Lottery Grant To Help Us Remember Surrey In The Great War

Published on: 14 Jan, 2014
Updated on: 14 Jan, 2014

A sum of £22,600 has been awarded to help Surrey Heritage promote a project at the heart of the county’s commemorations of the 100th anniversary of the First World War.

Local newspaper cutting of men killed in action during the First World War. From a scrapbook in the archives at the Guildford Institute.

The grant has been made by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for the project ‘A County Remembers: Surrey in the Great War’, being undertaken by staff at the Surrey History Centre, at its base in Woking.

The project is part of the quest to understand how the war changed the face of Surrey and the lives of its residents.

The Lottery money means Heritage Surrey can now employ a consultant to further develop the project, publicise it to schools, community groups and other potential partners and participants and, most importantly, prepare a bid for HLF funding for the main project which will run for the full five years of the commemoration of the war, 2014-18.

A spokesman for Heritage Surrey, said: “The application was in competition with many other projects, so our first-round pass is a recognition that the outline proposals presented in the stage one bid are very much on the right track.

“If our stage two application is successful, the main project will lead, collect and publish online community-based research exploring all aspects of the impact of the war on the county and the stories of those who served in the armed forces and those who contributed on the home front.

“People of all ages and backgrounds across the county will be inspired to come together with the common aim of creating a global, interactive, accessible and enduring digital resource telling Surrey’s story during the war years.”

At the heart of the full project will be a new website recording the stories of Surrey’s towns, villages, organisations and individual men and women who experienced the war, both those who survived and those who fell.

This constantly expanding and developing resource will enable people to explore, and understand the impact of the war on the county. Contributors of all ages, backgrounds and levels of experience will discover the thrill of exploring and understanding the past as they investigate original records, letters and newspapers to add content to the website. As people are inspired to investigate the impact of the war on their families and communities, memories and memorabilia of the war, in danger of disappearing with the passage of time, will be captured for posterity.

Further information is available via Exploring Surrey’s Past: http://www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk/themes/subjects/military/surreys-first-world-war/remembers/

See the section heading at the top of the Guildford Dragon’s home page, First World War Centenary Commemorations.