A Soldier's Story: Private Frank Johns, 1st Battalion Canadian Infantry, pt. 2

[This is the second part of our case study. To read the first instalment, see the entry on this blog from 05/05/14]

It was possible to start tracing Frank John's story from the regimental details on the reverse of the war medals.

The family were not sure if Frank had ever been to Canada, let alone joined the army there. Using the information I had, I contacted the Canadian armed forces and obtained copies of his attestation papers, documents that all recruits had to sign.

Signed a century ago, they show that he was indeed working in Canada as a carpenter. It was not unusual for a Cornishman to be plying his trade abroad before the war. Figures show that, by the end of the 19th century, some 230,000 men and women had left Cornwall in search of work.

Frank Johns signed these papers at Valcartier, a major recruiting station for the overseas expeditionary force. I found the document rather moving. From the starting point of an impersonal, dusty medal, we now have a description of Frank, including a full list of physical attributes and his mother's address. This story is international and reminds us that the war drew in people and nations from across the globe.

In the next blog, I will look at what happened to Frank when the battalion travelled to Salisbury, England, and then to the Western Front.

War quiz brings out Girl Guides' competitive spirit

Thanks again to the Camborne Girl Guides for paying attention and listening to last week's talk on the First World War, and giving interesting answers to the quiz. It must have been difficult at 7pm on a school night.

It was tricky finding a way to do the subject justice while making it interesting for the audience.
The idea of a quiz seemed to go down well, with Mars bars as prizes. It was keenly contested with 4 teams of 5 girls eager to win. The questions were:

1. How many countries fought in the war?
2. How many soldiers fought in the war?
3. Name one way in which the legacy of the war can be felt today?
4. How many miles of trenches were dug in France?

The team that had the most right answers won the chocolates, and there was a clear winner. Question 3 produced some interesting responses. One of the groups wrote simply: 'We must study it'. They were awarded the point!

Others were more poignant. One group wrote: 'We lost family'.

Congratulations to the winning team, the Parrots, for scoring 3 out of 4.

Good governors make prisons work - Lord Ramsbotham

Lord Ramsbotham speaking at the Oxford and Cambridge Club about the nature of prisons: prison itself is not the punishment: being sent to prison is the punishment. Quite a hard distinction to get across - especially when so many people know so little about prison. He believes the purpose of the prison system is to encourage people to build a better life. Good examples of successfully functioning prisons - in Norway and the Netherlands. Ramsbotham was Chief Inspector of Prisons from 1995 to 2001.

Brought back memories of a Bridging Arts project - Srebrenica Now - in Feltham Young Offenders Institute and Wormwood Scrub: we created photographs and posters to be used by the education departments in both. Feltham YOI is a very tough place. Have things moved forward since the report Ramsbotham himself wrote in 1998: “This report… is, without doubt, the most disturbing I have had to make during my three years as Chief Inspector of Prisons... I ask the staff… implicated by these remarks whether they would be happy for their sons, or the sons of any of their friends, to be on the receiving end of the treatment and conditions described in the report which are unacceptable in a civilized country.”

Someone mentioned in passing that things were once again bad at Feltham: cuts mean many of the young offenders are locked up in cells from Thursday evening through the weekend.

Ramsbotham said much depended on the calibre of prison governors. Prior to 1963, governors had military backgrounds. Since then things have changed and prison management has become less disciplined.

Alongside Ramsbotham was a speaker from Prisoners Abroad - the only UK charity caring for the welfare of British prisoners held in foreign prisons. This seems a great example of a charity doing much needed work on a relatively small budget.

A Soldier's Story: Private Frank Johns 1st Battalion Canadian Infantry pt 1

The most important part of any research project is working out how to start among the shelves upon shelves of books and records.

1914-1915 Star - authorised in 1918 for all who
 served in a theatre of war between 5.9.14 and 31.12.15

Obverse, showing name

Items such as medals are especially useful as they serve as a clear point of departure for research. For example, we have been lent a particularly poignant medal bearing a name: Private Frank Johns, no. 6352, 1st Battalion Canadian Infantry.

