During the course of the past year, and as part of our Heritage Lottery Funded project, the Trust has held workshops and given talks and presentations across the community to tell the stories of the men who fought in the First World War from Welling, within a local history context as well as the context of the war.
As part of our educational programme we recently held a workshop for Adults with Learning Disabilities, run by local teacher, Dennis O’Keefe. As well as finding out about some of the local men who died, they learned how animals helped in the war, from glow worms to elephants, about what life was like for those left behind including what food they would have eaten. This included sampling chocolate that would have been around at the time of the war for those lucky enough to be able to get hold of some. Those attending handled First World War medals, buttons from uniforms and other artefacts and they showed great knowledge about the war.
At the end of the session poppies were made and taken to the War Memorial in the Church. In a short Act of Remembrance led by Rev’d Peter Organ, a wreath was laid and all those who gave their lives remembered.
