Artefact 3 & QR3 - Remembering the Dead

• Appropriate to KS1, KS2, KS3.
• History skills – inquiry – deduction and interrogation.
• Primary history source – image of cross which marks the grave.
• ICT Skills - interrogating or creating a database.

Activity

Follow the link from QR3 to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website, which contains a database of soldiers who died in combat during World War One. Using this database, pupils answer the following questions.

KS1/2 (straight referral questions)

1. What was the soldier's name?
2. What was the soldier's rank?
3. What was the soldier's service number?
4. When did the soldier die?
5. Which regiment or service was the soldier in?
6. Which country did the soldier serve?
7. What was the grave/memorial reference?
8. What was the grave/memorial name?
9. How old was the soldier when he died?

KS2
Using information and data from the grave the pupils write further questions to explore:
What do you definitely know?
What do you think you know?
What would you like to find out?

KS3
Students gather information from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website (linked through QR3). Students create a spreadsheet which investigates trends eg ages, regiments, dates they died.

Extension activity
This leads to pupils conducting their own online research to find out the answers. This could relate to finding out about the regiment or the battles or trends and data to do with WW1. You could also use the national archives to explore further. Visit the local war memorial (do rubbings) and gather more names and trace to ancestors – some may have members of their own families.