‘Is this really the last night’? Remembering the end of the First World War

This is a joint event organised by the Essex Record Office and the Friends of Historic Essex.The Essex Record Office is the storehouse of Essex history, and looks after documents, maps, images, and sound and video recordings which together tell the story of nearly 1,000 years of our county's past.The Friends of Historic Essex is a charity which supports theEssex Record Officeand historical research in Essex.

Essex Record Office and the Friends of Historic Essex

After over four years of horrendous slaughter, the war was about to end, but the world was changed forever. Join us for a programme of talks and displays to reflect on the view from Essex of the end of the First World War, 100 years on.
‘It is quite impossible for a war-soaked brain like mine to think in terms of peace; war has come to be natural – peace unnatural.’
Sister Kate Luard in a letter home, 10th November 1918
Saturday 10th November, 12noon-3.30pm
Essex Record Office, Wharf Road, Chelmsford, CM2 6YT
Tickets £5, including tea, coffee and biscuits
 
12.00noon-1.00pm - Refreshments, displays, and book sales, including:
<UL>
<LI>Displays of original First World War documents from the Essex Record Office collections</LI>
<LI>Handle real objects from the First World War with the Western Front Association</LI>
<LI>A chance to hear Alf Webb’s memories of his four years of war service</LI>
</UL>
1.00pm - Introduction to talks
1.10pm - The Essex Great War Archive Project – Dr Chris Thornton
1.30pm - Essex Nurse on the Front Line: Sister Kate Luard’s letters home - Tim Luard
2.00pm - Refreshment break
2.30pm - Vanquished Huns and Blithering Bolshies: reverberations of the Great War in Essex, 1918-1921 - Paul Rusiecki, author of The Impact of Catastrophe: The people of Essex and the First World War (1914-1920)
3.00pm - More than names: researching Chelmsford’s war dead - Andy Begent, author of <A HREF="http://www.chelmsfordwarmemorial.co.uk/" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">www.chelmsfordwarmemorial.co.uk</A>
3.30pm - Close