With the help of the Bexley Heritage Trust, The East Wickham & Welling War Memorial Trust is staging a First World War exhibition called “WElling WILL REMEMBER THEM” at Hall Place, Bexley. This tells the stories of the men from East Wickham and Welling who fought in the First World War and is part of a Heritage Lottery funded project. The exhibition was launched on Saturday 13th October at Hall Place alongside their major Second World War exhibition Santa Fe: The Secret Wartime History of Hall Place.
Linda Clayton, The Trust’s Secretary and Project Manager, told an invited audience how the project came about and how she and Nigel Betts, the Trust’s Chairman, had taken a fairly bold step with the ambitious lottery application some 3 years ago. Following the recruitment of a really dedicated band of volunteers, the project started to draw together the stories of nearly 120 serviceman who had died and the stories of many of the survivors. The 6 exhibition panels took much longer to put together than expected so exacting were the standards expected by the volunteers.
Dr Peter Catterall, published historian and Reader of History at the University of Westminster, gave a brilliant talk on the impact of World War One, examining the global, economic, political, cultural and psychological dimensions.The exhibition was then officially opened by The Mayor of Bexley, Councillor Howard Marriner who paid tribute to the Trust saying “although the grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund has made the project possible, without the guidance of a dedicated project manager and a band of enthusiastic research volunteers you could not have achieved what you have. The many visitors to Hall Place will derive much satisfaction from learning about your discoveries.” The Trust’s Chairman, Nigel Betts, presented the Mayor with a boxed set of WW1 miniature medals’ for display at the Civic Offices.
James Brokenshire MP for Bexley Sidcup and a Minister of State at the Home Office, proposed the vote of thanks to the Mayor, Dr Catterall, Bexley Heritage Trust and to The East Wickham and Welling War Memorial Trust and its volunteers for the work they do in the community. He stressed the importance of remembrance.
Our thanks go to Caroline Worthington, Chief Executive and Kirsty Macklen, Collections Manager, at Bexley Heritage Trust, to our photographers, Sylvia Scotting and Rosemary Robertson, But most of all to our dedicated team of Research Volunteers, Richard Crowe, Penny Parsons, Kelly Morgan, Phyllis Chivers, Will Cooban, Tim Dowling, Christine Fern, Warren Foot, Sophie Piggott, Gerry Piggott, Dave Carr, Paul Gallaghar, Paul Treacy, Gillian Buckenham and Lesley Platt.
The exhibition will be running at Hall Place until March 2015 but the panels can also be seen in Welling Library until 7th November 2014 and in Central Library Bexleyheath from mid November.
