Crediton pupils’ WW1 work goes on display

Pupils at a Devon primary school have created their own ‘pop-up’ World War One museum which will be open to the community all next week.

The museum will feature period artefacts such as gas masks and shell casings which have been discovered in relatives’ attics as well as websites and projects featuring the children’s own research into family members who were involved in the war.

The extended project, at Landscore Primary School at Crediton, has been funded by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund which has enabled Years 5 and 6 to work with a professional ancestry researcher.

One of the prized displays will be a letter from King George V to Fred Hall who fought in the Somme, was taken prisoner but survived and received the commendation when he came home.

All the artefacts on display will have provenances written by the children and pupil Calum Bailey has proudly written the provenance for the King’s letter to his great, great grandad.

Kai Pickard has a picture of his great, grandad Herbert Singleton which was in his grandmother’s attic. Herbert was sent to India when he was 15 with the Royal Horse Artillery, survived the war and lived until he was 75.

“He looks just like my dad,” said Kai.

He and Anya Tydeman have designed and created their own website which will be linked to the countywide Devon Remembers website along with a lot of the other research from Landscore.

Will Mears has researched his great, grandad, Absalom Warne, who was born at Mary Tavy in 1900 and served as a Royal Marine. He survived the war and held the British War and Victory medals.

Kareena Pandit did not have family involved in the war but she has created a website looking at the conditions in the British and German trenches and the different food rations the troops had.

“I didn’t know anything about the war at the start,” she said, “but I have learnt a lot about it and how it started.

“At the start they had a choice of whether to go or not, but later they were forced to go and it increases your respect for them when you know about what it was like in the trenches.”

Landscore headteacher Gary Read said the project had brought the whole school community together.

“We had four different sessions for parents on how to research their family trees and it’s been great seeing them come into school and work alongside their children on doing the research,” he said.

“We even had two children who found they were related and their families had not known before.

“This has not only been a very real history lesson for them but they have learnt real skills like how to handle artefacts, how to write provenances, how to display material and how to compose invitation letters.

“The children have really done everything and it has brought something which happened 100 years ago home to them in a very human way.”

The museum will be open to the public on Tuesday, December 9 from 3pm to 6pm, Wednesday from 9am to 8pm, Thursday from 9am to 6pm, Friday from 9am to 5pm and Saturday from 10am to 2pm.

Photo courtesy of Sarah Avery.