Woodstock Remembers WWI

Isabel Wheeler, Mrs Onions and Alice Hipkiss with the booklets detailing the 44 soldiers listed on Woodstock’s war memorial. Picture: The Marlborough School.

The Launch of the Woodstock Remembers WW1 Then and Now booklet took place on Remembrance weekend 2020. 

THE stories of 44 soldiers who died in the First World War have been brought to life thanks to the work of local students.

The Marlborough School sixth formers Alice Hipkiss and Isabel Wheeler have led the project, based on soldiers listed on Woodstock’s War Memorial.

The school’s Library Manager and Archivist, Joanne Onions, has been instrumental in supporting the students.

She said: “After a trip to the battlefields, the girls chose to look at all the soldiers from the First World War on the Woodstock memorial”

The project has gone from strength to strength, we successfully bid for Heritage Lottery funding to work with the community and produce the booklets and website.

“The booklets explain the background to the project and there are small biographies of each soldier on the war memorial, bringing them to life.

There is also background on Woodstock during the war and a map to find the war graves in Woodstock – a lot of people don’t know these graves exist.

The students used various websites including Ancestry and Commonwealth War Graves, and spoke to local historian, Patricia Crutch, who guided them to find other relatives to speak to.

I am very proud of the student’s, they really took it on board and made it their own. They have created a lasting legacy for the whole of Woodstock & surrounding villages”

The project began with the Government’s Battle Fields Tour programme, Legacy 110, a £5.3 million national scheme which saw secondary school students visit Western Front battlefields.

The booklet will be available through the school, in the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum, St Mary Magdalene’s Church, the Methodist Church & Woodstock Social Club which was built for returning Soldiers.

Isabel Wheeler, Mrs Onions and Alice Hipkiss with the booklets detailing the 44 soldiers listed on Woodstock’s war memorial. Picture: The Marlborough School.

‘as reported in The Oxford Mail 11.11.20’