Research for a Great War project has taken sixth formers to two prestigious public schools.

The project is being undertaken in Willaston by a group of heritage enthusiasts for the Willaston Festival.

The group is researching the backgrounds of the First World War fallen on the village war memorial.

It is determined to ensure they are not just names but are appreciated as villagers who left behind families and ways of life very different to our own.

Ben Wellings and Alexander Parry of Neston High School

Of the 34 names on the memorial, it has been established that the officers went to leading public schools.

As part of the project sixth formers from Neston High visited Eton and Oundle schools to find out more about two names, Lt Lonsdale and Lt Edward Gonner.

Prior to the outbreak of the war Lt Lonsdale was a student at Eton College, while Lt Gonner went to Oundle School.

Both had lived in the village at the outbreak of, or during, the war.

The schools each had archive material so it was possible for the Neston students to examine notes about the men written more than a 100 years ago.

At Oundle, cine film was available taken in 1911 of the school’s sports day and the boys parading through the town.

The Neston students also visited a church built to commemorate the Oundle men who never returned.

At Eton they were able to see the plaques listing the many, many names of student casualties.

The college had a great deal of archive material including the headmaster’s register which every pupil signed when entering the college.