Youngwummin has been launched to mark the Year of Young People and the centenary of the First World War
A new heritage project will see researchers uncover Scotland’s war heroines.
As part of Year of Young People 2018 and the centenary of the First World War, Youngwummin will provide youngsters with an opportunity to explore women’s history and support them to conduct research on the impact of the war on women in Scotland.
The project, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, will see five youth groups from across the country use their historical detective powers to seek out the incredible Scottish women who helped win the war, but who also paved the way for women’s right to equality.
As part of the research project, YouthLink Scotland is launching a nationwide search to uncover women who helped the war effort. Photographs and memories can be shared on the campaign's website.
The project will work in partnership with the National Library of Scotland, which will train youth workers in heritage skills and host a Youngwummin exhibition during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Amy Goulding, Youngwummin project lead at YouthLink Scotland, said “This project builds on the highly successful Scotswummin project last year, which unearthed so many amazing but overlooked women, women who helped build our nation. It’s Year of Young People, so I cannot think of a more fitting time to explore the impact of WW1 on young women and to look at the issues they faced, and how they still resonate with our young woman, 100 years on.”
Young researchers in Dumfries have already uncovered the unusual and life-saving tale of Sphagnum Moss Works. During the war Dumfriesshire was at the forefront of supplying wound dressings for field hospitals by using moss from the surrounding hills, which was organised and run by local women. Eskdale alone contributed over 70,000 dressings for wounded soldiers.
Angie Harvey, 23 from the Dumfries research group, said she was excited to be part of the project.
She said: “Our group in Dumfries is going to be looking into family life after the war, the development of social work, and one topic that we are all really keen to explore and develop, is the suffragette movement. It has been great so far and looking forward to learning more as time goes on.”
