Remembrance day

The Humanities Department lead assemblies for Remembrance focusing specifically on the Battle of the Somme.  War is often defined through statistics so the theme of the assembly was ‘You’re only a number’.

Below are some the numbers in question:

• It is a 100 years since the Battle of the Somme
• A World War One soldier had to carry 30 Kg of equipment
• 1.7 million shells were fired by British forces at the German trenches
• Day 1 of the battle was the worst day in British military history with almost 20,000 deaths
•  A man died every 5 seconds during that first day including many of the ‘Liverpool Pals’
•  The Battle of the Somme lasted 141 days
• Despite training for 2 years Arthur Seaton from Liverpool was killed after marching only 200 yards over ‘No Man’s Land’

Lord Derby Academy now has its own war memorial dedicated to the ‘Liverpool Pals’; soldiers recruited by Lord Derby at the start of World War One. History pupils have been working hard over the last few months to cover the entire memorial with the names of Liverpool soldiers who died during the conflict. The main image on top of the names is of an unknown Liverpool Pal who was probably under 16 at the time of his death. The memorial will be the focus of future LDA remembrance commemorations.