St Machar Academy received £3,600 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for a project, The Legacy of the Great War in Aberdeen. Awarded through HLF’s First World War: then and now programme, the project was intended to focus on commemorating the memory of those from Aberdeen and the North East who fought and died in the conflict.
Staff and pupils took part in a number of research projects to gather information about local connections to the war such as the Gordon Highlanders regiment which recruited extensively in the area. It also looked into other areas such as the role of Aberdeen University, Aberdeen Football Club and a short-lived work camp for Conscientious Objectors that was built at Dyce.
Staff and pupils from the school hosted a Great War exhibition on Saturday 15th November 2014 in order to share their work and that of other local people. The exhibition also included a display by the “living history” re-enactment group; The Great War Boys. The pupils also created a memorial display using 1,000 remembrance crosses to commemorate the 9,000 men from the City and Shire who were killed between 1914-1918.
To help promote and preserve local heritage pupils also documented many of the war memorials and war graves in Aberdeen by photographing them and documenting the names commemorated on them.
This blog exists to archive and share the work of the project with the people of Aberdeen and the North East.
Aberdeen and The Great War 