‘Remembrance isn’t working’: First World War battlefield tours and the militarisation of British youth during the centenary

Abstract

Between 2014 and 2019, secondary school pupils from every state school in England were given the opportunity to visit the battlefields of the Western Front as part of the UK government’s flagship educational initiative to mark the centenary of the First World War. Based on empirical research conducted with pupil participants on the First World War Centenary Battlefield Tours Programme, this article explores the processes of militarisation present within these tours as well as the way young people participated in and made sense of these practices.