It’s Remembrance Sunday tomorrow in the United Kingdom, a day to remember all those who lost their lives courageously fighting for our country’s freedom, including all those killed in conflict in the First and Second World Wars, right up to recent times, remembering those brave members of our Armed Forces killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There is a site in Second Life to commemorate those people who were involved in the First World War (1914-1918) and it is a fascinating look into life in the trenches and the terrible times endured by the people at the front line.  You can use the SL site interactively to view videos, manuscripts, letters and diaries.  All the archived material has been saved digitally so that future generations can see and hear exactly what went on in the trenches.  There are works from the major poets of the period, including Wilfred Owen, Isaac Rosenberg, Robert Graves, Vera Brittain and Edward Thomas. The site, ‘First World War Poetry Digital Archive’ is owned by Oxford University and is funded by JISC Digitisation programme.

I met two of the people working in the sim, Csteph Submariner (who actually built the sim) and Skanda Broek, who are both there to help and advise the visiting avatars.  They ask you to wear one of the costumes before you look around in order capture the atmosphere of the camp, medical unit and trenches.  There were free army uniforms and nurses outfits to choose from, and I put on the nurses uniform to explore the sim.

You can ride in a bubble that takes you out over the trenches and you can see planes flying past as you go along, the aerial view gives you a chance to see how the trenches and battle area (dead man's land) are laid out.  Once back on the ground you can click the videos to see and hear the recordings of the people involved.  You walk along the muddy trenches and come across cleverly placed pictures of the soldiers, only these are like phantoms and it brings it home to you, all those young men in such a horrendous situation.  The ladies too who nursed the wounded were so brave and what stories the survivors had to tell.

Remembrance Sunday is a time when we can show our respect and our thanks to those people who died to keep our democracy alive, let’s hope those heroic and brave people will always be remembered with gratitude and thanks for giving so much to save our freedom!

First World War Poetry Digital Archive http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Frideswide/240/160/148