Written evidence submitted by The Herne Hill Society

Remembering Herne Hill 1914-18

National Lottery-Funded Project

Final Report

 

Colin Wight

Chair, The Herne Hill Society

 

http://memorial.hernehillsociety.org.uk

 

  1. The Herne Hill Society is a volunteer-run amenity group serving the area of South London covered by the SE24 postcode.

 

  1. In January 2017 the Society was approached by history teacher Daniel Townsend to consider forming a partnership with the Charter School North Dulwich, which would research the lives of all First World War casualties with a strong Herne Hill connection, beginning with and building on the names on individual church and community war memorials (there is currently no major civic war memorial in Herne Hill).

 

  1. We produced a long list (over 500 names) of possible casualties. We knew that this was certainly fewer than the true number, since some memorials have been lost. We sent an Expression of Interest to the Heritage Lottery Fund’s “First World War Then and Now” programme followed by a Grant Application in May 2017, together with a formal partnership agreement from the Charter School and a letter of support from Lambeth Archives and Helen Hayes MP. We were awarded £5,200 in July 2017.

 

  1. In mid November 2017 we recruited 25 adult and school volunteers (including Society members and parents of students) and held two training sessions at the Charter School, led by historian Dan Hill. Over the following 12 months our volunteers uploaded their research findings via an online form to our database.

 

  1. While researching one of the casualties, “F. Lucas”, we discovered an unpublished memoir by his daughter, Grace. With the agreement of the Lucas family and after consulting two eminent historians (Prof. Michael Roper and Prof. Jerry White), we decided that it was publishable, once lightly edited and with notes and illustrations.

 

  1. On 16 and 18 July 2018, Head of History Dan Townsend and his colleagues held two project days at the Charter School for the entire Year 7. 193 children created maps, sketches, videos and a short play based on Grace Lucas’s memoirs.

 

  1. We became aware that there had never been an open-air Remembrance Day Commemoration in Herne Hill and, with the support of Southeastern Railway, who run Herne Hill Station, and City & Country Farmers’ Markets, we called for two minutes’ silence at 11am on Sunday 11 November,preceded by the playing of The Last Post by Walter Feeny, a 17-year-old student at the Charter School. The event was taken up by local traders, the press and on social media. The approximately 100 attendees included three councillors and the MD of Southeastern Railway, the company who run this busy commuter station. Southeastern also generously offered us space in their booking hall for two A1 information panels.


 

  1. Social media and personal comments indicated that many people found it deeply moving. See, e.g., a blog by Antonia Senior http://the-history-girls.blogspot.com/2018/11/remembering-all-harrys.html

 

  1. The same morning we officially launched the Herne Hill First World War Memorial website, with a database of 400 casualties, the ability to search for information such as the ages of casualties, the street they lived in, and where they are buried, e.g “Age at death 16”, “Resident Railton Road”, “Place of death Egypt”. There were c.1,000 hits on the first day. There are also two Google maps indicating where each casualty lived, and where they are buried or remembered.

 

  1.            Additional copies of our First World War display boards were also delivered to the Charter School North Dulwich, St Paul’s and St Saviour’s churches, which both have (or had) war memorials, and subsequently to the Brockwell Hall café and the newly re-opened Carnegie Library.

 


  1.            Grace’s Story, with a foreword by Helen Hayes MP and extensive notes and illustrations, was printed in an edition of 250 and launched on 1 December 2018. All design work and editing was done free of charge in-house. Complimentary copies were presented to our volunteer researchers and other contributors and supporters, as well as local libraries and schools. http://www.hernehillsociety.org.uk/news_articles/view/graces_story

 

  1.            In late November 2018 Dan Townsend led two Charter School groups (numbering 120 in all) to the battlefields of France and Belgium, taking them out of timetabled lessons for two days.

 

  1.            On 12 December 2018 we held a project presentation and reception at the Baptist Church, Half Moon Lane (the largest suitable space in Herne Hill), which attracted 60 attendees, including two councillors and relatives of several of Herne Hill’s First World War casualties.

