Learning resources for LETTER TO AN UNKNOWN SOLDIER Suitable for: Further and Higher education

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Ariel Ray
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1 What people say and think about war has often been controlled. In WW1, letters to soldiers at the front were censored, to make sure no "demoralising" anti-war sentiments or bad news got through. Even now, Government, the press and religious leaders often try in their different ways to tell us or suggest to us what they think we "ought" to think about WW1, and by implication what we ought to think about the whole idea of this country waging war. This project is a chance to side-step all of that. That's why we're reaching out to everyone - all kinds of people. Yourselves included. The inspiration for our project is clear and strong. On Platform 1 of Paddington Station there is statue of an Unknown Soldier. The soldier is shown reading a letter, and this is the letter that we want you to write. To find out more about who the soldier is, watch this short film about him. You'll see from the letters that the soldier has already received that all sorts of opinions and feelings have been expressed. To provide some examples of how it might be done, we deliberately invited authors from very different backgrounds and cultures to write letters. Some people have chosen to write in the present tense - to write now, talking to the soldier and what and who he represents right across the gap of a hundred years from 2014 to Some people have chosen to talk about the role that the war played in their own family. Some people have chosen to step back in time, and write to him from the perspective of somebody back in Often, these people have chosen to talk about things that aren't usually talked about - to create voices that are missing from the official histories of that war ( womens' voices, voices from other countries, queer voices, childrens' voices, pacifist voices, the voices of those left behind...) or to express feelings that the people caught up in it or running it weren't officially supposed to feel about it. These letters reflect our 1

2 modern feelings about war just as much as the other kinds. The choice is yours. Take a look at the photographs of the soldier or watch the short films on the website 1418NOW.org.uk/letter Think about what you feel needs to be said - about what you need to say - and say it. These letters will eventually end up in the British Library archive. If in another hundred years time somebody wants to know what people in this country were thinking and feeling about war in this summer of 2014 then they might well go to Library website and explore this archive. So - this is an important project please add your voice and do please encourage friends and colleagues to take part. Please submit your letter online 1418NOW.org.uk/letter Neil Bartlett is a novelist and theatre-director. His 2007 novel Skin Lane was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award, and his new novel, The Disappearance Boy, is being published by Bloomsbury in July He has two honorary degrees (from Oxford Brookes and Brighton), bestowed in recognition of his pioneering and continued commitment to gay culture and civil rights, and was awarded an OBE in 2000 for his work as Artistic Director of the Lyric Hammersmith. You can find out more about Neil and his work at Kate Pullinger is a novelist and digital writer. Her 2009 novel The Mistress of Nothing won the Canada Governor General s Award for Fiction; her new novel, Landing Gear, is forthcoming in She has been at the forefront of literary digital innovation and participatory media for more than a decade; her on-going web projects, Inanimate Alice and Flight Paths; a Networked Novel, have gathered readers from around the world. She is Professor of Creative Writing and Digital Media at Bath Spa University. Find her at 2

3 invitation to students Dear everyone - The idea behind our project LETTER TO AN UNKNOWN SOLDIER is simple: if you could write to the unknown soldier, a man who served and was killed during World War One, what would you say to him? 2014 is already proving to be a year jammed-full of commemoration, from tv dramas and documentaries, to politicians speeches, broadcast concerts, memorial ceremonies and many other events and occasions. Our project invites everyone to step back from these public offerings and to take a few private moments to think: if you could say what you wanted to say about that war, what would you say? For us, the creators of the project, it is important to move away from the usual imagery associated with war and commemoration cenotaphs, poppies, the silence that falls over us all on Remembrance Day. What we d like instead is to hear what you think what you really think. If you were to able to speak to the unknown soldier now, with all we ve learned since 1914, with all your own experience of life and death to hand, what would you say? Write it down and send it to us; if you like, record or film yourself reading your letter and send us that instead. Many people have already written, and everyone has done it differently. Eventually, all of the letters are going to be gathered together and kept in the British Library as a permanent collection that anyone in the future will be able to go and look up and read, so what you write will become part of a very big picture of what people in this country are really thinking and feeling in this centenary year. Your words will help us create a new kind of war memorial one created by everyone. We really hope that young people will take part, as your voices are important and should be at the heart of this project. We want to hear what you have to say to the unknown soldier. He s waiting to hear from you. Yours Neil Bartlett and Kate Pullinger 3

November 1920 IWM Left: The coffin of the Unknown Soldier in

4 tomb of the unknown soldier Above: HMS VERDUN carrying the body of the Unknown Soldier to Dover at Boulogne Harbour, 10 November 1920 IWM Left: The coffin of the Unknown Soldier in Westminster Abbey before its final burial on 11th November 1920 IWM 4

