Year 9 CEMA Trip

Last Friday our History department took year 9 students to the Centre for Experimental Military Archaeology in Kent, which provided a fascinating insight into the lives of soldiers during the First World War. 

Students learnt a range of interesting facts about daily life in the trenches, including a visit to a replica trench system - mud and all! They discovered that soldiers kept their rifles and bayonets ready in case of a dawn raid and that British soldiers received approximately 4,500 calories a day to sustain them. They also learnt that soldiers used whale oil on their feet to help prevent trench foot. Another interesting fact was that the average height of a British soldier increased from around 5'4" at the beginning of the war to 5"7" towards the end. We learnt that this was partly due to the recruitment of younger men as the war progressed, compared with the older, professional soldiers who initially served.