Penair pupils take Cornish tin miners’ story to the Cenotaph

Five Cornish miners went to war and came home again. Then, in 1919, they died underground in the Levant Mining Disaster.

Their story was pieced together by pupils at Penair School in Truro, and next Wednesday (11 November) it goes with them to Whitehall.

The pupils will be among those attending the national Armistice Day ceremony at the Cenotaph, organised by The Western Front Association (WFA). Their invitation follows an award-winning history project on the part Cornish tin miners played in the First World War.

Beneath the Battlefields

The project, called Beneath the Battlefields, won a WFA award for its research into the wartime role of Cornish miners. Many of them took their specialist mining skills to the Western Front.

In the course of that research the pupils uncovered one of the more poignant chapters in Cornwall’s wartime history. Five of the miners survived the conflict, only to lose their lives in the 1919 Levant Mining Disaster back home in Cornwall.

The WFA says the project highlights the often overlooked contribution of skilled workers from Cornwall, whose expertise played an important part in the war effort. It also shows how the impact of the conflict carried on long after the Armistice of November 1918.

110 years since the Somme

This year’s ceremony marks the 110th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme and pays tribute to everyone who served during the Great War of 1914 to 1918.

It begins at 11am and will bring together senior representatives of the UK Government, alongside high-ranking military representatives from France, Germany and Japan.

Guests will include Lady Lucy French, great-granddaughter of Field Marshal Sir John French.

The programme includes a recitation of Rudyard Kipling’s poem My Boy Jack. Representatives of the Chinese Labour Corps and Caribbean Labour Corps will also recognise the contribution of communities whose role in the war is often overlooked.

Keeping Cornwall’s history alive

According to the WFA, the Penair pupils’ attendance reflects the importance of connecting historical research with personal remembrance, so that the stories of those who served are not forgotten by future generations.

The association holds its service at 11am on 11 November every year, the same moment the Armistice began in 1918. The Two Minutes Silence has been one of the main parts of the ceremony since 1994, when the WFA re-inaugurated it at the Cenotaph.

Founded in 1980 by military historian John Giles, the WFA is a UK registered charity with more than 50 branches and around 6,000 members around the world. It describes itself as non-political and says it does not seek to glorify war.

The Cenotaph the pupils will stand beside next week is the Portland stone version, unveiled by King George V on 11 November 1920. It replaced a temporary wood-and-plaster memorial put up for the London Victory Parade the year before, which had only been proposed two weeks ahead of the parade.