What we're working on: April

The only required outcome of this project, as mandated by its funder A Century of Stories, is a 20-minute conference paper at the Century of Stories conference at the University of Leicester (9 November 2018). However, from the beginning we've always been clear that we wanted to create some kind of additional output that was more durable and more accessible to the public. 

The Friends of Welford Road Cemetery have produced five self-guided themed cemetery trails over the years, and we are excited to be working with them to create a new one highlighting international connections of its First World War graves!

Research Visit to Welford Road Cemetery

A few months ago Hanna travelled from Oxford to Leicester to revisit Welford Road Cemetery- the focus of this project- to meet with the Friends of the cemetery, visit the graves we're researching in person, and get a sense of what outputs for this research would be most feasible. 

The cemetery has a designated Commonwealth War Graves Commission plot, but also has individual CWGC headstones scattered throughout the cemetery.

scattered CWGC grave

CWGC plot

CWGC Cross of Sacrifice

'Their name liveth for evermore', standard phrase used at CWGC sites- usually
on the Stone of Remembrance

grave of Samuel Paynter Musson, born in Jamaica and served
with the Indian forces

cemetery's visitor centre

The Friends of Welford Road Cemetery have a small visitor centre that handles visitor queries and stores research related to the cemetery's graves. It was great to meet with some of the Friends and hear about their work. 

Next week we'll have a post up on the outcomes of this meeting: what we decided to create as a more public-facing output for our research, and how the work on that is progressing!