Undertake and share your own research to be part of a new First World War project in 2018. Motherhood, Loss and the First World War is led by Big Ideas and funded by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). The programme responds to the universality of bereavement as the defining experience of the First World War, with a special focus on the impact on mothers – an overlooked aspect of grief from the period. In the Autumn there will be an academic and community research conference in partnership with Royal Holloway, University of London and the Institute of Historical Research.
You can take part in this research project and discover more about the lives and experiences of mothers who lost their sons and daughters whilst they were serving in the First World War.
Anyone taking part should focus their research on mothers from the UK who lost sons or daughters whilst they were serving in the First World War. Research shared by your group could include letter exchanges between mothers and sons during the First World War, poetry written about bereavement during the period, newspaper articles, and biographical information about the mothers and their experience of losing their children. You could look in to your family histories, look at local archives, contact local history groups, use the Commonwealth War Graves Commission database, look for books or find memorials.
Once the research is complete we invite you to share your research online through our Facebook group and on Twitter. Funding is available.
