23rd April 2018

Our new video: Soldier, Brother, Friend

 

Our latest video, Soldier Brother Friend: a Calendar of the War-Dead, South Bank, York, 1914-1918, is now available on our YouTube channel.

Dick Hunter, WW1 project leader, said 'This haunting film vividly illustrates the cumulative impact of the war on our locality. There were losses in most streets, sometimes several in the same household'.

This is the third of the videos made for our WW1 project by local filmmaker, Chris Maudsley. He said 'The process of creating the map animation has really brought home the devastation wrought on individual streets and families, along with the regiments, and how the ebb and flow of events in a global war could be reflected on such a macro scale. Seeing the poppies gradually populate the map gives a sense of how the families at home must have gradually heard news of deaths of neighbours, work colleagues and friends, and how they must have dreaded to hear bad news of their own. The poppies on the video represent the deaths of men who all probably knew or knew of each other, and the sound design is intended to reflect the various occupations that these men may have left behind.'

Follow this link to play the video.
 
Locations are based on War Office lists of combatants killed. These lists went to York Corporation, who used them to send letters of condolence to next-of-kin. They are deposited at Explore York Archives, and are available for public to view (Catalogue ref: Y/ORD/4/4/2). The list is not definitive and those who died later from war-related conditions are not included.