Hands on history: from the frontline to the University of Plymouth

Generous donation gives invaluable insights into life during wartime
Mark Prior and Dr Darren Aoki with Kate and Stephen Wentworth

Hands on history: from the frontline to the University of Plymouth

Generous donation gives invaluable insights into life during wartime
History scholars at the University of Plymouth are benefitting from access to original documents dating back to World War I.
Kate Wentworth has donated two sets of letters from family members who served during the conflict. They include 110 letters, plus other documents including a WWI trench map, from her father, Arthur John Hopkinson, and 36 letters from her uncle, Francis Edward Hopkinson.

These documents are valuable to me, personally, because they provide an insight into the lives of my father, and of my uncle, his brother, in their early 20s, during a time of terrific stress, as young officers at the front in the First World War.

They give me an idea of their personalities, but also of the experiences and the succession of events that influenced their early lives.
My father was a Captain in the trenches and then in intelligence, debriefing German prisoners, and he was a prisoner of the Germans for the last two or three months of the war.
The letters from my uncle Francis show the terrible experience of somebody who was very badly injured – he lost a leg up to the hip and it blighted the rest of his life – and the consequences of war.
He also suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) – what they called shell shock – and he actually gained very little sympathy for the pain and suffering during the rest of his life; it's a sad story, but one that possibly applied to a good many people.
Kate Wentworth
Kate Wentworth visiting the Charles Seale-Hayne Library with Dr Darren Aoki
Kate Wentworth viewing historical documents at the Charles Seale-Hayne Library

Guest lectures and further donations

Kate and her husband Stephen Wentworth travelled from their home in Welwyn Garden City to the University of Plymouth's library, recently, to meet staff and students, and see how their original documents have been scanned and stored for posterity.
They also co-delivered a lecture as part of the University's Hands On History: War and Society module that introduces students to the history of conflicts and their impact on society through the use of primary sources.
Associate Professor in World History and Oral History, Dr Darren Aoki says:
“From a social and cultural and military history perspective, this donation is of huge value, giving deep personal insight into the officer class experience. In addition to their contents, they reveal material conditions – the paper they were written on which becomes increasingly scarce as the war goes on – and personal injury; Kate's father tried to write with a broken arm, and her uncle suffered PTSD."
The documents have been included as sources in joint lectures between the University and Bodmin Keep Army Museum's curator.
And the collection also includes Stephen's collection of pamphlets from Britain's rationing period during and after the Second World War.
Kate and Stephen Wentworth viewing DT Versa scanning equipment
Kate and Stephen Wentworth view our DT Versa scanner, operated here by Senior Technician Mark Prior

State-of-the-art digitisation

The documents have been digitised using the University's DT Versa scanning equipment.
Plymouth is one of only two higher education institutions to have the machine, which is up to the standard of those used by the UK's main museums.
Dr Aoki adds:
"You can see the grain of the paper and how the ink settled onto the paper, as well as stains, tears and folds in high detail. It isn't quick – it took me about two weeks over a couple of months of sittings to complete the digitisation of the Wentworth letters."
The University now has exclusive digital rights to the letters, which are housed in the Charles Seale-Hayne Library , at the heart of the Plymouth city centre campus and available permanently to students and academics.

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