Before the solemnity of Remembrance Sunday, the ignorance of the British public about dates and numbers connected to World War I was highlighted in a survey published on Nov. 4.
The poll of nearly 3,000 Britons of all ages received guesses for the start of the Great War ranging from 1800 to 1950; the date for the end differed from 1910 to 1960.
The survey by YouGov, on behalf of British Future, a non-partisan think tank, came a few weeks after the UK Prime Minister David Cameron gave a speech at the Imperial War Museum in London, where he outlined plans for the Great War centenary events that will begin in 2014.
In the speech given on Thursday, Oct. 11, Mr Cameron said, “Current generations are still absolutely transfixed by what happened in the Great War and what it meant.”
He mentioned that there are no longer any living participants of the war, which ended in 1918 on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.
Remembrance Day (also called Poppy Day or Armistice Day) was devised from this date but has grown to include a general remembrance of all who have died in battle.
In his speech, the prime minister said that the government will play a leading role in the centenary commemorations, with national events, educational initiatives, and two special days of commemoration: one for the first day of conflict on Aug. 4, 2014, and one for the first day of the Somme on July 1, 2016.
“The Imperial War Museum [will be] reopened as the centrepiece of our commemorations for the centenary of the First World War,” Mr Cameron said.
“Our ambition is a truly national commemoration, worthy of this historic centenary. I want a commemoration that captures our national spirit, in every corner of the country … A commemoration that, like the Diamond Jubilee celebrated this year, says something about who we are as a people.”
The First World War Centenary Partnership – a network of over 500 organisations led by the Imperial War Museum – is helping millions of people globally to discover more about life in the First World War and its relevance today, Mr Cameron said.
More than £5 million of new government funding would complement the Partnership work with a new centenary education programme. It is intended to give pupils and teachers from every state secondary school the opportunity to research the people who served in the Great War, and for groups to visit First World War battlefields.
A further £5 million of new money, to match contributions from private, corporate, and social donors, will be given in addition to the £5 million already marked to support transforming the Imperial War Museum.
“Together with partners like the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and the custodians of our remembrance, the Royal British Legion, there will be further events to commemorate Jutland, Gallipoli, and Passchendaele, all leading towards the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day in 2018,” Mr Cameron said.
Passchendaele, pronounced Passion-dale, is known for its thick mud in which horses and soldiers drowned. The battle began in July 1917.
Constant shelling destroyed natural and man-made drainage and heavy rain repeatedly fell. The battle continued until November 1917 when Canadians reached the town that gave the battle its name. Little of it remained. The most solid objects in the mass of mud and bodies had been the German concrete machinegun points.
Nearly half (44 per cent) of the public surveyed by British Future were able to place Passchendaele as a World War I battle. However, only 25 per cent of 16 to 24-year-olds knew of it.
The Duke of Wellington’s defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815 was thought to have been a World War I battle by 18 per cent of 16 and 17-year-olds, compared to 2 per cent of the 60 plus age group.
Remembrance Sunday is held on the second Sunday in November, the nearest Sunday to Armistice Day, the ending of World War I. The Armistice was signed at 5 a.m. in a railway carriage in a forest near Compiègne, France, with the ending of the four year war scheduled for 11 a.m..
On Nov. 7, 1919, King George V issued a proclamation that “All locomotion should cease, so that, in perfect stillness, the thoughts of everyone may be concentrated on reverent remembrance of the glorious dead” for two minutes at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.
This year, Remembrance Sunday will actually be on Nov. 11. The focal point in the UK will be the Cenotaph in London and two minutes silence will be observed.
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