The First World War. Eugh. What can you remember from studying the First World War? Probably Franz Ferdinand (the band?), alliances, the Kaiser, war, machine guns, blood, mud, the Somme, nasty Douglas Haig, poppies, Treaty of Versailles, The End.
Some people find this fascinating on its own and need no convincing about how interesting the First World War can be. This is good because in most schools we study it for at least a term (normally 20 or so lessons). However, I think that the personal stories of the First World War are probably the most interesting aspect of this piece of History.
The first thing my year 9s did this year was to look up a person with the same (or similar) name as them on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website. For example, there are 21 people from the Commonwealth with the name P Griffin who were killed in the conflict.
http://www.cwgc.org/search/SearchResults.aspx?surname=Griffin&initials=P&war=1&yearfrom=1900&yearto=2000&force=&nationality=&send.x=29&send.y=9
Have a search yourself. How many people with a similar name to you were killed?
http://www.cwgc.org/debt_of_honour.asp?menuid=14
What kind of stories can you look up? Watch out for different nationalities, the different ages of the men, the differing ranks and dates of death. Though there may be little relation, the stories of these young men certainly gives a personal look at the war. It makes me think about what the experience might have been like for me. Isn't that just as important as the intricate detail of the Schlieffen Plan?
