No history is a more important lesson for current and future generations that the history of the two World Wars. I am so pleased that Knebworth House and its remarkable archive is playing an active role in interpreting the history of World War 1 for our local schools. For three days in September, more than 1200 students from secondary schools in Stevenage visited Knebworth House for a WW1 Experience organised by a partnership of Knebworth House, Stevenage Educational Trust and Stevenage Museum.
Actor-interpreters from the National Army Museum welcomed children by assigning them to their regiments and ordering them to line up to await orders for the day. These included listening to readings from original documents and personal letters from local soldiers, learning about the vital contribution that animals made at the front, and hearing from a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse about her hospital work.
In October 1914, exactly 100 years ago, my great-grandmother, Pamela Lytton (who I remember well as I was 9 when she died in 1971, and had been her frequent tea guest at the Manor House in Old Knebworth) set up a Hospital for Soldiers in London staffed by VAD nurses. It is thought to have been the first of its kind. I hope her story, and those of others from our area who played a vital part in the War effort, has inspired their descendants to a better understanding of the best in human nature, and how it can stand up to the worst in human nature. May we all be the stronger for their courage and example, and the wiser for their stories and experiences.
Henry Lytton Cobbold
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