A new initiative seeks to collect World War I mementos for future generations to remember
SERGEANT Major George Cavan was at a training camp when the order came through to have him dispatched to France in 1917.
Desperate to get a message to his wife Jean and their three daughters, he scribbled a note in a matchbox.
As the train taking him to the Western Front sped through his home town he threw it out the window and prayed that it would somehow make its way to his loved ones.
George was killed just a few days later and buried in an unmarked grave in Ypres. But, amazingly, his message made it to his family and provided a tiny bit of comfort in the darkest of times.
These items tell the story from the perspective of the families who were affected by it and the people who fought in it
This is just one of the many incredible stories that have emerged as part of an initiative to save the memories of the First World War in a digital archive.
George’s matchbox was recorded as part of the Lest We Forget project, which is the brainwave of Oxford University professor Dr Stuart Lee.
It started as a pilot programme in 2008, during which they found and photographed 6,500 pieces of First World War history.
In 2012 they took the project to the Continent, where more than 200,000 items were brought in by members of the public across Europe.
Each item has been archived digitally to build a remarkable database of personal stories from a war that affected every family in Britain.
Now Dr Lee wants to expand the project nationally; linking up with schools, libraries and village community centres across the country to capture the memories that in a few generations will be lost.
“These items tell the real story of the war,” says Dr Lee.
“They tell the story from the perspective of the families who were affected by it and the people who fought in it. They have been passed down through the generations because people felt they were important enough to keep.
“Every day, items of historical importance are being lost. People from the older generation pass away and their houses are cleared; their attics are emptied. Old photos or bits of paper or documents that look unimportant but in fact offer a huge insight into life back then, are being thrown in the bin.
“The museums are fantastic and they house large items of national importance – guns or political documents – but what we’re interested in are the items of personal importance. We’re capturing real life.”
Matchbox in which George Cavan sent his final message to his family
Lest We Forget will help local communities run mass-digitisation days capturing objects and memories held by the public from the First World War.
Dr Lee hopes to complete the archive and launch it on November 11, 2018 – 100 years after the end of the war. His team will work with local “digital champions” training and supporting them in running the collection day and providing a central website to deposit material.
As well as Sergeant Major Cavan’s matchbox, they have also found a starched collar that saved a man named Sidney Elkins by stopping a 2½in shard of glass flying into his neck during London’s first air raid on June 13, 1917.
While in Munich Dr Lee was shown a postcard sent by Corporal Adolf Hitler on December 19, 1916, to his friend Karl Lanzhammer.
The collar that saved Sidney Elkins from a shard of glass
In it he describes his recent dental treatment and how he was desperate to get back to the field.
“We have come across some truly incredible stories and some unbelievable items,” says Dr Lee. “People have brought us physical items, helmets, weaponry, etc, and lots of letters, diaries, memoirs, photos. All sorts of documentary material. Sometimes you will see an object and think, ‘Why is that important?’ There have been billions of matchboxes produced but none like that one. And how many starched shirt collars were made? But that one saved a man’s life.
“The postcard from Hitler really stuck with me, though. I was holding it thinking, ‘Am I holding evil?’ At this point he hadn’t done anything. But we know what he was to go on to become. This project really brings out the extraordinary stories about ordinary people and the ordinary stories about extraordinary people – some being extraordinary in the wrong way of course.”
Corporal Adolf Hitler sent the postcard to his friend Karl Lanzhammer in 1919
As an English literature professor Dr Lee’s interest in the First World War came from the War Poets. He digitised their manuscripts and was going to local libraries and museums when he realised that they could get so much more by appealing to the families of those affected. One such family member was Tony Carr whose father, Sergeant Charles W Carr, was injured at the Battle of Passchendaele.
A telegram incorrectly informed Charles’s mother of her son’s death and now the telegram has been archived as part of the project.
Mr Carr, 80, says: “My father got two bullets in the thigh and his friend said he would go and get a stretcher. When he came back a shell had landed right where my father was and he presumed he was dead. Remarkably he survived. It was a terrible war. He was very lucky to survive.
“We have kept the telegram and pictures of him at the time. It gives us a connection to him and the past. They are very important to us. And now they have been photographed and archived by Oxford University.”
Dr Lee argues that it is these little glimmers into ordinary wartime life that provide us with the fullest understanding of the period. He and his team are now hoping to raise £80,000 to fund the scheme. The money will go towards promoting the project and training members of the public to be able to document each object.
He is hoping the public will realise how important it is to preserve Britain’s heritage and history for future generations.
“Last time we got 6,500 items in three months,” says Dr Lee. “This time I would be aiming for 100,000 and that is entirely possible.
“When we put out the appeal last time someone saw it and realised they had thrown a photo album on the skip that might be interesting to us. Luckily, he managed to get it back. A member of the Royal Medical Army Corps had taken a camera and recorded everything on the Western Front. Poignantly, the final photo is the White Cliffs of Dover as he arrived back to the UK. It was an incredibly rare piece of history as they weren’t supposed to take cameras with them.
“You never know what you might find. There is so much out there and we really don’t want to lose it, lest we forget.”
l To pledge £1 or more to the project go to https://oxreach.hubbub.net/p/lestweforget