Members of Medway-based art group Explore & Draw came together at the Royal Engineers Museum with the purpose of creating this exhibition inspired by what they discovered. Each artist has each responded in their own unique way, some drawing directly from personal connection to the Royal Engineers, or the inspiring stories of others contained within these walls.
for your tomorrow we gave our today
gillian runting – @revivadesigns
Mixed Media £500
I’d like you to meet Annie and Walter Moore, my great grandparents. They had three boys – Reginald (Reggie), Cecil and Mervlyn (my dad’s dad) – what glorious names!
In 1918, Reggie was killed on the Somme, while serving with the Devonshire Regiment. He was 19. It was just two weeks before the end of WW1.
I had never heard mention of Reggie and discovered his story only when we came across Reggie’s war medals after my own dad died.
I made my first visit to the Royal Engineers Museum as part of my exploration for this exhibition. I was drawn to the corps’ development of tunnelling and trench-building.
As soon as I saw the museum’s depiction of the WW1 trench, I knew that I had found my inspiration, woven in a combination of this powerful structure and my own family history…
After seeing the Museum’s trench, my mind was taken to Annie and the anguish of her maternal loss.
Sitting with her pain has led me to create a mixed-media installation that gives voice to a largely silent generation of mothers, whose hopes and dreams were extinguished on the WW1 battlefields.
A mother, wrought with anguish, claws at a bottomless trench; over its edge, her hopes and dreams have disintegrated. The sculpted figure is Reggie’s mother, Annie…and ALL mothers experiencing the death of a child.
A generation was lost; a private agony that sits amongst so many of our stories.
I am unable to ask Annie questions, but I can imagine…
When you go home
Tell them of us and say
For your tomorrow
We gave our today
John Maxwell Edmonds, February 1918
Explore & Draw at the Royal Engineers runs from 4th April – 25th June.
31 March 2023