WW1 Related Events in the United Kingdom

Daily Act of Remembrance: Last Post & Reveille

Daily (except Christmas Day) at 11.00 hours

Millenium Chapel, National Memorial Arboretum, Croxall Road, Alrewas, Staffordshire DE13 7AR

Admission Free

(There is a parking charge at the National Memorial Arboretum for cars maximum £3.00 per day - all parking fees go directly to the NMA charity.)

The Millenium Chapel of Peace and Forgiveness is the only place where a daily Act of Remembrance takes place in England. The National Memorial Arboretum is located in the centre of England at Alrewas, near Lichfield, Staffordshire and is the place “Where our Nation Remembers”.

For further details see the National Memorial Arboretum website at:

Website: www.thenma.org Chapel

Annual National Act of Remembrance: Remembrance Sunday

Sunday 8 November 2015 at 11.00 hours

The Cenotaph, Parliament Street, Whitehall, London SW1

Free

Public event with restricted access to the central area of the ceremony.

On the closest Sunday to 11 November an official annual Service of Remembrance takes place at the Cenotaph in central London. Wreaths are laid by Her Majesty The Queen, members of the Royal Family, senior military leaders, politicians and representatives of the Commonwealth. Following the formal ceremony and wreath-laying The Royal British Legion co-ordinates a march past The Cenotaph which includes members of ex-Service organizations and civilian organizations which have played their part on the Home Front in wartime.

Services of Remembrance also take place at 11 hours on Remembrance Sunday around the United Kingdom at churches, war memorials and at The National Memorial Arboretum.

WFA Unknown Warrior Annual Commemoration

10 November at 20.00 hrs

Main Concourse Platform 8, Victoria Railway Station, London SW1V 1JU

Free & open to all.

An annual ceremony of commemoration at Victoria Station by the London Branch of the Western Front Association, to remember the arrival of the Unknown Warrior on 10 November 1920.

• 20.15 Parade Assembly
• 20.20 Narration
• 20.30 Last Post and one minute's silence
• The Exhortation: They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old, Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemnA. At the going down of the sun, and in the morning We will remember them.
• Reveille
• 20.32 Presentation of Wreaths
• Disperse

For enquiries or any more information you can contact the London WFA Branch on email:

Email: londonwfabranch@gmail.com

Annual Act of Remembrance: 11 November

Wednesday 11 November 2015 at 11.00 hours

Cenotaph, Parliament Street, Whitehall, London SW1

Organiser: The Western Front Association (WFA)

Free, public event.

Since the early 1990s the Western Front Association (WFA) has held an annual Ceremony of Remembrance at the Cenotaph, Whitehall on 11 November. Members of the public are warmly welcomed to attend the ceremony.

Members of The Western Front Association may apply for tickets also to attend a Service of Remembrance and a lunch after the ceremony.

To see information for WFA events see The Western Front Association website:

Website: www.westernfrontassociation.com WFA Events

WFA logo by kind permission of the WFA

Armistice Day Service

Wednesday 11 November 2015 at 11.00 hours

National Memorial Arboretum, Croxall Road, Alrewas, Staffordshire DE13 7AR

Allocated tickets: Armed Forces Memorial

Free admission to the Arboretum site: the Service will be screened.

The National Memorial Arboretum is located in the centre of England at Alrewas, near Lichfield, Staffordshire and is the place “Where our Nation Remembers”. (There is a parking charge at the National Memorial Arboretum for cars maximum £3.00 per day - all parking fees go directly to the NMA charity.)

For enquiries see the National Memorial Arboretum website at:

Website: www.thenma.org

Fields of Battle, Lands of Peace 14-18 (Street Gallery)

Following the exhibition's highly successful showing in Paris from April to August 2014, the launch for the United Kingdom tour was on 4 August 2014 in London. This will be a major touring street exhibition featuring 60 superb photographs by photographer and battlefield guide, Michael St. Maur Sheil.

The exhibition will visit key locations in the United Kingdom between August 1914 and November 1918. For information about the photographs, the educational role, how to request to host the exhibition, purchasing the brochure and copies of photographs, visit the website:

Website: www.fieldsofbattle1418.org

UK Tour: locations for 2015 to be announced

Free

First World War in the Air

to 31 December 2020

Royal Air Force Museum, Grahame Park Way Colindale, London, Greater London, England, NW9 5LL

Free

A major exhibition telling the story of the development of the war in the air in 1914 to 1918. Exhibits ranging from personal letters to historic aeroplanes relate the story of the Royal Flying Corps and the founding Royal Air Force in April 1918, incorporating stories of the men and women who worked on the ground and the courageous aircrew who flew the aircraft in those early days of aviation.

Website: www.rafmuseum.org WW1 Air Exhibition

War Horse

Performances in London extended to 24 October 2015

New London Theatre, Drury Lane, London; on tour in UK (see website for details)

Website www.warhorseonstage.com

Tickets from £15.00

The award-winning smash hit War Horse is playing at the New London Theatre. Based on a story by Michael Morpurgo.

The First World War is the backdrop for this tale of bravery, loyalty, and the extraordinary bond between a young recruit and his horse. Actors, working with astonishing life-sized puppets by the internationally renowned Handspring Puppet Company, take audiences on an unforgettable journey through history.

At the outbreak of World War One, Joey, young Albert's beloved horse, is sold to the cavalry and shipped to France.

He's soon caught up in enemy fire, and fate takes him on an extraordinary odyssey, serving on both sides before finding himself alone in no man's land.

But Albert cannot forget Joey and, still not old enough to enlist, he embarks on a treacherous mission to the trenches to find him and bring him home.

