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Imperial War Museum
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Imperial War Museum
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Imperial War Museum
Discover county stories from WW1 at Woking's Surrey History Centre
How did the people of Surrey experience the First World War? How did the first global war fought by advanced, industrial nations affect the county’s towns and villages? Surrey Heritage, based at Surrey History Centre, in Woking, is developing a project to answer these questions and encourage everyone with links to the county, old and new, to explore how the war was endured by their family or their community.
The project, entitled A County Remembers: Surrey in the Great War, has won initial support from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and has been given funding to develop the idea and submit more detailed plans for consideration. If these are approved, the main project will run from 2015 to the end of the commemoration in 2018.
At the heart of the plans is a new website recording the stories of Surrey's towns, villages, organisations and individual men and women who experienced the war, both those who survived and those who fell.
Volunteers will be encouraged to research and submit to the site what they have discovered about their ancestor or village. In particular, the project will uncover the stories behind the names on war memorials and the experiences of those who served overseas or on the home front, but also to be explored are the effect of the conflict on Surrey’s businesses, societies, churches and other bodies.
In participating in this research, contributors of all ages, backgrounds and levels of experience will be able to discover the thrill of uncovering and understanding the past by investigating original records, letters and newspapers. It is hoped too that as people are inspired to explore the impact of the war on their families and communities, memories and memorabilia of the war, in danger of disappearing with the passage of time, will be preserved for posterity.
The final outcome will be a community-built website which will be a fitting and lasting tribute to the sacrifices and suffering of our forebears of 100 years ago who endured a war which left few families unscathed and transformed the face of the nation and the county.
If you would like to be involved in the project or be kept informed of progress contact Surrey History Centre, 130 Goldsworth Road; shs@surreycc.gov.uk, 01483 518737.
Surrey History Centre is a great place to find out more about Surrey’s rich and diverse heritage, it’s free to use and open to everyone.
More details are available at Exploring Surrey’s Past
