Sarah Wearne

Sarah Wearne’s interest is in cultures of commemoration, especially those relating to the First World War; it’s a subject on which she writes, gives talks and curates exhibitions. She has recently published, in association with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, three collections of personal inscriptions from the graves of soldiers killed during the Somme, Passchendaele and Last 100 Days’ campaigns, fascinated by the insight these inscriptions give into the hearts and minds of the bereaved as revealed by the quotations they chose, the vocabulary they used and the imagery they employed. It’s this same fascination that has led her to study the war memorials of a community, British schools. As the archivist of Abingdon School she is familiar with how these communities work and how they used to work, and as a member of the School Archivists Group, whose co-operation has been vital in the production of this book, she has had to access archival records that animate the text.