Remembrance - An Essex Village Study

In this KS2 unit, pupils reflect on the impact global events have had on the people of Fordham in Essex. On Remembrance Day they commemorate the end of the First World War and remember how lives were lost or changed during those four years, as well as lives lost in other conflicts. Pupils will use these sources of information to respond to and understand the complexity of people’s lives and the processes of change.

We ask the historical enquiry question; How do we remember and commemorate the sacrifice of the men who fought and died in the war?
The Fordham War Memorial serves as a permanent reminder of the sacrifices made both by the men and their families.

One of the resources is a letter written to the villagers of Fordham which sets out the plans to have a war memorial in Fordham. Note that local people were asked to make a contribution to the cost, there is also a list of contributions. A local builder was asked to build the memorial and there is a balance sheet showing the costings. Compare the set of war memorial photos and see how and why the memorial changed over time.

Sources in the unit include biographies of those men who lost their lives and are commemorated on the village memorial; photos from the history society archive and documentation.

Each biography contains military and family information about the casualty. There are 30 men from WW1 and 4 from WW2, plus one female civilian which is an interesting story surrounding a Colchester hospital that was bombed in WW2.

Some casualties were born in the village and lived in Fordham, some were born elsewhere, but came to live in Fordham. Others were born in Fordham but did not live here when they joined up. At some time in all their lives; Fordham was their home.

Pupils will be able to produce their own portrait of a casualty and discover his link to Fordham. There are many stories to be written about the Fordham casualties; the sets of brothers who died, those awarded medals for bravery, those who died as prisoners of war, our only Naval casualty, the casualty who was a policeman, our youngest and oldest casualties and those who died of illness and not battle wounds.