Celebrating our Local Heroes

Remembering the Fallen in Byker and Heaton Cemetery

Heritage lottery Fund FW-14-08086

No community was untouched by the ravages of the Great War. What began on a wave of patriotism in an expectation that the war ‘would be over by Christmas’, descended into a resigned struggle for survival and, at times a distant hope, that a breakthrough would bring victory.

Families lost fathers and sons. Some families paid an even higher price with both or several of their male family members claimed by the war. The slaughter of so many hundreds of thousands of young men led many to talk of the failed promise of a ‘lost generation’.

The purpose of this project has been to ‘rescue’ this lost generation from anonymity and to explain how the war impacted upon Heaton. It is hoped that through this study our young people will begin to understand why the war was fought, the sacrifices that were made and, the changes it wrought on our community in Heaton.

A series of lessons, activities and sources are provided for teachers to support pupils in their investigations of this major turning point in the history of the world. Whilst the lessons are arranged sequentially, teachers can best decide what they want to teach and when. We hope pupils will find this project both informative and challenging

Class Teachers Y6 - Ravenswood Primary School
Patricia Bates
Andrew Gretton
Edward Brown

Schools Project Managers
Peter Hepplewhite
Neil Tonge

Heaton History Society
Chris Jackson
Arthur Andrews

Kate Hancock - Artist

Newcastle University Robinson Library special collections
Newcastle Journal
Tyne and Wear Archives Museum