Activity - the soldiers from your local area
Hear this page read aloud
Go to your local war memorial
Combine local study with ICT using the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) website
- Either as a short class trip (or for homework) ask the pupils to record five to ten names from a local First World War memorial.
- If your local war memorial is difficult to get to you could find names to give to the class from the National Inventory of War Memorials online
- Pupils should take the soldiers’ names and use the CWGC website to find out more information
Using the CWGC website
Aim: That pupils should learn how to locate the correct CWGC entry for a soldier named on the local war memorial.
Once the pupils begin to search the register you may need to guide them to the correct selection. A local address will definitely confirm that the pupil has found ‘their soldier’. However, not all of the sheets will feature the names and address of the next of kin.
Common problems:
No record?
Have they typed the name correctly?
Have they separated initials with a space or full stop?
Still no record?
Try entering the name without initials. This will give a larger number of options. However, unless the surname is unusual, the list of names that result could be very long.
A common problem is that some names on the memorial might have been spelt incorrectly.