The records of Frank Johns's life were mostly lost, and the family were happy for us to take up the story and see what we could uncover. A few things were known, such as the fact that he emigrated from St Ives, Cornwall, to Canada, and fought and was killed in France in 1915.

In the past few months I have explored Frank John's story in more depth and I will post some of the results of the research here. It is an incredible story.

London Legal Support Trust announces its art competition

News from the tireless and dazzlingly energetic Bob Nightingale, who runs the London Legal Support Trust (LLST). The LLST raises funds which go to organisations hard hit by legal aid cuts, in particular those that provide specialist advice to vulnerable people. Its annual sponsored walk raises hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Bob has emailed about a lesser known LLST event - its art competition. Work goes on display in central London: the prizes are fairly substantial....: 

"The LLST art competition is open to any artist (including sculptors). The theme is “Injustice” and submissions must be in by 31 May 2014. Selected entries will be displayed and on sale at our Art exhibition at “La Galleria” art gallery in Pall Mall from 29 September to 3 October 2014.
For full details and entry form click HERE"

Best Painting Prize - £1,500 award
Best Sculpture Prize - £1,500 award
The Bloomsbury Professional People's Prize - £500 award.

Bob is illustrating his competition email with the Mona Lisa - clearly hoping for the next Da Vinci....

Media archive records Cornwall's stories and history

One of the most interesting aspects of our  Heart of Conflict project is the range of media that we are uncovering and that we might work with.

We're keen to build on this and create audio recordings of our own, preserving people's stories and histories on an online archive. With this in mind, I met Tim Robins who runs Azook based in Pool (near Redruth), supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Azook archives video, audio and picture records to create an online resource called 'Cornish Memory Archives' The project lasts for three years and is half way through. 

Each item is documented online by a team of volunteers and then added to a map of the county.

This makes it easy to explore the unique traditions and heritage of every village. It is also possible, and I'd like to look at this in more depth, to see how and when ideas spread from area to area. As more and more material is put online, it will be fascinating to see how news of the First World War spread from region to region.

Tim showed me some of the remarkable material they are working with. Perhaps the most striking thing for me was to see old photographs of the airbase at Mullion during WW1 with air ships floating along the Cornish coastline.

Azook loans out equipment and gives free training. I'm really excited about working with them on Heart of Conflict

Memories of the Future

Good to hear from Nela Milic, who worked with Bridging Arts on Srebrenica Now (in 2005 - marking the 10th anniversary of the genocide in Srebrenica).
She's speaking at a conference over the Bank Holiday weekend at Chelsea College of Arts: Memories of the Future ...

The background:

"In the aftermath of Middle East revolutions and the current protests against capitalism around the world, I have been reminiscing about the Serbian uprising in ‘96/’97, which was an attempt to overthrow the dictatorship of President Milosevic after he annulled elections because of the victory of the opposition party. Ashamed by the unsuccessful outcome of their protest, the people of the capital Belgrade, have never produced an archive of photos, banners and graffiti which emerged during these demonstrations. Scarce information on the Internet and the inability of the media to publish the data gathered during the protest has left the public without the full account of the uprising. My project is that archive – an online portal of images, leaflets, badges, flags, vouchers, cartoons, crochets, poems etc, a digital record of the protest available to participants, scholars and the public."

Nela Milic is an artist and academic.  "As a practitioner, I delivered projects for John Lewis, Oxo Tower, Light Gallery, NFTS, Miramax, Film and Music Entertainment, Film Four, Raindance, LIFT, LFF. Currently, I am teaching an MA in participatory arts and BA modules at Media and Performing Arts School. More about my research can be found in the book 'Audiovisual Media and Identity in Southeastern Europe', edited by E. Pistrick, N. Scaldaferri & G. Schwörer (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011)."