This term, Year 9 have been studying the First World War. When we touch on this subject we often use the book Emanuel School at War: the Greatest Scrum That Ever Was, which focuses on the Emanuel perspective and for many pupils brings the topic closer to home, as the majority of the soldiers were teenagers.
Every pupil was given an Emanuel soldier to research; some lost their lives, others survived, and many went on to achieve great things with their lives. Many pupils produced excellent work, developing the information available in Emanuel School at War with biographical facts and statistics available on the Emanuel Digital Archive which can reveal whether the boys were sporty, won school prizes or were involved in other school activities.
Atitiya had one of the trickier soldiers to research (Frank Henry White, OE1911-15) but produced a very impressive canvas timeline of ‘Frank’s War’ based on what we know and her further research. Like many others, this was a nicely fleshed out project which hours of research has gone into.
Atitiya's canvas timeline of Frank Henry White
Lara was sidetracked by an amazing discovery in a local charity shop: a copy of Eric or, Little by Little by Frederick W Farrar, awarded to John Ramsay (OE1900-05) in July 1900. This 120-year-old book also has the Emanuel School print on the front page and was a common type of award from around this period. Although we do not know the fate of John Ramsey, he was obviously a very academic boy who won a host of school prizes and returned to perform in Old Emanuel concerts after he had left school. It was very kind of Lara to buy the book and present it to the school archive.
Mr Jones (Senior Librarian and Archivist)
Lara's great find: 120-year-old book 'Eric or, Little by Little', featuring the Emanuel School print