July Meeting – Dr Edward Packard

Four years, three months and one week: the First World War diaries of
Alice Packard, a Shotley farmer’s wife

Ed Packard is a lecturer in History at the University of Suffolk. Among his particular interests are war and peace in Great Britain from 1914 to 1945 and to mark the centenary of the Great War he has researched the unpublished diaries of Alice Packard, a Suffolk farmer’s wife, focusing on the ways in which middle class women and rural communities experienced the war, and challenging assumptions and stereotypes about the ‘home front’.

Although Shotley is slightly outside the Waveney Valley area, Ed’s talk will illuminate life in rural East Anglia during the First World War and provide some food for thought for our own Hidden Commemoration project on the impact of the war in the Waveney Valley.

The usual refreshments will be available with, we hope, a suitably Suffolk biscuit selection. Admission is £2.00 for members , £3.00 for non-members.

The meeting is on Saturday, July 15th at 2.00pm and we’re at Needham Village Hall, High Road, Needham, IP20 9LB