Students from Lycee Professionnel Jean Mace in Chauny and Baradene College of the Sacred Heart in Auckland, standing in front of the New Zealand War Memorial at Hyde Park Corner in London. A little wet from the rain but enjoying making friends on their first day together.

Today all of the students got to see the book. Everyone was excited to see the section they had written and to find thier name as an author at the back of the book. Our task today for the project was to post two copied to the National Library of New Zealand. This is called the "Legal Deposit" and is required under law in New Zealand when you get an ISBN number for the book. It means that two copies will be forever kept in the Bational Library for researchers to reference.

Photo of our book. Today we were able to get the book from the printing company.

The book cover has an image by a New Zealand artist John Z. Robinson. The image is a linocut print. The image is of Field Punishment No.1. This punishment was used to discipline soldiers and four of the New Zealand concientious objectors were also made to undergo this for periods of 28 days at a time. 

Another preview of our book. This time the pages show photos of Archibald Baxter and Mark Briggs (two conscientious objectors sent to the Western Front) and a great photo we sourced from Puke Ariki Museum of a NZ soldier on the duckboard at the front line. Briggs was dragged over this, the nails on it digging into his flesh and creating huge wounds. Baxter was marched to the front line in order to try to "break his will" to resist military service. In the end he got left there, and wandered...

The photo shows pages from our book that we are publishing as part of our Shared Histories Project. The book will be launched when we are in Chauny, France. The photo shows a section of the book written by the French students in Chauny who researched the execution of a group of soldiers in Vingré. These are known as the Martyrs of Vingré [Martyrs de Vingré]. The book is bilingual in French and English. 

Les Martyrs de Vingré sont six poilus, le caporal Paul Henry Floch et les soldats Jean...

Today was a visit to the printing company to look at the book being printed. It is going to be great. Our book, written by the French students in Chauny, France and the New Zealand students at Baradene College in Auckland New Zealand, is titled “La Bataille de la Conscience” [The Battle of Conscience] – 60 pages – ISBN 978-0-473-31621-1

The photos show the printing presses in the workshop where the book is being made.

A photo giving a look at what the posters for our exhibition look like. Our posters [by French students and New Zealand students] have been edited and now all loot like they belong together. They will be printed a large A1 size for the exhibition we are having in Chauny, France. They are to be printed on a matt laminate card and should look really great. We can't wait to see them when they have been printed at the end of the week. The posters are bilingual in French and English languages.

Our...

Ces exécution s’inscrivent dans un contexte très particulier, celui des lendemains de la bataille des frontières (10-24 août 1914) où les troupes françaises sont mises en déroute et doivent retraiter dans des conditions particulièrement éprouvantes. Soldats ayant perdu contact avec leurs unités ou contestant les conditions d’engagement des troupes françaises, civils incapables de justifier leur présence : on sait encore aujourd’hui très peu de chose sur ces hommes, l’historiographie ayant...

We were asked to put a larger photo of this image form the National Archives so it can be read more easily. It has been annotated when decoded. Hopefully this will be clearer to look at. It is the telegram announcing the execution of New Zealand soldier, Private Victor Spencer.  [Archive File: AD1 767 22.30.74 'Courts martial of Pvt Victor Manson Spencer'.]

We have been looking at the execution of New Zealand soldiers on the Western Front during the First World War. We have looked at primary documents relating to this. In particular we looked at documents held at the National Archives in Wellington. [Archive File: AD1 767 22.30.74 'Courts martial of Pvt Victor Manson Spencer'.] The photos above show his final plea, his death sentence and the coded telegram back to New Zealand announcing his death.

Victor Manson Spencer was from Otahuhu in...