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Website URL : http://www.bexley.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=7426

School history projects

Bexley Archives have recently run two externally funded cross curricular history projects:

  • Not Forgotten: Raising awareness of the meaning of Remembrance Day On the 90th anniversary of the Armistice and
  • Crayford: A Magnificent Town and Its Flying Machines .

The educational  resources created through these projects have been made available here for free.

Not Forgotten

The Not Forgotten project was designed for KS2 children and funded as part of Their Past Your Future 2, a lottery initiative designed to raise awareness of remembrance amongst young people.

In partnership with Westminster Archives, Bexley developed a story book and resource pack, an animated film and an exhibition and play created around four soldiers who were killed in WW1 and who have no known grave. Bexley Archives originally developed this project in partnership with Westminster and Medway Archives, and four primary schools from the home towns of the soldiers. They worked closely with Westminster Abbey to engage children in the marking of the 90th anniversary of the Armistice on 11 November 2008.

The story book and animated film (see left hand menu to view the film) were based around a newspaper cutting from the Westminster Abbey archives 'The Mother's of Britain' which told the story of two mothers meeting on the day of the burial of the Unknown Warrior. This story was adapted so that it could tell the stories of the four soldiers involved ion the project. It follows members of their families on their way to the funeral of the Unknown Warrior at Westminster Abbey, all believing it is their loved one being buried within the abbey. The project was so successful that funding has been won to repeat it in November 2009 with primary schools in Westminster and Bexley.

A touring exhibition (consisting of six panels) focuses on four soldiers - Walter Tull; Capt. Francis Swainson MC; Thomas Highgate (the first man to be executed for desertion) and Richard 'Monty' Daniel – was created and has been displayed at Westminster Abbey during November. It is also available for use in schools.

  1. Monty Daniel was killed by a shell on 26 October 1916, after just six days on the front line. He left a widow, Jessie, nee Punnet. He had married her only three months before his death and she had to battle the army for her Sergeant's widow's pension.
  2. Walter Tull was killed on 25 March 1918. An orphan who became a professional football player and joined the Football Battalion, to become the first black combat officer in the British army.
  3. Thomas Highgate was the first British soldier to be shot at dawn for desertion. His alleged offence, trial, and sentence all happened on one day, 6th September; he died at 7.07 on 8 September, 45 minutes after he was informed he was to be executed. He was only 19.
  4. Francis Swainson of the Queen's Westminster Rifles died early in the morning on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, leading his men over the top. Two weeks before, he had been awarded the Military Cross. He was just 21.

Bexley Archives have delivered outreach sessions to Year 5 and 6 classes from Birkbeck Primary School and Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Primary School based around the lives of these soldiers

Crayford: A Magnificent Town and its Flying Machines

Bexley Local Studies and Archive Centre has been awarded a £50,000 by the Heritage Lottery Fund 'to celebrate Crayford's links with both the early history of flight and the Vickers factory, that played a prominent role in shaping the town's history.

The project has been delivered to all KS2 classes in four Crayford primary schools: Barnes Cray, St Josephs RC, St Paulinus CE and Shenstone Special School. A cross curricular resource booklet, especially-commissioned artworks and a touring exhibition have been created as part of the project and are available here for free.

Free resources

Copies of 'Not Forgotten' and the  'Crayford: A Magnificent Town and Its Flying Machines' cross curricular resouce booklets can be downloaded from the right hand menu. A copy of the 'Not Forgotten' film (with transcript) can be accessed from the left hand menu.

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