The things they bought in the Great War .............. on display in Southern Cemetery

I am looking at a collection of souvenirs from the Great War, and what makes them fascinating is that they are the everyday objects which would have graced the sideboard or sat on the mantelpiece.

And given that they were made of porcelain it is a wonder that they have survived intact.

A century ago they would have been bought in their thousands, as keepsakes and presents.

But some would have been made to mark a specific event in the course of the war, and so it is with the ship in the picture which is a replica of the Lusitania which was sunk by enemy action on May 7 1915.*

Until recently I had no idea that such things had been made or that people bought them.

They don’t appear in the history books and I can’t remember seeing them in museums.  Of course they will be familiar to some people but not to me.

And they are a powerful connection with that war and the people who lived through it.  For unlike many of the things which have made their way into museums these represent the everyday choices of individuals who expressed their supprt for the war by buying the items.

These particular examples are from the collection of David Harrop and can be seen in the Remembrance Lodge at Southern Cemetery which contain many other very ordinary everyday bits and pieces but which say so much about how people coped with the conflict.

Pictures; porcelain tank, replica of the Lusitania, cup and medal from the collection of David Harrop


*On this day a century ago ........ the sinking of the Lusitania and the dark arts of propaganda, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/on-this-day-century-ago-sinking-of.html