted and we will hear more on progress of that in June. If successful it could mean a £2000 boost to our funds as a contribution to the many activities we have planned for the coming months. I will have more to say on this next week.

Just before writing this column I was at Northumbria University discussing our potential participation and contribution to a two day seminar being organized to look at the digitization of historical records with a particular focus on the Great War.

It is gratifying that the hard work of our more than 70 volunteers over the last three years is now recognized widely as an exemplar of good practice in the collation and presentation of materials in an accessible format through the means of modern digital technology.

The seminar will also have a public event in the evening of Thursday 24th April, in Newcastle. Further details on this will be given in the coming weeks.

Open Day success

Success of WW1 Information day prompts repeat of event

The Public Information Day organised by the Tynemouth World War One Commemoration Project in collaboration with North Tyneside Council Customer First Centre in North Shields attracted a huge number of visitors to the centre on Saturday 1st March. So much so that it has been agreed already that the event will be repeated on Saturday, 28th June, 2014, when the Project’s highly acclaimed database will be opened to general public access via the internet.

During the event last Saturday more than 100 persons were given demonstrations of the project’s database and its rich sources of family history; with project volunteers on hand at four dedicated computer terminals in the first floor Library area.

Provisional figures show that more than 1000 people visited the range of stalls and exhibitions on view from 10am to 4pm.

One of the most popular stalls featured the food and rations of the British and German soldiers in the trenches, as well as some of the improvised recipes forced upon the civilian population, as shortages and rationing took a hold of the depleted food supplies available in Britain and Germany.

For differing reasons food was in short supply and the lack of it probably hastened the end of the war in Germany’s case.

For Britain the effects of u-Boat action threatened the continuation of the war at one point and in 1917 it was estimated that the country was down to only three week’s supply of imported foods. For a German family the effects of the Royal Navy’s blockade of European ports around the North Sea meant many staple items became very hard to get. Further pressure on food supplies was caused by the failure of the potato crop in Germany in 1916. In the notorious ‘Turnip winter’ of 1916/17 the staple diet was reduced to numerous variations of very bland inventions around the humble Swede.

Visitors to the event on Saturday were able to sample the delights of Turnip marmalade at the fascinating display on the stand brought by Richard and Jan Crouch which offered many samples and examples of the realities of wartime food and soldiers rations (picture). Richard said “The free recipe sheets went like ‘hot cakes’.

The history of the role of the Scouts in the Great War was on display from the
3rd Tynemouth (Ritson’s Own) Scouts – a troop originated through connections with the Ritson family who owned and operated the former Preston colliery until its closure in1929, situated in the area of Regency Gardens, of North Shields today.


Members of the NET group, preparing to open their new Fishing and Maritime Heritage Centre in Clifford’s Fort on the Fish Quay later this year were on hand to show materials connected to the occupation of the fort by the
Tyne Electrical Engineers (Submarine Miners) in the early years of the 20th century. The group was able to make many contacts and recruit new volunteers for its exciting venture which will celebrate the maritime history of the Borough.

Three of the project’s popular talks given monthly at the Low Lights Tavern on the Fish Quay were repeated during the day.

The overall reaction of visitors was evidence of the strong interest in the story of the war in the community; stimulated no doubt by the increasing attention being paid to the forthcoming centenary of the start of the war in the national and regional media.

The Customer First Centre staff all enjoyed the day with the centre management
commenting:-

   ‘We have had fantastic feedback from the public and staff. Customer comments included “very interesting”, “Thoroughly enjoyed the day, looking forward to future events”, “We loved the WW1 songs”, “I’ve learned so much today”


The Project will be repeating the event on the occasion of the launch of the database and hopes to bring along additional groups and further interesting aspects of the story of the war for public information.