A major new exhibition to mark the centenary of the start of the First World War has been launched at the Winding House museum in New Tredegar.
The exhibition ‘Our Duty to Bear – the First World War and Caerphilly County Borough’, explores how the war affected men, women and children across the county borough.
From the Western Front to the Home Front, the exhibition explores local experiences of the War through carefully curated objects, images, film and sound. Personal and poignant loans from the wider local community form a central role in the exhibition, which will run until the autumn next year.
Visitors to the Winding House, in New Tredegar, will have the opportunity to discover the experiences of the people from Caerphilly County Borough during the First World War and how the war impacted on their lives.
From the young Caerphilly pilot in the Royal Flying Corps, to the escaped prisoner of war from New Tredegar; from the mother from Fleur de Lys with two sons both killed at the age of 19, to the conscientious objector Morgan Jones; and from the Blackwood miner who joined the tunnelling regiment, to the young girl from Tirphil writing to her daddy to ask him to come home from the war.
Discover also what life was like was for those at home – knitting ‘comforts’, sending food parcels and experiencing changing roles for women in work and society.
Cllr Ken James, Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Sustainable Development and Planning, said: “Just over a year ago during the early stages of the planning process, the Winding House team sent out a plea to the wider local community for poignant, treasured items associated with the First World War that could be loaned to this outstanding collection, and the response was truly overwhelming.
“What the team, supported very much by a large group of volunteers and local residents, has achieved in delivering this exhibition is a series of extremely powerful and emotive displays which truly capture the experiences and struggles faced by local people 100 years ago.
“I would encourage as many people as possible to come along to explore and learn about the personal stories of more than 60 families from across Caerphilly county borough during the First World War in this extremely emotive exhibition.”
The exhibition also includes original film footage from the First World War period, as well as a reconstructed trench section and recollections of the Battle of the Somme from a local soldier – in his own words – from a recording made in the 1970s.
Staff and pupils from nearby Lewis School Pengam have also played a key role in the creation of the exhibition; within the collection are a series of letters written by former pupils to their old teacher, Arthur Wright during the First World War. Current pupils at the school have recorded readings of these letters aloud, which also feature in the exhibition.
‘Our Duty to Bear – the First World War and Caerphilly county borough’ is part of the Imperial War Museum’s First World War Centenary Partnership. The Winding House is open Tuesday to Sunday – 10am until 5pm, and is open also on Bank Holiday Mondays. Admission is free.
For further information, please visit www.windinghouse.co.uk or call 01443 822 666.
The exhibition is just one of the events planned to commemorate the Great War.
Wales Office Minister Baroness Jenny Randerson will pay her respects to the servicemen and women who served in the First World War as part of the nationwide centenary commemoration.
Baroness Randerson will attend the first of a series of national events to remember the start of the war 100 years ago.
She will attend the national service of commemoration for the Commonwealth at Glasgow Cathedral this morning to reflect the particular contribution the Commonwealth nations made during the First World War.
She will then attend the national service and candlelight vigil at Llandaff Cathedral in the evening. The service, which is being held jointly by the Welsh Government and Cardiff Council, will also be attended by the First Minister and the Leader of Cardiff Council.
Baroness Randerson said: “We are privileged to have a long and proud military history in Wales. The centenary offers a unique opportunity for us as a nation to reflect, remember and give thanks to all those who served in the First World War with such remarkable courage – both in the military and on the home front.
“We want to deliver a truly national commemoration that not only pays tribute to the brave servicemen and women who fought in the war – but which also lays the foundation for the future to help our young people understand the war’s scale and significance and how it has helped shape our country today.
“I would urge people of all ages and backgrounds to come together to mark and remember the lives of those who lived, fought and died in the First World War.”
Caerphilly County Borough Council will join the ‘Lights Out’ campaign this evening to reflect and remember those who lost their lives during the First World War.
Britain declared war with Germany at 11pm on August 4, 1914.
People are being encouraged to switch their lights out between 10pm and 11pm with candlelit vigils being planned.
The ‘Lights Out project’ is inspired by the words of wartime Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey.
On the eve of war, he said: “The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.”
An estimated 40,000 Welshmen died in the four year conflict that followed.
Caerphilly County Borough Council will join others across the UK in turning the lights off at their headquarters Penallta House in Ystrad Mynach – leaving only a single light on for this symbolic act of reflection and hope.
I visited this exhibition yesterday and found it tremendously
interesting. It is packed with artefacts, often from private collections which
are not normally on public display. The Winding House Museum has done a superb job by assembling such a diverse collection and adding explanation and interpretation to inform the visitor.
For me this war was never remote history, my father was born
during it and a great uncle was killed in action, and so the war was often
discussed at home. For later generations things are very different, it is now
100 years since hostilities commenced and exhibitions like this are important
for younger people to understand the horror of this war and the part that people, who perhaps lived in the very same terraced streets as them, played in the conflict.