An artwork celebrating the life of Edith Cavell created
by the children of St Philip’s C of E Primary School
A War Memorial and
the Beginning of a Project
On the left hand side of Chapel Street in Salford, just before you get into town, is a
small church called Sacred Trinity. The congregation recently decided to restore the war
memorial that stands in the grounds. The memorial records the names of the men in the
Parish who died fighting in the First World War. Some of these names had started to fade
away over the years and needed restoring.
Unusually, the first name on the memorial belongs to a woman. The name is Edith Cavell,
the most notable woman of World War One.
Edith Cavell was a nurse who died in Belgium in the war, but what is her name doing on a
war memorial in Salford?
Finding an answer to that question has led to a project undertaken by the children and
staff of St. Philip’s C of E Primary School and supported by Chapel Street Community Arts,
Salford Remembers (a WW1 commemoration programme) and the University of Salford’s
Ideas4Ordsall project.
Over a full week in September 2015 the school staged a series of activities to celebrate
the life of Edith Cavell. The children learned about World War 1, nursing, and
Edith Cavell’s contribution to the war. Throughout the week the staff and children
worked with artists Suzanne Smith and Harriet Morgan-Shami to create a large-scale
artwork which explored different related themes and included contributions made
by every single child in the school.
Edith Cavell
a short history for the children at St. Phil's
Edith Cavell was English. She was born
and spent her childhood in the village
of Swardeston in Norfolk. As a girl she
enjoyed swimming, drawing and reading;
she also learned to care about people
who were sick and poor.
When she grew up she went to London
and trained to be a nurse. She nursed
sick and poor people in London and
Manchester. While she was working in
Manchester she attended Sacred Trinity
Church in Salford.
Then she went to Belgium to train nurses.
She worked well with the Belgian people
and liked them; but her heart was in
England. She spent her holidays in
England and planned to live in England
when she retired.
In 1914 the First World War broke out;
England and Belgium were on the same
side. The Germans invaded Belgium and
governed the country. The Belgian people
were very angry about this as was Edith
Cavell. English soldiers went to Belgium to
help the people; some were injured. Edith
Cavell gave them medical treatment and
helped them to escape from the Germans.
The Germans found out and told Edith
that she was to be shot. Edith said that
she must not hate the Germans who were
going to shoot her. (‘Patriotism is not
enough’ was the way she put it).
This was an amazing thing to say and
we can all learn from it.
The Making of Patriotism is Not Enough
Words and flowers have always been very
important to how we remember Edith
Cavell. After her death many memorials
were built in her memory with her famous
words, “Patriotism is not enough” carved
into stone, poems were written about her
and flowers were named after her. Her
name is written on the war memorial in
the graveyard at Sacred Trinity Church on
Chapel Street, Salford.
When artists Suzanne Smith and Harriet
Morgan-Shami were asked to create
an Edith Cavell inspired artwork with
the children at St Phil’s Primary School,
the themes of words, flowers and
remembering seemed a good place
to begin. They wanted to explore the
meaning behind “Patriotism is not
enough” and how the children might
understand that statement a hundred
years later in Salford.
The artists worked with every class in the
school over 8 workshops during a week in
September. Each workshop started with
a conversation about what “Patriotism”
might mean and what Edith Cavell was
trying to say when she claimed it was not
enough. The children talked about all
the different places across the globe that
their families came from and that whilst
they are proud of their heritage, they, like
Edith Cavell, would help anyone in need
regardless of their nationality. They also
talked about the importance of flowers
in remembering loved ones lost in war,
looking at the poppy, rose and
forget-me-not.
The children then went on to create
different elements of the final artwork,
each age range using a different creative
technique to explore these big ideas.
The children in Nursery and Reception
created collaged forget-me-not flowers,
exploring colour-mixing with tissue paper
by layering hues of blues, purples and pinks.
Years 1 and 2 used decoupage techniques on the 3D letters that form the famous phrase.
They ripped up ordinance survey maps (including Norfolk, France and Germany), looking
for interesting features such as rivers, roads and train tracks. The children then worked
together in small groups to transform the 3D letters with collage representing the ideas
of internationalism, journeys and the destructive nature of war.
Years 3 and 4 also created forget-me-nots, but this time using observational line drawing
and watercolour technique. After drawing from close observation of the flowers,
they painted water on to felt tip outlines causing blues and purples to flow across the
petals. The children were able to see that although all of them were given the same
flower to sketch, every flower created was different, each interpretation different. The
children thoughtfully discussed how this individuality was relevant to remembering the
individuals who lost their lives in the war.
Years 5 and 6 created the experimental text art that forms the background of the final
piece. After reading and discussing the first 3 verses of David Anderson’s poem Edith
Cavell: The Martyr of Brussels, the children used copies of this existing text to create new
‘concrete poetry’ – where the manner of presentation adds meaning to the words.
Pupils cut and tore interesting words and phrases from the existing text and rearranged
them in forms that explored their own interpretation of the poem. The pupils’ text
pieces explore the themes discussed in the rest of the piece, war, love, compassion,
remembrance and flowers.
The final piece brings all these individual creative efforts together and is reminiscent
of the posters and banners created during the First World War to both recruit and
remember the men and women who sacrificed their lives.
Project Partners
Ideas4Ordsall
Ideas4Ordsall is a University of Salford research initiative which fosters creative activities
by supporting people with ideas.
From January – September 2015, the University worked with 4 local intermediaries to
support 20 people with great ideas for cultural activities in the Ordsall ward (Islington –
Chapel St – Ordsall Park). Ideas4Ordsall is funded by the AHRC as part of the Connected
Communities ‘Cultural Intermediation’ project.
Chapel Street Community Arts
Chapel Street Community Arts is a registered charity (no. 1147650) that develops and
delivers a range of creative arts and community projects to engage, empower and
improve the quality of life of the local communities living and working in Salford.
CSCA acted as a cultural intermediary to support this project.
More info at https://cscarts.wordpress.com
Salford Remembers
Salford Remembers is a World War One commemoration programme led by Salford
City Council and Salford Community Leisure and is part of the national First World War
Centenary Partnership led by the Imperial War Museum. Salford Remembers supported
the work in the school and the production of this commemorative booklet.
St Philip’s C of E Primary School
St Philips is a small voluntary aided Church of England Primary School based in inner city
Salford close to Manchester City Centre. We have a strong Christian ethos and very good
links with the church and the community.
Acknowledgements
This project would not have been possible
without the enthusiasm, support and skills
of the following people:
The staff and children of
St Philip’s C of E Primary School
David Winston
Hazel Brady
Jennie Davies
Christopher Doyle
Rev. Andy Salmon
Harriet Morgan-Shami
Suzanne Smith
Jessica Symons
Victoria Simpson
Jennifer Doherty
Joe Scholar, Beth Crabtree and the
University of Salford Design Team