Remember RAF100 activities and workshops were held at the RAF100 centenary event from Friday 6 – Tuesday 10 July 2018 at Horse Guards Parade in London.
At our Remember RAF100 stand, visitors decorated planes at the stall and dedicated them to air service personnel who lost their lives in the First World War. This was a hugely popular activity and visitors decorated over 500 planes in total over the weekend. We gave visitors copies of our free poster and teacher resource guide, which provide information about the people behind the planes, creative remembrance activities, lesson plans and much more. Visitors also accessed the Remember RAF100 Database, where they discovered where RAF air service personnel who lost their lives in the First World War are buried in their local area.
Visit our free resources page if you are interested in accessing the project database and receiving our free resources.
One visitor to the stand was Harry, who had written to the RAF to ask to join the RAF100 centenary at Horse Guards Parade. Harry chose to remember Second Lieutenant Harry Duncan Teetzel and decorate a plane for him. When we researched Second Lieutenant Teetzel on the Remember RAF100 database, we discovered he had died exactly 100 years ago that day.
On Friday and Monday, Westminster schools engaged in Remember RAF100 workshops held at the Household Cavalry Museum. Students explored why commemoration is important to remember those who lost their lives in the First World War, before writing acrostic poems about a person from the Remember RAF100 database and decorating a plane as a way of remembering them:
Heroic James
In dark dark rains
Never scared
Danger all around
Magnificent planes
Always in lane
Running into pain
Courageous
Heroes are all around us
Multiple Remember RAF100 workshops were also held over the weekend with Air Cadet groups based in London and the South East. The Cadets discussed different ways to commemorate service personnel and also remembered air force personnel from the database by decorating planes. The planes from both workshops will be included in an iconic display of all 4,805 planes later in the year, representing the 4,805 air service personnel who lost their lives during World War One and are buried or commemorated in the UK.
The event was attended by many school groups, families and members of the public as well as RAF service people.
If you are interested in taking part in the project, we have free resources, funding and project activity ideas to support you. Visit our Remember RAF100 page to find out more or email RAF100@big-ideas.org.
