Has the Great war Centenary really come to an end?

[Andy Wade]

I've just had a 'thing' flash up telling me the Centenary section is closing.

Seriously? When did the war end, 11/11/1918 or 28/6/1919?

Surely this forum should recognise the Versailles Treaty of Peace, even if our politicians don't know it.

 

[Ken Lees]

Men were still fighting and dying, so it does seem a bit odd to close it. 

[Andy Wade]

And some were still prisoners of war, and even more were still held in the Z Reserve, just in case it all kicked off again.

 

[MAW]

The British War Medal could be awarded for service up to 1920.

 

Mark

[Gareth Davies]

And the CWGC includes 1921.

[Andy Wade]

Hmm. yes but the war really was over on June 28, 1919.

CWGC did accept war deaths up to August 31, 1921 but that's not really germane to my original point.

[Gareth Davies]

It is germane to the thread title. 

[Medaler]

32 minutes ago, MAW said:

The British War Medal could be awarded for service up to 1920.

 

Mark

 

And the Victory Medal has a reverse inscription of "The Great War For Civilisation 1914-1919"

 

It's not that I want the centenary to go on for ever, it is more of a case that it hasn't actually finished yet.

[Steven Broomfield]

My answer to the OP would be 'I wish it would'.

[thetrenchrat22]

GWF Team stop being like the WFA.  

 

We have many more anniversaries of the Great War to come, the treaty of Versailles, bringing home the unknown warrior, the unveiling of cities, towns and village war memorials.  

 

The presentations of the King’s Colour to all the New Army Battalions.   

 

This sub forum should be kept open, so people can exchange views etc

[keithfazzani]

To most people it is over and done and they have moved on to pastures new. 

[Medaler]

33 minutes ago, keithfazzani said:

To most people it is over and done and they have moved on to pastures new. 

 

We are not "most people"

[kenf48]

In defence of the decision and I may be in a minority of one.  The sub forum is Centenary Projects not 'section'.

 

Whilst there may be many more anniversaries related to the Great War the leading cultural organisation for the Centenary is the IWM. They announced their final events under the auspices of the Government sponsored Centenary Events logo  in July 1918.  The action to close the sub forum to new topics while continuing to allow additions to existing threads accords with those sponsored national and local cultural, artistic and remembrance events.   

 

It is a sensible decision, noting for example that some IWM events will continue until March but were conceived and executed before the Centenary of the Armistice in November.  The only observation I would make is that the Heritage Lottery Fund is open for applications for Centenary projects until the 18 January 2019, after that date no further applications will be considered.  Therefore from that date there will be no more projects to add to the thread.

 

It has nothing to do with when the war ended, what was on the medals, what dates for the CWGC etc simply that there can be no more  community projects to mark the Centenary.  No doubt there are no restrictions on starting a thread on the Treaty of Versailles

 

Ken

Edited 18 November , 2018 by kenf48

[Andy Wade]

26 minutes ago, kenf48 said:

In defence of the decision and I may be in a minority of one.  The sub forum is Centenary Projects not 'section'.

 

Whilst there may be many more anniversaries related to the Great War the leading cultural organisation for the Centenary is the IWM. They announced their final events under the auspices of the Government sponsored Centenary Events logo  in July 1918.  The action to close the sub forum to new topics while continuing to allow additions to existing threads accords with those sponsored national and local cultural, artistic and remembrance events.   

 

It is a sensible decision, noting for example that some IWM events will continue until March but were conceived and executed before the Centenary of the Armistice in November.  The only observation I would make is that the Heritage Lottery Fund is open for applications for Centenary projects until the 18 January 2019, after that date no further applications will be considered.  Therefore from that date there will be no more projects to add to the thread.

 

It has nothing to do with when the war ended, what was on the medals, what dates for the CWGC etc simply that there can be no more  community projects to mark the Centenary.  No doubt there are no restrictions on starting a thread on the Treaty of Versailles

 

Ken

 

So theoretically you could get your application in on January 17, six (?) weeks later find out you've got the funding and announce it on here. But not everybody relies on HLF funding anyway. The Great War ended 100 years ago from June 28, 1919 and I just think it's rather premature to close the section now and It's pandering to the #duffhistory viewpoint that the war ended on November 11, 1918. Of all places, the GWF should be accurate about that. It's not like it's a big deal to keep it open.

To be honest I'll be happy to see the back of the centenary if only to get the photo opportunity politicians out of the loop, I would just rather it continued until the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles as that's when the war actually ended.

Anyway, I've said my piece...

[Magnumbellum]

On 18/11/2018 at 18:27, Andy Wade said:

 

To be honest I'll be happy to see the back of the centenary if only to get the photo opportunity politicians out of the loop, I would just rather it continued until the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles as that's when the war actually ended.

 

 

Just as the whole war did not begin with a single event, it did not end with a single treaty. Versailes was the first of a series of treaties between the Allies and the Central Powers,as late as the Treaty of Sevres, 10 August 1920. It was precisely to avoid the confusion apparent in this thread that Parliament enacted that the formal ending of the Great War, so far as the UK was concerned, was midnight on 31 August 1921.That is the authority for CWGC recording British military deaths up that date, but no later, until it receieved a separate authority regarding WW2 deaths.

[nigelcave]

Or possibly Lausanne, in 1923?  I think that the Greeks never signed Sevres (which the Turks reneged on, soon afterwards) but everyone relevant signed Lausanne

[Keith_history_buff]

In answer to the original post, I get the impression that the centenary came to an end, from an accounting perspective, at the end of March 2019 / start of April 2019. Those persons who applied for Heritage Lottery Funding for their centenary projects had to provide finish dates as a condition of their business case submission, as I understand it.

Interestingly, and somewhat late in the day, there is a historiographical interest in trying to record the myriad of commemorative activities in an initiative entitled "Mapping the centenary"

https://www.iwm.org.uk/partnerships/mapping-the-centenary

 

If you were involved in a project of some sort, I think it is worthwhile getting your info recorded.

I had some involvement with two HLF funded projects, and neither appeared on the following link
http://ww1digitalportal.org.uk/

I discovered the latter via the following link

https://www.iwm.org.uk/partnerships/mapping-the-centenary/digital-preservation

[Keith_history_buff]

If you do have a website, but you are not going to be able to fund its hosting in the medium term, it is worth registering it with the British Library's UK Web Archive as a website of interest, in relation to the "" theme. I am not aware of lead times, but I registered my website in December 2017 and the first snapshot was taken in June 2018.