The Meanings of Military Service Project seeks to create more diverse teaching materials concerning the First World War, which will be a required topic at KS3 in the new National Curriculum, and to involve academics in the selection of material that will both engage students and exemplify complex concepts.

The project is sponsored by the Queen Mary University of London, Centre for Public Engagement https://www.qmul.ac.uk/publicengagement/. It is a collaborative project led by the History Department http://www.history.qmul.ac.uk/ and Archives http://www.library.qmul.ac.uk/archives to engage teachers and students from local secondary schools in the meanings of military service. The Project is also supported by Barts Health NHS Trust.

The Project draws on the Queen Mary University of London Archives and the archives of St Bartholomew’s Hospital and the Royal London Hospital Archives http://www.bartshealth.nhs.uk/about-us/museums,-history-and-archives/ to identify rich individual stories that exemplify essential ideas about wartime service, including enlistment, exemption, wounding, death and survival.

Working with teachers from QMUL’s partner schools, the project team will also produce lesson plans and teaching packs based around these stories. These education resources will be devised in collaboration with teachers from Greater London schools and will be made on the website in October 2014.