Eight Lincoln brothers joined up to fight for king and country in the Great War – but only three returned.
The story of the Beechey family of Avondale Street in Lincoln will be told next week by author Michael Walsh, whose book ‘Brothers in War’ (2006) tells the tragic story of Barnard, Charles, Frank, Harold and Leonard Beechey who were all killed in World War One.
Mr Walsh will give a talk on the subject at Bishop Grosseteste University on Monday 10th November organised by the City of Lincoln branch of the Historical Association and the university.
There will also be a special Lincolnshire at War exhibition, supported by the Lincolnshire County Council Archives, which will feature a selection of the Beechey brothers’ letters on display alongside other First World War artefacts.
This will be the first time these documents have been put on public display outside of the archives. Descendants of the Beechey brothers will be attending the event, which takes place in Armistice Week and two days before The Last Post is premiered at Lincoln Drill Hall.
The Last Post is a new play which has been written for the Lincoln Mystery Plays Company, based on hundreds of letters home written by the eight brothers that are kept in the Lincolnshire Archives.
The Beechey Boys WW1 event begins in the Robert Hardy Building at BGU at 5pm on 10th November with refreshments and a book signing by the author supported by Waterstones, and the talk will start at 6pm. There is a £3 charge for the event but BGU staff and students and members of the Historical Association can attend free of charge.
The talk is just one of a number of historical events regularly staged at BGU, which will launch a new joint degree in Archaeology and History from September 2015. We currently offer single honours History but the new joint honours degree will offer a wide variety of modules across the subjects of archaeology and history. We have particular strengths in public and community archaeology and students will also gain skills in these areas as they study Britain’s Roman and mediaeval past.