The last time we spoke, I told you that we were organising a World War 1 Community Memory Day at St. George’s Church Hall.

Well, it happened last Friday and fittingly proved to be a very memorable event. You might recall that I said that I wanted to recruit some student history detectives to research the lives of the Cullercoats fallen as listed on the memorial outside St. George’s Church. So far, I’ve enlisted 13 year 7-8 volunteers, each of whom has adopted a servicemen from the roll of honour. It was their job to host the event by interviewing our guests about their family histories with regard to the Great War. We had a constant stream of visitors who dropped in  to support our project, including at least four relatives of men on the list.

The students learnt a massive amount about their subject, but other things happened too. That excellent local history group, Tynemouth WW1 were there  in force as were the Time Bandits who are specialists in reenacting Great War history. We were also joined by Dorothy from the National War Memorials Project.The event was punctuated by readings of war poetry by professional actor, Stephen Gregory, who in September played the lead in Peter Mortimer’s stunning play about WW1, Death at Dawn. Added poignancy was provided by Father Adrian inviting everyone into church to celebrate Communion in in exactly the way it would have occurred all those years ago.

I must also make special mention  of Sharon Rae, our food technology teacher, and her students who put on an exhibition of trench food which the clientele found very appetising,including the turnip jam!

It was a great event and I must thank everyone in the team of organisers.

It was truly inspirational to see school and the community working hand in hand to ensure that the memories of those men are never lost.