To mark the centenary of the outbreak of WW1, a number of local partners (including our church) met up to find ways to commemorate this historic date. Some funding was put in place. On Remembrance Sunday an estimated 2,500 people joined a march, central to which were 390 local school children each representing a service man whose name is on our war memorial.
Words which recurred in the feedback given were: PARTICIPATION, LEARNING, SENSE OF PRIDE AND HONOUR, INSPIRATION FOR FUTURE, RESEARCH. A new website (thanks to Sarah Wood) was launched in January
Volunteers are now needed to help research into the lives of the 390, which will mean discovering about Isleworth then, as a place, its housing, etc. There will be community workshops. Links will be made with local studies, historians and local as well as national archives. It’s an important opportunity to understand more fully the world as it was then – very different.
And there is the mobile exhibition – come and visit it!
For the future, there are Stages 3 and 4. Proposed are: curriculum units for both secondary and primary schools; a commemorative local walk; a local art work; end of project exhibition and publication; and the research to be housed in a local or national archive.