 

  1.            Finally, we invited historian Dan Hill to give a talk at Herne Hill United Church on 13 February 2019 about the Western Front, highlighting the experiences of six Herne Hill men who fought and died in six crucial battles. This event attracted 56 attendees, including nine 6th-formers from the Charter School. It was audio recorded and will go up on our website.

 

Achievements

 

  1.            The project has achieved NHLF’s objectives within the timescale and allocated budget.

 

 

  1.            The project's findings will lead to the creation of a new Year 9 scheme of work at the Charter School. This will be rolled out from 2020 and will be taught to every student at the school to ensure that the legacy of the project is maintained. The Charter School have also use the project's findings to create a bespoke Western Front tour for their Year 10 students. Last November’s tour visited the graves of Herne Hill residents and told their stories. This trip will run every year with similar student numbers (c.50) for the foreseeable future.

 

  1.            The memorial website and associated maps will continue to be supported, promoted and enhanced by the Society throughout 2019 and beyond.

 

Highlights

 

  1.            Particular project highlights for the core team were: the holding of the Armistice Centenary event at Herne Hill's Sunday Market, together with two well-attended formal presentations; taking part in the sell-out Civic Voice event at IWM, the publishing of a very readable memoir, the creation of a simple-to-use, database-driven website; the positive involvement of most of our councillors as well as the MP for Dulwich and West Norwood; the generous assistance of the management of Southeastern Railway (who are considering installing a plaque to the fallen of both world wars).

 

  1.            It is clear from comments received (below) that the project has enabled local people of all ages to acquire and develop research skills, learn about the First World War in general, and feel a closer attachment to the area.

 

  1.            The involvement of the Charter School was crucial, not only in immersing children and young adults in a period of history many of them knew little about, but in roping in their parents. Younger, university educated and more digitally skilled than many of the Herne Hill Society’s members, several became volunteers in order to assist their children and have gone on to become productive researchers.

 

Comments received

 

  1.            The Herne Hill Society’s “Remembering Herne Hill 1914-18” project is hugely exciting, helping school-age children living in Herne Hill to understand what the war was like for children just like them, living on the same streets, at that time. It is also a fitting memorial to all those from our local area who had the course of their lives irrevocably changed by the war, and whose courage and resilience was so remarkable.
    Helen Hayes MP
  2.            Such an interesting project — and even in the few names in my batch such variety - one the son of a surgeon, and another who grew up in the George Road Camberwell workhouse
    SM [volunteer researcher]
  3.      It has been an enlightening and humbling exercise, especially when we researched people who lived in our street (a lady whose husband died before the War and then she lost both her sons in the war).

CL [volunteer researchers]

 

  1.      I have found the project really fascinating and truly heartbreaking. Those poor men/boys… I love this project and find it very moving. I feel as if those people are being properly remembered now they aren’t just names on a monument.

AW [volunteer researcher]

 

  1.      I found it altogether a very enriching experience — it felt a privilege to be involved in the project and to be trusted with the important task of enabling “my” soldiers to be remembered. I was already a fairly mad keen family history researcher, so the territory was familiar, but the project opened up a whole new world of war history sources which I hadn’t used before and I found that fascinating and exciting. The project also had the effect of adding a different dimension to the local area in my eyes. The stories, the mere fact of knowing some of the local history in such a personal way, adds colour and depth and a totally different level of interest in it. Whenever I drive down one of our local streets I think of the soldier’s father who lived in one of the houses there until he died. I also found dealing with the organising team very enjoyable, by email they were very responsive and helpful, and the events were another very enjoyable way in which the project came to life. I’m not sure I can think of any particular way it needed to or should have been done differently!

ps I had a reply this morning through Ancestry from a great niece of one of the soldiers. Actually, he was the first soldier I started looking at, and managed to find out exactly how he died from an extract in the War Diaries.

