WW1 Great War Centenary

The Great War Centenary - World War One
We will remember them ....

Staffordshire .... home to THE NATIONAL MEMORIAL ARBORETUM ..... as well as many other connections with World War War and The Great War Centenary. - please see below for further details.   Even more locally the War Memorial in Leek is one of the largest in the UK with only one of 4 that has 4 clock faces, standing proudly in our historic Peak District market town.  Even more locally Blackshaw Moor was home to the Polish 
500,000 Troops trained on Cannock Chase, Staffordshire
11 Victoria Crosses Awarded to Staffordshire Regiments
2143 War Graves in the German Cemetary on Cannock Chase
Staffordshire is home to The National Memorial Arboretum
The Great War Centenary
Events, exhibitions and talks to mark the Great War Centenary.

From 2014 to 2018, across this local area of the Peak District and Staffordshire, communities and attractions are staging events, exhibitions and talks to commemorate and remember the lives of those who lived, fought and died in the First World War and the Second World War.
Visit the Staffordshire Peak District area and join in this global commemoration.
For further events details:-

The Staffordshire Great War Trail

Staffordshire's Great War commemorations will help bring the momentous events of this period to life through the county's principal Great War landmarks, together with associated events, exhibitions and activities to illustrate just how important a role the county played in the conflict.
100 years on from this major turning point in history, Staffordshire's own involvement in the conflict of 1914-1918 is being commemorated through the Staffordshire Great War Trail, created to help bring the events of the period to life through the county's principal Great War landmarks.

On the Trail you will have access to:-
  • revealing records
  • evocative photographs
  • and be given the opportunity to read about the personal experiences of people whose lives were reshaped by this cataclysmic event.
You will discover just how great a role the Staffordshire county played during the 1914 to 1918 conflict. 

The Staffordshire Great War Trail will centre on the following places:-

with places to visit including:- 

The National Memorial Arboretum - a major venue in Staffordshire
  • Sited in the heart of the National Forest, with 50,000 maturing trees.
  • The Arboretum's 150 acres of wooded parkland and wildflower meadows are a beautiful and living tribute to acknowledge the personal sacrifices made by the Armed Forces and civil services of this country.
  • It is a spiritually uplifting place to honour those who have served, and continue to serve, our nation in many different ways.  
  • Here, amongst over 300 dedicated memorials, you can see the Shot at Dawn Memorial, erected in memory of the 306 British and Commonwealth soldiers executed after courts-martial for cowardice and desertion during World War I. 

  • In the autumn of 1914, construction of two large camps, known as Brocton Camp and Rugeley Camp, began on Cannock Chase.
  • Over 500,000 British and Dominion troops were trained for service in the war at two huge camps on Cannock Chase, the archaeological remains of which are still there as part of the Trail.
  • When completed they could hold up to 40,000 men at one time and probably trained upwards of 500,000, including men of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade, who later made Cannock Chase their UK headquarters.
  • Find out more about the ghostly villages that came and went in the four turbulent years of World War 1.

  • See the museum's famous World War 1 replica trench
  • You can discover the details and follow the story of the  North and South Staffordshire Regiments and how they played a pivotal role in many of the major actions of the war at battles such as:-
The Somme
Ypres 
Amiens 
Mons
Loos
and many of the battles on the Western Front.
  • During The Great War, the South and North Staffordshire Regiments, as they were then, took part in many of the major actions of the war, distinguishing themselves at the Battle of the Somme, the Third Battle of Ypres, the Battle of Amiens, The Battle of Mons, and most of the battles on the Western Front.
‘Stand Firm, Strike Hard.’ 
Motto of the 3rd Battalion The Mercian Regiment (Staffords).


Although military cemeteries are common on the continent, Cannock Chase War Cemetery is one of the few dedicated military cemeteries in the United Kingdom.
The German War Cemetary:-
  • On 16 October 1959, the governments of the United Kingdom and the Federal Republic of Germany made an agreement about the future care of the remains of German military personnel and German civilian internees of both World Wars, which at the time were interred in scattered cemeteries not already maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC). It was agreed that the remains would be transferred to a single central cemetery established on Cannock Chase for this purpose.
  • The cemetery is maintained under the inter-government agreement by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. 
  • It contains nearly 5,000 German and Austrian graves. 
  • There is a small separate section for the crews of the four airships (SL 11, L32, L31, L48) shot down over British soil during the Great War.
The Commonwealth War Cemetary:-
  • Built and cared for by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
  • The cemetery was established during the First World War, when a large military training camp at Cannock Chase became the base for the New Zealand Rifle Brigade.  There was also a prisoner-of-war hospital with 1,000 beds, and both camp and hospital used the burial ground.
  • The cemetery, which is open all year round, contains 97 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, most of them New Zealanders, and 286 German burials. 
  • There are also three burials of the Second World War.

Memorials

300

Location

1

Trees Planted

30,000

Acres

150

We will remember and pay our respects 
to over 10,000 Staffordshire soldiers who lost their lives one hundred years ago.

The Nicholson War Memorial - Leek

The local historic market town of Leek has one of the largest war memorials in the country - at 90 feet high and with four clock faces it is built with Portland Stone.
  • The memorial was certainly unusual at the time it was built having been paid for by a private individual and not by public donations as most other war memorials generally were at the time.
  • Free guided tours of the war memorial on various dates - usually once a month - which last around forty minutes.
  • There is no need to book, just turn up on the day and speak to a volunteer guide.
  • For further reading about the fallen of Leek and the history of the Nicholson War Memorial see website
  • Roll of Honour Leek Battery 1914
  • Throughout 2014 - Leek  had guided walking tours of the town that examined the war's impact at the fighting and domestic front. A war that claimed the lives of over 400 men. See website www.leek1914.org for further details.  It also did a community exhibition based around the local history, urban context, social history and the discovery of events, life and people, before during and after the Great War in Leek and the Staffordshire Moorlands at the Nicholson Museum and Art Gallery.
“I now leave it in your care and keeping, and in that of the public of Leek, in the earnest hope and faith that it will be cherished and prized for all time “
Sir Arthur Nicholson, 20th August 1925

Ceramic Poppies at the Tower of London

So proud .... of local Staffordshire's part played to create this amazing display that touched so many people.

  • 888,246 poppies, one for every fallen hero from the First World War
  • Have been on display as part of an evolving exhibition called 'Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red' 
  • To mark 100 years since the start of the First World War at the Tower of London.
  • Created from 160 tonnes of clay supplied by Potclays, in Etruria, Stoke on Trent
  • With skilled workers at Johnson Tiles, Tunstall, Stoke on Trent, assisting with making the poppies to ensure that each one is finished and in place before Remembrance Day on 11 November2014.
FURTHER DETAILS FROM VARIOUS PRESS:-
8 August 2014 - The Royals plant ceramic poppies
20 October 2014 - Ceramic Poppies created from Stoke on Trent Clay raise £15 million

11 November 2014 - Final delivery of Ceramic Poppies made in Stoke on Trent
19 October 2017 - How pottery firm saved iconic WW1 art installation by making 400,000 poppies in four months

Raising £15 MILLION for Armed Forces Charities - the money will now be shared between:-
SSAFA (formerly the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association)

Staffordshire will remember them .......
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
    That mark our place; and in the sky
    The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
    Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
        In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
    The torch; be yours to hold it high.
    If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
        In Flanders fields.
In Flanders Fields - by John McCrae
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