CAHMS is collecting material for an exhibition in 2014 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War 1.
World War 1 affected every village and every family, and CAHMS is gathering material to illustrate its human impact and ensure that our successors never forget. It will be presented in an exhibition in Crediton Museum in 2014 on the 100th anniversary of the war’s outbreak.
Our Museum already has a considerable archive of relevant material, but CAHMS has formed a group to research war memorials in the area. The object is to discover as much as we can about the losses incurred by local families during the Great War, and the effect it had on them.
Group members have already drawn together various lines of research and are now looking for material which could be included in the exhibition from Crediton and the surrounding parishes. This could be photographs, medals, letters, or artefacts; in fact anything which would throw light on how WW1 affected the area and the lives of those who lived through it.
Members are currently trying, in particular, to track down photographs of these commemorated on local war memorials, burial sites, memorial plaques and indeed even details of the memorials themselves. Many of the memorials are very obvious, such as the ones in Crediton, but there must be others, perhaps forgotten, in unexpected locations.
The WWI project is being led by Crediton Museum Research Corner volunteer Keith Parsons. If you are able to contribute any information or material to the project, or would like to get involved, please contact Keith on greatwar@creditonhistory.org.uk.