Towards a New Jerusalem

In March 2018, the Westminster Community Reminiscence and Archive Group (WCRAG), working in partnership with Westminster Archives and the Royal College of Nursing, received a HLF grant of £40,200 to look at how the last years of World War 2 helped shape the foundation of the Welfare State and in particular the NHS. We wanted to work with local children to celebrate the 70th anniversary of this much loved institution.

The establishment of NHS represents an historic decision whereby the state took responsibility for our health. It’s establishment is also linked to immigration as many arrived from former colonies to help make it work.

We created a KS2 education pack and pupil response booklet that can be downloaded from this section of the West End at War website.  It is linked to the Y6 Local History unit:(Study over time).  The education pack used superb illustrations by author illustrator Michael Foreman to reveal the angst of having a seriously ill child in pre-NHS Britain. We also created a four panel exhibition based on our key themes, which has toured Westminster Archives and both Mayfair and Church Street libraries. 

Our volunteers used Westminster Music Library's sheet music collection  to help MOD Theatre Company stage two sing-along performances at the Abbey Community Centre on July 4th 2018.  This helped us to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the NHS with schools, veterans and guests from the Royal College of Nursing. These guests also helped us to create an oral history of the NHS with children from Servite Catholic Primary School, which is opposite our local hospital, Chelsea and Westminster. Y6 Servite pupils worked with film makers Digital Works to learn oral history and film recording techniques so that they could create the film that you can watch on the first of the tabs below.