Bong zhoor, sh sweez onglay

Drawings by Reverend JAG Birch (D/DLI 7/63/2), left: The entrance to the hospital at Armentieres; right: a nurse with a large wimple

On Tuesday of this week (3 Feb 2015) we had two archivists from the Somme Départment visit us at the Record Office.  Students from Roisel have been working with Parkside Academy, Willington, on research into the First World War through a ComeniusREGIO partnership.  These partnerships support cooperation between local and regional authorities, schools and other learning organisations across Europe.  They have been working together this academic year and the Parkside pupils have already been out to France.  This week the French students visited County Durham.  

http://www.durhamatwar.org.uk/project/somme-partnership-project-at-parkside-academy/

As Durham Record Office, the DLI Museum and the Durham at War project have been supporting the Willington students’ research, so the Somme Départment archivists and staff from the Historiale Museum have been supporting the French students.  Whilst the school groups and their teachers spent Tuesday morning having a session at the DLI Museum, the archivists came up to the Record Office to have a look at some of our First World War collections and how the Durham at War website is being used.

The archivists were very interested in Morant’s diaries and the sketchbooks by soldiers and officers that we had put out for them to see.  They were particularly enthused by the memoir of Reverend JAG Birch who went out to France with the 5th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry.  Interspersed through his memoir are ink drawings of everything from the ruins of Ypres to a French nurse with an extraordinary wimple.  The drawing of a frog caused much laughter.  The Somme archivists showed us the Somme Départment Archives website including First World War family records that the public had brought in for digitisation and publication online. There are some fantastic records, including a photograph album, that are well worth having a look at.

D/DLI 7/63/2 Frog as drawn by Reverend JAG Birch

A member of the project staff went into Parkside School on Wednesday (4 Feb) to talk to the students from France and Durham about their research.  On Friday (6 Feb) staff will help with another education session at Durham Town Hall where project staff will be providing an education session.  One activity will focus on women at work during the First World War and women's football as the French students have been looking at women in France living near the front.  The the other activity will be look at language and communication, British soldiers getting to grips with French and the importance of letters and postcards to both soldiers and those at home.  The students will have the opportunity to create their own postcards.

D/DLI 2/6/10(260) The first page of a  French phrase pamphlet for British soldiers including pronunciations