AN innovative board game based on casualties in the First World War is to be launched in Worcester on Thursday.

The casualty clearing station game, an education resource created by teams at the George Marshall Medical Museum and the Infirmary Museum as part of the World War One Hundred Project, has been designed for secondary school mathematics pupils. The game is one of probability and chance, which sees the player take on the role of a First World War medical officer, making decisions, dependent on condition, about the fate of injured soldiers sent to a casualty clearing station during the war.

Pupils from Tudor Grange Academy in Worcester will help demonstrate the game at the launch event on the Castle Street Lawn at the University of Worcester’s City Campus and there will be opportunities for members of the public to have a go.

Louise Price of the George Marshall Medical Museum explained: “After the Battle of Ypres, the British Army realised too many injured soldiers were dying, they were simply not arriving at hospital in time. First responders were needed and casualty clearing stations were set up about five miles from the Front. With this innovative board game, we can now engage all key stage three students, not just those taking a history course, with the importance of the casualty evacuation chain, and properly commemorate the work done by the medical officers in the Royal Army Medical Corps.

“Based upon the museums’ collections of Lt. Col. Goddard, a medical officer during both the Boer War and the First World War, students will apply their knowledge of probability and percentages to find the best course of action for each injured soldier. Should they return to the front? Or should they go to a base hospital for further treatment? In playing the board game, students will use their skills to engage with both history and mathematics in a fun and informative way.”

The Worcestershire World War One Hundred team is also inviting people from across Worcestershire to come forward between 9.30am and 11.30am on the day with their ancestor’s WW1 letters, photographs and objects. In a replica Bell tent, visitors will have the opportunity to handle WWI medical objects as well as try on historic replicas of nurse and patient uniforms courtesy of the George Marshall Medical Museum and The Infirmary Museum.

To date the Worcestershire World War One team have received letters and diaries, medals and a Turkish knife from Gallipoli and will include these pieces in the People’s Collection, planned for an exhibition at The Hive, which will run from 2016 until 2018.

Dr Adrian Gregson of Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service said: “We have seen some wonderful objects and stories from members of the public and look forward to exhibiting these however we are keen for more people to come forward and share their ancestor’s WWI memorabilia. Is there an oil can cello in your attic or a first-hand account of life in Worcester during the Great War in a diary on your book shelf? Could your family feature in the People’s Collection?”