Preserving Forgotten WW1 Objects: 'Lest We Forget' School Project

School pupils have begun collecting World War One objects as part of a national initiative to record, digitize and preserve them.

The Lest We Forget project was launched by the University of Oxford to display families’ stories and artefacts in an online museum.

An event took place at Our Lady’s School in Abingdon on Saturday where members of the public brought in photos, maps, medals and letters from the First World War.

Stuart Lee, Director of Lest We Forget said:

"Someone will bring an item in, we’ll welcome them, we’ll then sit them down and interview them and say, 'well what’s the story behind this item?'

"Get as much information as we can, and then we will go and take a photograph of it or many photographs.

"At the end of that, they will go up on a website and then it’ll be freely available for anyone around the world to look at, download or reuse in their teaching or research."

To commemorate the centenary of the end of the war in November 2018, the Lest We Forget archive will be made available via an online database.

Jane Morgan, a resident from the area brought in pictures of her aunt who had served as a nurse during the First World War.

She said: "She served in France and she told me it was very muddy, and they still have their very long dresses that they wore.

"They had to tuck them up because they were getting so muddy.

"And she also looked after men on Ambulance Train Three which came from the coast up to London."