Youngsters are being invited to investigate the First World War medical history of London’s East End with a new history trail set up by teenage students.
The family walking trail of 100 years ago was launched online yesterday by Whitechapel’s famous Centre of the Cell science education centre which had its 100,000th visitor earlier this month since it opened just five years ago—a class of Year 4 pupils from Thomas Buxton Primary school nearby who were enjoying an afternoon of interactive sciene (pictured).
The trail that has been set up for any keen historian to follow comes from research at the London Hospital Museum and the Science Museum as well as field studies the teenagers carried out which links key locations, people and medical innovations in Whitechapel over the past century.
Children and their families can explore the history with a free WW1 Whitechapel Medical Marvels Trail which can be downloaded from the Centre of the Cell website, or be picked up at the centre in Newark Street, at the hospital museum or at the Whitechapel Idea Store.
Part of the history trail includes Nurse Edith Cavell, who was shot by the Germans in Occupied Belgium 100 years ago. She had been working in Belgium after training at the London Hospital when the First World War broke out and was trapped behind enemy lines after the country was invaded. Her execution was ordered because she had helped 200 British soldiers escape to neutral Holland.
The history trail project supported by Heritage Lottery Fund has been put together by Queen Mary University, which runs the research science centre, and the London Hospital and Science museums.
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