2017 Winter

Living legacies 1914-18 First World War Engagement Centre Update

Christmas 2017

Welcome to the Living Legacies 1914-18 Newsletter! 


Welcome to the Living Legacies Newsletter and a Merry Christmas from all the team!

This is the last Living Legacies Newsletter for 2017. It has been a very busy and productive twelve months, with many notable achievements and new partnerships and collaborations. One of these achievements is the Sanctuary Award for Heritage awarded recently to Living Legacies Project Officer, Dr Heather Montgomery. Well done Heather for this well-deserved recognition of your community archaeology work in partnership with the MOD. Looking forward to 2018 I’m also very pleased to report that Living Legacies is developing a close collaboration with the RAF through its RAF100 programme, and developing community-based projects with RAF Cadet Leaders in Northern Ireland which will engage young people to explore local WW1 aviation heritage. Living Legacies researchers are actively contributing to other national centenary initiatives too, such as the community workshops led by the Council for British Archaeology’s Home Front Legacy project. Supporting these and other nationwide centenary programmes through local research activities is proving to be very successful as well as immensely rewarding. 


Award

Christmas pic 1Living Legacies, Dr. Heather Montgomery was in London on the 22nd November 2017, with the Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork’s Miss Grace McAlister, Major Tony Canniford (MoD, Ballykinler Training Estate), and Richard Osgood (MoD Archaeologist) at the Ministry of Defence Sanctuary Awards Ceremony 2017. Heather and the team received the Sanctuary Award for Heritage.

Left-Right: Grace McAlister (CAF), Maj A. Canniford (MoD Ballykinler), Dr. Montgomery and Richard Osgood (MoD Senior Archaeologist). 

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Recent Events

Presentation by Keith Lilley at RAF Aldergrove

On Sunday November 19th, Keith Lilley spoke at the annual Christmas pic 2 meeting of the RAF Cadet Squadron Leaders at RAF Aldergrove about linking RAF100 cadet activities in 2018 with the work of Living Legacies. The emphasis in the presentation was placed on the scope offered by the Defence Heritage Project (DHP) online resource as a basis for developing local outreach projects with groups of cadets across NI, particularly using DHP to locate 'aviation heritage' in the field, recording its status today, and uploading the results of their field-work onto the DHP platform. This idea was well-received by cadet leaders This image is from the PRONI Historical Map Viewer resource and already further discussions have been had with leaders and with RAF100 programme manager for NI, Dave Hammond. (https://apps.spatialni.gov.uk/EduSocial/PRONIApplication/index.html)

Using Digital Skills to enhance your WW1 Project

Christmas pic 3On the 7th November we hosted a very successful digital training workshop day here at Living Legacies (supported by CDDA).  We had 18 participants – all with current or planned HLF bids.  We provided introductory training on research skills, scoping their projects, digital standards and guidelines, indexing content and archiving/sustainability of their research.  Some feedback: - ‘We would like to thank Elaine, Sophie & everyone else involved in the workshop for their time & knowledge. We also look forward to more workshops in the future, as we know they will benefit our Great War Project, & any further projects we are involved in’.

Poppies: Weeping Window ExhibitionChristmas pic 4

As December approaches, the Poppies: Weeping Window exhibition ‌draws to a close. It has been extremely popular, with visitor numbers up 85.9% from November 2016 and with the most recent overall total numbering 102,991! Living Legacies involvement has been critical in engaging with groups through our Participate in Poppies programme. 

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First World War Centenary Partnership (IWM) Northern Ireland

Christmas pic 5The Living Legacies team were pleased to participate in the excellent Imperial War Museum "First World War Centenary Partnership" event on the 23rd November.  Along with other key stakeholders from NMNI, HMS Caroline, Woodland Trust, Down County Museum, Nerve Centre, Belfast City Council, Heritage Lottery Fund, we enjoyed useful discussions and reflections and heard from some fascinating commemorative and heritage projects. We were encouraged by the innovate ways of examining the war and pleased to meet up with colleagues and community leaders undertaking interesting and novel work. 

Please click here for a list of archived Living Legacies News


Upcoming Events

5th January 2018 - Mini-Symposium for Living Legacies Research Funded Projects 

9th February 2018 – Lecture, Training Kitchener’s New Army 1914-18: Perspectives on the Irish Experience.

24th March 2018, 15th April and 26th April 2018 - Proposed workshops in Stirling, Lampeter, Wales and Belfast with the Council for British Archaeology/Home Front Legacies  

Please click here for a full list of current Living Legacies Events


Research Project News

Diverse Perspectives on a Global Conflict: Migrant Voices and Living Legacies of WW1

Christmas pic 6During 2017, Dr Philip McDermott from Ulster University worked collaboratively with the North-West Migrants Forum in Derry/Londonderry to explore ‘Migrant Voices on the Living Legacies of World War One’.

This project facilitated two workshops in Belfast and Derry where 12 Migrants from 10 different countries explored the conflict’s legacy in the country which they left. Participants were from Italy, Ethiopia, Guyana, South Africa, China, Poland, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Romania and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The material has now been collated as an exhibition which is due to tour throughout Northern Ireland in 2018 with the initial launch in Derry in later January 2018 and in Belfast during Early February 2018.  Please follow this link to see more

Please see video by clicking here.

Refocusing Perspectives – Symposium and Exhibition

Christmas pic 7Christmas pic 8The Refocussing Perspectives: Then and Now Photography of the First World War project held its final symposium in Winchester on 18th November. We also used the occasion to launch the Project Exhibition. This Exhibition was comprised of ten panels, each led by a volunteer researcher from the Royal Photographic Society. The Keynote Lecture at the Symposium was given by the well-known First World War author and Harry Patch’s biographer, Richard van Emden, who presented a series of previously unpublished photographs combined with excerpts from soldiers’ own diaries and letters from the battle fronts of 1917.

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Christmas pic 9


Living Legacies Digital Archive – Open Access

This database is an online collection of the objects and stories gathered from our ongoing public engagement roadshows.  The resource has been re-designed to give all our community partners and contributors open access to some very personal stories and memorabilia relating to World War One.

Please follow this link to see more