1. War Memorials Trust Why are war memorials important?

2. Learning objectives: Why war memorials were important to communities in the past Why memorials continue to be important to communities today Some of the problems facing war memorials today Polish Air Force memorial, London (WM2048) © War Memorials Trust, 2008

3. Learning outcomes: Explain why we have memorials and why they are important Understand some of the problems facing war memorials today Give clear opinions about the importance of war memorials today and listen to the opinions of others Polish Air Force memorial, London (WM2048) © War Memorials Trust, 2008

4. What are war memorials? When were these memorials created? What are they for? Why are they different? Ash, Surrey (WM1899) © Ash District Local History Museum Society, 2007 West Moors, Dorset (WM1916) © West Moors Parish Council, 2007 Ivychurch, Kent (WM1616) © J Hendy, 2006 The Cenotaph, London (WM2446) © War Memorials Trust, 2011

5. How many war memorials? 1000 100,000 100 10,000 1,000,000

6. Theft from war memorials Carshalton, Greater London (WM1595) © Clive Gilbert, 2011 Carshalton, Greater London (WM1595) © War Memorials Trust, 2011 The plaques listing the names of the fallen were stolen from this memorial in 2011.

7. Questions: 1.Why do you think people were so upset when the plaques were stolen from memorials? 2.Do you think war memorials are still important as when they were first built? 3.Should the stolen parts of war memorials be replaced with the same materials or different, less valuable ones that will put people off stealing them again? 4.Should we still work to care for and preserve war memorials?

8. Why are war memorials still important?