One of our major projects is nearly complete in Islington, London.  Soldiers joined many different regiments but our schools there have been focussing on the experiences of the local regiment – the Finsbury Rifles – which went to Gallipoli in July 1915.

Islington is a very different place a hundred years on: today there is a large Turkish community there.  Working with Islington Museum, we took the opportunity to look at the Gallipoli Campaign from both sides, through commemorative art works and music meditations.

Islington Museum has been researching the stories of men who lived in the borough and died in the First World War. No less than 212 local men died at Gallipoli, 21 of them having joined the local regiment, the Finsbury Rifles. Today Islington has a large Turkish community and the museum has run two educational projects, looking at the story from both sides.

Here, Rebecca Campbell-Gay, Education Officer at the museum, introduces the projects.

The beautiful film below is more than just a record of the projects – it’s a work of art in its own right, including sound art as well as music.

One project used music as its theme and local primary school pupils worked with British and Turkish musicians to compose pieces using Gallipoli as their inspiration; read an evaluation report about the music project here. We were delighted that pupils from one of the primary schools were able to join members of the Gallipoli Association for the Remembrance Sunday march past.

In the second project two secondary schools worked with the arts organisation Social Fabric to create banners linked to the Gallipoli story. Read an evaluation report about the art project here.

Interviews with pupils

Listen to what the children thought about the project.