The book on which the play is based came about after Michael Morpurgo had a chance conversation in his local pub nearly 30 years ago with an old soldier who had been to the First World War as a 17 year old ‘with ‘orses’ as he said. He discovered that over a million horses died in that dreadful war – and that was just on the British side – and that most of them that survived were sold off after the war was over, to butchers in France.

For ticket prices, availability, information about the show, shop and War Horse On Tour venues go to the website at:

Website www.warhorseonstage.com

Photographer: Simon Annand

The National Archives, Kew, Surrey

Free and paid lectures, events and tours to see behind the scenes at the archives and find out more on how to research family history using the archive collections. For more information and a calendar of events go to the National Archives' website at

Website: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk Events

The National Army Museum, London

The museum is closed for a major refurbishment until 2016. See the NAM website link below for lunchtime lectures, outreach activities and co-partnered temporary exhibitions currently being hosted by alternative venues.

Lunchtime lectures are being held in the Army & Navy Club, London. Please be advised there is a requirement for advance tickets and a dress-code.

For more information on the lecture programme go to the National Army Museum's website at:

Website: www.nam.ac.uk Lunchtime Lectures

Website: www.nam.org

The Tank Museum, Bovington, Dorset

The Tank Museum provides lectures as part of its events programme. For further information go to The Tank Museum Diary of Events at:

Website: www.tankmuseum.org Events Diary

University of Birmingham Centre for First World War Studies

The Centre for First World War Studies is part of the School of History and Cultures at Birmingham University. The Centre holds regular events including seminars, lectures and conferences. For information on the events programme visit the Centre for First World War Studies' website at:

Website: www.warstudies.bham.ac.uk Events

University College London

Lectures held during June 2014 by the University College London can be watched online at at YouTube channel www.youtube.com/UCLLHL

• Sex and the Somme, Dr Clare Makepeace, UCL History. Tommies queued in their hundreds to visit brothels in the First World War. Dr Clare Makepeace explores this little-discussed aspect of the war. She uncovers soldiers' reasons for visiting brothels, their reactions to them and the prostitutes, and how they dealt with the potential consequences: venereal disease. The findings give us fresh insight into what it meant to be a British man at war. Watch on YouTube
• Investigative conservation and the archaeology of the Western Front, Renata Peters, UCL Institute of Archaeology. Staff and students at the UCL Institute of Archaeology have been involved in the investigative conservation of objects excavated from Western Front trenches. Some of these objects were associated with unidentified human remains thought to be of soldiers killed in battles between 1914 and 1918, and provided important information for their identification. Others provided more questions than answers, but also shed light on the reality of life and death in the trenches. Watch on YouTube
• Reconstructing Broken Bodies: From Industrial Warfare to Industrial Engineered Tissues Prof Robert Brown, UCL Surgical Science & Mr Colin Hopper, UCL Eastman Dental Institute. Trench warfare protected combatants from many injuries, but left the head exposed, producing a massive demand for experimental facial reconstructive surgery. WW1 is acknowledged as the first ‘industrial scale’ war, but it has taken a century to stumble upon the concept of industrial scale tissue production. This very 21st century idea can be traced back to WW1 and the clinical pressures produced by industrial scale, non-lethal trauma. Watch on YouTube
• Science and the First World War, Prof Jon Agar, UCL Science and Technology Studies. This year is the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War. By examining the lives of figures such as Henry Gwyn Jeffreys Moseley and Fritz Haber, this talk will show how scientists on all sides were swept up in the tide of patriotism, militarism and nationalism, making contributions, some tragically brief, some devastatingly effective, to the waging of war. And what of the long-lasting effects? While some saw the Great War as an irreparable crisis of modern civilisation, with science as a symbol of inhumanity, others saw science as an internationalist project capable of healing wounds. Watch on YouTube

University of Wolverhampton: First World War Research Group

Study days, master classes and conferences. Directors of the Research Group are Professor Stephen Badsey and Professor Gary Sheffield. For information visit the website:

Website: www.wlv.ac.uk First World War Research Group

The Western Front Association (W.F.A.)

Lectures, seminars and conferences are held at regular monthly Branch meetings and at a national level around the United Kingdom and internationally. Speakers include well-known military historians and WFA members with expertise in a wide variety of topics related to the First World War. For further information and a calendar of forthcoming events visit the WFA website at:

Website: www.westernfrontassociation.com National Events & Conferences

BBC: World War One

Explore the WW1 section of the BBC website to find a wide range of things to do, BBC radio and BBC TV programmes, and much more.

Website: www.bbc.co.uk/ww1

Centenary 2014-18: The Western Front Association

The Western Front Association website commemorating the First World War centenary, with a wide range of events information, podcasts, day by day timelines, the centenary in the media and lots more. You can add your event too. See the link below to visit the site:

Website: www.firstworldwar.co.uk

Centenary Events Co-ordination: Imperial War Museum

The Imperial War Museum has set up a website to co-ordinate a listing of the international events and resources which will be marking 100 years since the outbreak of The Great War. The website includes podcasts, latest news and projects.

Website: www.1914.org

Centenary News

A comprehensive website devoted to all aspects of the WW1 centenary. See this link for events:

Website: www.centenarynews.com Events

Culture24

An excellent website full of cultural news, listings and events for a wide range of subjects. A section of the website is dedicated to the First World War and includes lots of up to date information about all sorts of events and exhibitions for the 2014 -2018 centenary of the First World War.

See the website for more information:

Website: www.culture24.org.uk First World War