First World War project

Availability: No longer meeting


Station RoadFrom October 2013 to November 2014, Hayling Island U3A worked on a project to discover "The Life and Times of Hayling Island" during and immediately following the First World War.

hlflogoThis project was mainly funded by a grant from The Heritage Lottery Fund.

Our objectives were to document the details of those Hayling men who died in the war, arrange for a brass plaque to contain the names of those not already commemorated on the War Memorial, research what was happening on Hayling Island at that time, and present the information gathered in a book and in an exhibition (see below).

The plaque was presented to the church and displayed alongside the existing plaques.

The book

Book CoverThe Life and Times of Hayling Island 1914 - 1919 is a professionally-printed hard back book in its second print run. Hayling Island U3A members can buy the book at a monthly meeting for a concessionary price of £6.50. Otherwise it is available for £10 from:

Click here to see the introductory pages including a contents list. Note that this is from the first version of the book and does not include any images.

Click here to see full chapters of the book held in our members' area - again the extracts are from the first version of the book and have images removed.

The exhibition

exhibition1The exhibition was held, by kind permission of the Royal British Legion, in their premises on Hayling Island, from 1 November to 16 November 2014.

It comprised miniature copies of original posters of the period, copies of local documents, paintings by the U3A Art Groups, all mounted on display boards, posters designed by the Exhibition team, and various printed items, and military and civilian artefacts of the period.

The picture on the right shows the official opening by the Mayor of Havant.

We subsequently presented a smaller scale version of the exhibition at the Spring Centre in Havant.

Click here to see more about the exhibition.

Click here to see the posters displayed at the exhibition.