In Flanders Fields ....... the exhibition at Central Ref

Now the exhibition by David Harrop, commemorating the contribution of the people of Manchester and Salford, during the Great War has been running at Central Ref for just over a month and a bit.

And judging by the comments made to David and the messages left in the visitor’s book it has made a profound impression on many who have seen it.

As it should, for here are the medals, letters, photographs and incidental memorabilia which belonged to those who went through the four years of war.

Much of what is on display is the ordinary things of life, from the saucy postcard sent back from the Front, to a touching family picture of a soldier in uniform standing next to his wife and child.

I asked David to select each week one cabinet which could be featured on the blog.

This is Cabinet 2 and David tells me it “includes, the porcelain figure of a Tommy lobbing a grenade with Manchester coat of arms and a china tank with the Stockport coat of arms”. 

The conker cross commemorating munitions workers. Conkers used in the munitions industry!

And the medals of Thomas Evans, a young man from Levenshulme, who was in the Salford Pals and was killed on the Somme".

The exhibition is on the first floor of Central Ref and runs until the end of November.

Location; Manchester

Pictures; Cabinet two, of the In Flander’s Fields exhibition, courtesy of David Harrop