Breathing Life into Bermondsey Great War Sacrifices is a project between Boutcher Church of England Primary School and St Mary Magdalen Church in Bermondsey, supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players, the project was able to involve and create a legacy for our existing and future community about those local soldiers who sacrificed their lives in World War I. The focus of our Project was to make use of the existing resources and those unearthed by research, to enable young people and their parents, relatives and other local community members as well as wider national and international interests to understand the impact of war on these young men and the wider community.

This project has enabled and facilitated the leaders and teachers of Year 6 in 2018 at Boutcher School to equip pupils to research the lives of 338 local men recorded in the Memorial book of the parish of St Mary Magdalen who died in the War. This involved looking at the conditions in which they lived in Bermondsey at the start of the 20^th century as well as what happened to them in the War.

Stimulation and support for historical research, poetry, art and music making came from the Imperial War Museum, the Museum of London, London City Mission, the National Theatre (through a Warhorse workshop and performance) local historians and local community volunteers.

The main event took place on 11th November 2018 with a procession of pupils (with supervisory adults). Each pupil carried a lit lantern they had decorated with the name of one of the soldiers to the Albert McKenzie memorial on Tower Bridge Road. At 5pm, as the names of the 31 soldiers represented were read out and the lights of the candles were extinguished. During the ceremony music and poetry were performed in memory of those who died in WWI. Pupils’ journey of discovery and the procession were documented in a film directed by Anna Biełuszko. The World Premier of the film was on 7^th February 2019 at KINO a local independent cinema.