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1917: On Sikhs and other Indian Soldiers in the First World War

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Edited by Jonathan Vernon, Thursday, 23 Jan 2020, 07:00

Though on holiday I find myself stepping back into my role as the Digital Editor for The Western Front Association as I'm kicking around a ski apartment with a stinking cold. This allows me to follow a thread on our @TheWFA Twitter feed discussing the Sam Mendes film 1917 at length in which there has been some discussion on whether or not Sikhs would have been part of the British Army on the Western Front in 1917. 

As well as Sikhs, there were Punjabis, Gurkhas and others in combatant and non-combatant roles, as officers and sepoys (privates) from across what was then called India or the Indian Empire and comprise modern India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, as well as Burma and soldiers from the North West Frontier (Kashmir), Afghanistan and Nepal.

A collection of books on the Indian Army in the First World War

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Design Museum

More Show and Tell

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Google Tour Builder telling John Wilson MMs WWI story from DLI, to MGC to RFC and the RAF

https://tourbuilder.withgoogle.com/tour/ahJzfmd3ZWItdG91cmJ1aWxkZXJyEQsSBFRvdXIYgIDgoIyIngsM

Hoping you can view this. I kind of interactive slideshow pinned to a map. In this case I roughly trace my grandather's war years, from growing up in County Durham (Shotley Bridge) to enlisting with the Durham Light Infantry, transfer to the Machine Gun Corps, then experience on the Western Front, surviging Neuve Chappelle, the Somme and Third Ypres. 

On 27th December 1917 his transfer papers came through and he joined the Royal Flying Corps (his kid brother had joined as mechanic the summer before and had then gained a commission as a bomber pilot). 

He then moved around from Hastings, to Bristol, and Uxbridge ending up with flight training out of RAF Crail, Fife from September 1918 to November 1918. He remaiend in Crail during the demob until May 1919.

Sadly his brother was killed that summer flying mail over Belgium to Germany. 

Only in 1992 did Jack return to Ypres, retracing his steps with the author Lyn Macdonald and paying his respects to his friends who had died at the Menin Gate and Tyne Cot Cemetery. 

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Design Museum

A quiz using Google Forms as part of Google Educator Level II

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In this age where an educator must do everything themselves or it does not get done at all I am trying to master Google Forms in order to create formative quizzes. 


Here goes:

 

 A quick quiz to gauge your basic knowledge > WWI 

 

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Design Museum

The BBC's Interactive First World War Experience

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If you have an interest in interactive learning then this is a great example of how a story can have multiple outcomes. 

https://our-world-war.pilots.bbcconnectedstudio.co.uk/

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