5 statue at Paddington Station The statue of the Unknown Soldier at Paddington Station, created in 1920 by Charles Sargent Jagger Dom Agius 5

Archive Sorted post being carried in wicker baskets ready for delivery

6 post in the First World War Women sorting broken parcels in the Home Depot Royal Mail Group 2013, courtesy of The British Postal Museum & Archive Sorted post being carried in wicker baskets ready for delivery Royal Mail Group 2013, courtesy of The British Postal Museum & Archive 6

7 example letters Letter by Mark Haddon, a British writer best known for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (2003) Dear Great-Uncle Fred, Thank you very much for the postcards you sent back to Northampton. They re beautiful - little sheets of embroidered silk glued into cardboard frames - flags and flowers, a butterfly with the Union Jack on one wing and the Tricolore on the other, a crucifix, a cottage, the Badge of the Royal Sussex Regiment. On each one some uplifting phrase is stitched in capitals or cursive: God Bless You Happy New Year Entente Cordiale To My Dear Sister Home Sweet Home I find it hard to believe such things came from a battlefield. I guess there must have been French and Belgian women working with needles and thimbles in clean, quiet rooms somewhere far from the mud and the guns. You re fifteen. Or sixteen. We ll never know for sure. You lied about your age so you could join up early, and all the other records have been lost. You ll be dead within the year. I wish you d said more. From Fred to Nell, hoping you are in the best of health, you ve written on the back of one card. From Fred to Mother, 3/12/16, you ve written on another. Most of the cards are blank. Did you have nothing to say? Or too much? Were you under orders? Or did you not want to worry everyone back home? Now ninety eight years have passed and this is all we have left of you, fourteen cards mounted under glass in a dark wooden frame standing in the corner of my room in Oxford. And in the centre of the cards a sepia portrait of a teenager in uniform - bright buttons, big collar, black hair brilliantined and parted. At first glance you could be anyone s great-uncle, but if I look hard I can just about see something of myself in you, that double twist of blood and genes spooling back through time, getting finer and frailer every year. Remembrance Honour to England Until the End. Yours, Mark 7

8 Letter by Laura Ryder, a student at Bath Spa University Dear Soldier, You were not unknown to the mother that waved you off. You were not unknown to your friends you laughed with or your siblings you grew up with. You were not unknown to the soldiers who you fought with or the lovers you wrote to. You might be unknown to the people who walk past you every day. They might glance at you or they might just walk on by but you are there and you are not unknown to the history that put you there. You were someone s son, brother, friend, love and your sacrifice is neither unknown nor forgotten. Laura Ryder 8

9 Dear brother, They say there is a soldier who is unknown. This cannot be you. They say that he too was sent to kill or be killed, For his rich King, and for his poor country. But this cannot be you. You live, you breathe, And your eyes, the eyes of a survivor, are reading these words. You are not unknown. Letter by Benjamin Zephaniah, a British poet and writer, well known for his books for young adults Teacher s Dead (2007) and Refugee Boy (2001) You are known by your mother who gave you life and suckle, You are known by we who played games with you On cobbled streets, On broken carts, On wasted land. We were puckish children, in search of fun. Naughty we were, naughty. They say there is a soldier who is unknown, Or known but to God, But this cannot be you. We love you brother. You are known and loved in great measure, And although you did not start this war, And we who love you fail to understand this war, (Damn this blood shedding), We salute you. You were called, You were chosen. You are in The war to end war. They say there is an Unknown Soldier from Ethiopia, Will he bring an end to war? There is an Unknown Soldier from Spain. Will war cease with his demise? Estonia has one of this kind, And a Somalian cannot be account for, But the soul and earthly ways of these unfound fighters Are known by someone. Many have fallen in foreign fields. Their bones have been placed in tidy rows Or left to sink in bog and trench. They too fought in wars to end war, But they are not you. Brother, we wait for you here with those boiled sweets you like, The girl next door still writes poems for you. Your room is as clean as your diner plate, And your football team keeps losing. Not much has changed. If you see the Unknown Soldier show him love, If you see the Unknown Soldier hold his hand, Tell him that there must be someone somewhere who loves him, Tell him no one is unknown, Tell him that there must be someone somewhere who knows him, As well as we know you. 9

REMEMBRANCE. I want to concentrate on 3 things this evening: Remembrance, Hope & Peace starting with Remembering.

REMEMBRANCE. I want to concentrate on 3 things this evening: Remembrance, Hope & Peace starting with Remembering. REMEMBRANCE I want to concentrate on 3 things this evening: Remembrance, Hope & Peace starting with Remembering. Remembering what exactly? For some it will be the names and faces of loved ones caught up