EC [volunteer researcher]

 

  1.      I'm glad that these soldiers are being written up — so many of them gave their lives and have just become names in lists, rather than real people. It's great that their stories and families can be recorded before all the memories slip away. [Now doing] research into the lives of the soldiers commemorated in the war memorial church I’ve attended here in Brisbane since 1975. Until recently, I’ve never thought to find out about them — they’ve just been a sad list of initials and surnames on a roll of honour board. So I’m finding out their names, what they did, and where their families lived in the parish. Maybe I’ll be able to make a booklet or website about them, which will enrich the knowledge of our congregation and maybe help people doing their family tree.

LB [Australian relative]

 

  1.      This is amazing — both the display boards and the website! I never imagined it would include so much. And it will be ongoing... Well done, congratulations to the whole team, it's a superb memorial.

Frances Lamb [Carnegie Community Trust]

 

  1.            Congratulations on the project, and on bringing us all together in the square yesterday. It really was extraordinarily moving. It's difficult, I think, when you are not religious to find an appropriate way to hold the silence — I really hope that you do it again next year.

Antonia Senior [journalist and novelist]

 

  1.      Well done on organising such a moving memorial service today — it really was so incredible to have so many people pausing, remembering and paying their respects together at the heart of Herne Hill. I was brought to tears and know that others were too. You must feel very proud of all that you have done to ensure Herne Hill's fallen are not forgotten — it's amazing.
  2.            Lucy Reynolds [Herne Hill Forum]

 

  1.            The service on Sunday was really really good — good on you for pulling it together. 

David Statham [Managing Director, Southeastern Railway]

 

  1.            Thanks Colin. It was wonderfully organised. The playing of the Last Post was extraordinary.

Cllr Becca Thackray

 

  1.            It was a great occasion and really good to be there; congratulations once more. 12th is in the diary and I hope to attend.

Cllr Jim Dickson

 

  1.            Looking back, I thought your words were exactly right, Colin, perfectly suited to the place and the occasion. Well done, and the whole event brings lots of credit to the Society.

Patrick Roberts [Herne Hill Society]

 

  1.            Just quickly to say hi and hope that you got to the Abbey and through security with no troubles, Colin. Really positive response from social media to the event, couldn't have hoped for better, and I even heard Jay Rayner saying to his wife “that was lovely” as they walked away. 

Alison Gill [Herne Hill Forum]

 

  1.            Brilliant to hear that there were no hitches yesterday and that the turnout was better than expected — glad we could help in some small way. Big thanks and well done to you, Colin, and the rest of the Herne Hill Society. Until next year!

Sophie Elder [City and Country Famers' Markets]

 

  1.            Really enjoyed Wednesday evening, thank you for inviting us and sorry we could not stay.

Simon Denegri MBE

 

  1.      Thank you for such an interesting event yesterday, I really enjoyed the talk and chatting to people afterwards, and I'm delighted to have a copy of Grace’s book which I started reading as soon as I got home! I look forward to finding out about “my” five new soldiers in the new year — delving into the soldiers' lives and becoming involved in the project back at the beginning of the year was one of the highlights of 2018 for me..

EC

 

  1.      Really enjoyable evening last night. It made me rethink about researching a soldier. I’d be interested in having a go.

MB

 

  1.      I thought the evening was very well run and enjoyed hearing about the project. I hope you are satisfied with the website. It is a great achievement. I have been really delighted to be a volunteer and am looking forward to continuing to do so.

AW

 

  1.      I came to the wonderful talk yesterday about the work that had been done researching the names on the Herne Hill memorials. I’d be happy to help if you're still looking for volunteers.

HC

 

  1.      Thanks very much to you all for an excellent talk last night. It was very informative and you had clearly spent some time on preparation. My congratulations to you all.

RG

 

  1.      I’m so pleased the evening went well. Congratulations to you and Laurence on the successful launch of “Grace’s Story”. I’m so glad that Auntie Grace’s story is receiving attention as it gives readers such a powerful insight into the impact on one soldier’s family of his death, given the context of the huge losses in WW1. I would like to congratulate you both on the quality of the publication and thank you for your devotion to this project.

FM

 

 

March 2019