The most poignant part I have found with the process of making ‘Sincerely Yours’ is the collecting of the personal stories and accounts, especially from the local people. Taking the time out to visit the people of Lincoln, our grandparents, our relatives, our family friends and to sit down with them and a cup of tea and biscuit to hear the stories of their parents and elders during the First World War. The personal and almost autobiographical nature of our performance has many elements that link it back to the people of Lincoln, however, the key stone which everyone identifies with is the war memorial.

The war memorial is a tall, lonely figure of history, standing proud amongst the buildings of new. It was staggering to read the names on the memorial and how many lost their lives from Lincoln alone. It’s one thing seeing the memorial standing there as a figure of remembrance, however, to identify each individual name and see how many men from the same families were lost is just heart breaking. So much death and so much loss. For these names and the many more thousands of sacrifices, we remember them.

(Laurence Binyon, For The Fallen, 1914)

Works Cited
Laurence Binyon, For The Fallen, 1914. Read by Ellie Coleridge, 2014.
The Last Post, 1914.
Names from the Lincoln War Memorial, High Street, 2014.