An artwork celebrating the life of Edith Cavell created by the children of St Philip’s C of E Primary School

A Wa r M e m o r i a l a n d t h e B e g i n n i n g o f a P r o j e c t

On the left hand side of Chapel Street in Salford, just before you get into town, is a small church called Sacred Trinity. The congregation recently decided to restore the war memorial that stands in the grounds. The memorial records the names of the men in the Parish who died fighting in the First World War. Some of these names had started to fade away over the years and needed restoring.

Unusually, the first name on the memorial belongs to a woman. The name is Edith Cavell, the most notable woman of World War One.

Edith Cavell was a nurse who died in Belgium in the war, but what is her name doing on a war memorial in Salford?

Finding an answer to that question has led to a project undertaken by the children and staff of St. Philip’s C of E Primary School and supported by Chapel Street Community Arts, Salford Remembers (a WW1 commemoration programme) and the University of Salford’s Ideas4Ordsall project.

Over a full week in September 2015 the school staged a series of activities to celebrate the life of Edith Cavell. The children learned about World War 1, nursing, and Edith Cavell’s contribution to the war. Throughout the week the staff and children worked with artists Suzanne Smith and Harriet Morgan-Shami to create a large-scale artwork which explored different related themes and included contributions made by every single child in the school.

E d i t h Cav e l l a s h o rt h i s t o ry f o r t h e c h i l d r e n at S t . P h i l ' s

Edith Cavell was English. She was born and spent her childhood in the village of Swardeston in Norfolk. As a girl she enjoyed swimming, drawing and reading; she also learned to care about people who were sick and poor.

When she grew up she went to London and trained to be a nurse. She nursed sick and poor people in London and Manchester. While she was working in Manchester she attended Sacred Trinity Church in Salford.

Then she went to Belgium to train nurses. She worked well with the Belgian people and liked them; but her heart was in England. She spent her holidays in England and planned to live in England when she retired.

In 1914 the First World War broke out; England and Belgium were on the same side. The Germans invaded Belgium and governed the country. The Belgian people were very angry about this as was Edith Cavell. English soldiers went to Belgium to help the people; some were injured. Edith Cavell gave them medical treatment and helped them to escape from the Germans. The Germans found out and told Edith that she was to be shot. Edith said that she must not hate the Germans who were going to shoot her. (‘Patriotism is not enough’ was the way she put it). This was an amazing thing to say and we can all learn from it.

Words and flowers have always been very important to how we remember Edith Cavell. After her death many memorials were built in her memory with her famous words, “Patriotism is not enough” carved into stone, poems were written about her and flowers were named after her. Her name is written on the war memorial in the graveyard at Sacred Trinity Church on Chapel Street, Salford.

When artists Suzanne Smith and Harriet Morgan-Shami were asked to create an Edith Cavell inspired artwork with the children at St Phil’s Primary School, the themes of words, flowers and remembering seemed a good place to begin. They wanted to explore the meaning behind “Patriotism is not enough” and how the children might understand that statement a hundred years later in Salford.

The artists worked with every class in the school over 8 workshops during a week in September. Each workshop started with a conversation about what “Patriotism”

might mean and what Edith Cavell was trying to say when she claimed it was not enough. The children talked about all the different places across the globe that their families came from and that whilst they are proud of their heritage, they, like Edith Cavell, would help anyone in need regardless of their nationality. They also talked about the importance of flowers in remembering loved ones lost in war, looking at the poppy, rose and forget-me-not.

The children then went on to create different elements of the final artwork, each age range using a different creative technique to explore these big ideas.

The children in Nursery and Reception created collaged forget-me-not flowers, exploring colour-mixing with tissue paper by layering hues of blues, purples and pinks.

T h e M a k i n g o f Pat r i o t i s m i s N o t E n o u g h

Years 1 and 2 used decoupage techniques on the 3D letters that form the famous phrase. They ripped up ordinance survey maps (including Norfolk, France and Germany), looking for interesting features such as rivers, roads and train tracks. The children then worked together in small groups to transform the 3D letters with collage representing the ideas of internationalism, journeys and the destructive nature of war.

Years 3 and 4 also created forget-me-nots, but this time using observational line drawing and watercolour technique. After drawing from close observation of the flowers, they painted water on to felt tip outlines causing blues and purples to flow across the petals. The children were able to see that although all of them were given the same flower to sketch, every flower created was different, each interpretation different. The children thoughtfully discussed how this individuality was relevant to remembering the individuals who lost their lives in the war.

Years 5 and 6 created the experimental text art that forms the background of the final piece. After reading and discussing the first 3 verses of David Anderson’s poem Edith Cavell: The Martyr of Brussels, the children used copies of this existing text to create new ‘concrete poetry’ – where the manner of presentation adds meaning to the words. Pupils cut and tore interesting words and phrases from the existing text and rearranged them in forms that explored their own interpretation of the poem. The pupils’ text pieces explore the themes discussed in the rest of the piece, war, love, compassion, remembrance and flowers.

The final piece brings all these individual creative efforts together and is reminiscent of the posters and banners created during the First World War to both recruit and remember the men and women who sacrificed their lives.

P r o j e c t Pa rt n e rs

Ideas4Ordsall

Ideas4Ordsall is a University of Salford research initiative which fosters creative activities by supporting people with ideas.

From January – September 2015, the University worked with 4 local intermediaries to support 20 people with great ideas for cultural activities in the Ordsall ward (Islington – Chapel St – Ordsall Park). Ideas4Ordsall is funded by the AHRC as part of the Connected Communities ‘Cultural Intermediation’ project.

Chapel Street Community Arts

Chapel Street Community Arts is a registered charity (no. 1147650) that develops and delivers a range of creative arts and community projects to engage, empower and improve the quality of life of the local communities living and working in Salford. CSCA acted as a cultural intermediary to support this project. More info at https://cscarts.wordpress.com

Salford Remembers

Salford Remembers is a World War One commemoration programme led by Salford City Council and Salford Community Leisure and is part of the national First World War Centenary Partnership led by the Imperial War Museum. Salford Remembers supported the work in the school and the production of this commemorative booklet.

St Philip’s C of E Primary School

St Philips is a small voluntary aided Church of England Primary School based in inner city Salford close to Manchester City Centre. We have a strong Christian ethos and very good links with the church and the community.

Acknowledgements

This project would not have been possible without the enthusiasm, support and skills of the following people:

The staff and children of St Philip’s C of E Primary SchoolDavid WinstonHazel BradyJennie DaviesChristopher DoyleRev. Andy SalmonHarriet Morgan-ShamiSuzanne SmithJessica SymonsVictoria SimpsonJennifer Doherty Joe Scholar, Beth Crabtree and theUniversity of Salford Design Team