Postcards from the trenches – (From Worcester News)

Postcards from the trenches –

9:29am Friday 20th June 2008 in

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OUR links to the First World War are becoming more fragile. But one Worcestershire historian is using modern technology to make sure they are never forgotten. Alun Edwards, who grew up in Lower Wick in Worcester and now lives in Honeybourne near Evesham, is at the centre of an Oxford University project to create the Great War Archive – the world’s largest online war resource.

To create a lasting memorial to those who lived through the conflict, people are being asked to find, gather and preserve as much memorabilia as they can, however unusual, rare or seemingly insignificant.

Although 39-year-old Mr Edwards, one of eight historians putting the archive together, has seen some “quite humbling” historic items he said people in Worcestershire have been surprisingly quiet.

“I have noticed that there is not a great deal coming from the Worcestershire area,” he said. “We went all around the country and asked people to bring things in, but we weren’t able to secure a venue in Worcester so it might be that people aren’t aware of what we’re doing.” The Great War Archive – which evolved from the Owen Archive, a digitised collection of manuscripts, letters and war records of poet Wilfred Owen – will be launched on November 11, 2008. It will be available free of charge for schools, colleges and universities and also open to members of the public.

Mr Edwards said: “This was a war which turned men into inhuman fighting machines. Some of the stuff we have received is absolutely magical and quite humbling to read. Despite their situations many soldiers never wrote about their fear and were more concerned with family life back home. “We had a letter from one Yorkshire soldier telling how he was to be “given something” after rescuing a comrade who’d been “knocked about a bit”. It later turned out that he had braved enemy fire and was awarded the Military Cross.” People have until the end of June to send in memorabilia, which can range from letters, diaries, photographs, drawings, postcards to recordings (film or sound), poems and souvenirs. Stories that have been passed down orally are also being collected.

To contribute, log on to www.thegreatwararchive.org.

WHEN WOODBINE WILLIE PREACHED TO THE TROOPS

This 1919 postcard shows Worcester vicar Woodbine Willie preaching to crowds outside the city’s St Paul’s Church. The Rev Geoffrey Anketell Studdert Kennedy – who earned his nickname for handing out Bibles with one hand and Woodbine cigarettes with the other while serving as an Army chaplain in the First World War trenches – is pictured wearing his Military Cross, which he got for courage in rescuing wounded soldiers under heavy gunfire. An extremely emotive piece of memorabilia, the postcard belongs to former Worcester woman Betty Wichard, who scanned it and then uploaded to the Great War Archive website. Mrs Wichard, who now lives in Wales, said: “This postcard belonged to my late brother-in-law, Robert McCaskie. Bob is one of the choirboys, I don't know which one. My father, George Yeates, and my father-in-law, Albert Henry Wichard, are probably somewhere in the picture too.” Mrs Wichard also uploaded the image of a confirmation book, signed “Fight the good fight” by Studdert Kennedy. The priest lived in Bromyard Road with his wife and three sons until his death in 1929 at the age of just 45.