America

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Poppies from America – our project goes Transatlantic

A little while ago we received an email letting us know that our Poppy appeal has spread transatlantic and that we were to expect a delivery soon.  Well this turned out to be a little bit of an understatement…

Our crafter in America, Marion, had been told of our project by her nephew’s fiancée and it really seems to have resonated with her (and to be honest her whole family) and on a recent visit to the UK Marion with many of her family came into the Millennium Library to present us with their contribution – somehow in their luggage they managed to pack 400+ beautiful woollen poppies.

Marion and her family at the library. Included in the photo with Marion are Maureen and Martin (sister and brother-in-law) Linda (sister) John (nephew) and Georgina (nephew’s fiancée)

The family haven’t stopped there and since Marion has been home she has been knitting again, and this time her daughter, Sandra, has joined in making felt poppies

Marion and Sandra have set themselves the task of contributing 1000 poppies to our project and we extend our deepest thanks to the whole family for their contribution.

If you would like to help us reach our total of 15,500 poppies then please do get in touch (norfolkinworldwar1@gmail.com) and for sample patterns visit https://norfolkinworldwar1.org/commemorating-the-fallen-of-norfolk/

To ensure that the poppies are ready for display in November 2018 please can we receive any poppies by 8th October 2018.

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More unexpected WW1 discoveries

After the excitement of finding the flight gallery dedicated to the First World War in Seattle I didn’t think we’d find any other WW1 connections during our trip, most of it was being spent in National Parks after all.

However the last place we stayed in – Jackson, Wyoming – had a final surprise for us.

The town itself was only incorporated in 1914 (and today has a population under 10000!) and yet in the town square there is a war memorial which includes names from World War One.

Being on holiday I didn’t investigate the names too much but since we’ve been home I’ve looked into it more and discovered that American Memorials can honour all who served not just the dead and that the team looking after Jackson’s memorial are very dedicated and still adding to the people remembered on the statue.

Being curious I’ve looked into WW1 casualties from the area more and just 129 fatalities from the entire state are recorded for Wyoming during this conflict. 11 of these men died in November 1918, and sadly two died after the Armistice was signed (Pte. George W Hughes, 1st Class and Pte. Louis Lourand) – without more research I can’t say if these are Jackson men but I can feel some more research coming on over the winter!

 

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World War One in unexpected places

I’ve recently just had the trip of a life time travelling in America and I really wasn’t expecting to find any links to World War One while we were there however this wasn’t quite the case.

While in Seattle we visited the Museum of Flight and while this had some wonderful space exhibits (the main reason for our visit), modern planes to explore; and lots of WW2 planes I was most surprised to find a whole gallery dedicated to World War One.

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