The Unremembered: World War One’s Army of WorkersThe British Story

Call for local heritage and commemoration

The Unremembered: World War One’s Army of Workers is a centenary commemoration programme led by Big Ideas and funded by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) with an additional National Lottery grant from the Big Lottery fund. The Unremembered commemorates the Labour Corps from across the world who served in the First World War. Many died, but their contributions which are generally ‘unheroic’ - carrying, building, washing, cleaning, cooking - are rarely acknowledged today.

Big Ideas is searching for groups across the UK to take part in our project to raise awareness of the lives and experiences of British men and women who served as Labour Corps during the First World War. Your projects will be used to create The Unremembered: The British Story resource pack. The pack will showcase the stories of individuals alongside the creative commemorative projects of community groups across the UK.

This is a significant opportunity to contribute towards a resource pack that has a unique focus on the experiences of people sidelined in history. The resource pack is a free source available to community groups and will be shared widely across the country during 2018 encouraging us all to honour their contribution.

The Unremembered: The British story The British Labour Corps was restructured in January 1917 to meet the demands of the unprecedented scale of the First World War.

Although their work was essential to the war effort, many of those in the Labour Corps were men considered unsuitable for combat. They were those classed as too old for frontline service (aged 38 or over), men rated below the ‘A1’ medical category required for frontline service, or part of the Non Combatant Corps, mainly Conscientious Objectors. As the war went on, the Labour Corps came to include many who had recovered from battle wounds but lost their former fitness and were now reclassified below A1.

Little has been written about their involvement since the end of the conflict. The Labour Corps worked unarmed, despite being in the line of danger (with a few notable exceptions, when employed as

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emergency infantry). Their work varied from railway construction to de-lousing facilities, from battlefield salvage to burial of the dead, from forestry and farming to guarding prisoners of war (POWs).

From 1917 close to 60,000 women enlisted in the Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps (or QMAAC - formerly called the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps). Members of the QMAAC were stationed in the UK and France, and among their duties were clerical work, vehicle maintenance, and catering.

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A Labour Battalion returning in the evening after the day’s work consolidating newly won ground, near Ypres, 6 September 1917 © IWM

What kind of research is Big Ideas looking for?

Research on the British Labour Corps and QMAAC shared by community groups could include anything which helps to tell the story of their experience during the First World War: letter exchanges between service personnel and family or friends, archive images, newspaper articles, poetry or songs.

Please write up your research into short accounts (no more than 500 words per service person) and share with the Big Ideas team, along with any archive documents you have found.

We are looking for research which paints a picture of the people involved and which helps us all understand the situations they experienced and the context in which they worked. For example, are you researching someone who was wounded and had partially recovered? Or is your story about a man who was considered too old to enlist?

We are very interested in a strong sense of location - where was the individual from and how would their First World War experience have affected their loved ones back at home?

It’s very important that you make sure you have permission to share these stories with us, including any archive material or photographs. Please ask the Big Ideas team for more information about this.

Let us know if you would like to work with a historian to explore local Labour Corps heritage. We can fund professional research input.

What kinds of creative commemoration is Big Ideas looking for?

The Unremembered: The British Story will also feature examples of creative community activity to raise awareness of British Labour Corps.

The final resource pack will showcase the ways in which the war’s British workers have been commemorated in here in the final year of the centenary.

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Let us know if you would like to work with a local artist to commemorate your Labour Corps heritage. We can fund professional arts input.

Email theunremembered@big-ideas.org to find out more

theunremembered@big-ideas.org | 020 3011 5275 | www.theunremembered.org |