The shocking number of Islington residents whose lives were devastated by the First World War has been revealed by a new interactive map.
The heart-wrenching graphic, which shows the locations where men lived and worked before they departed for the frontline, was launched by Islington Council on Remembrance Sunday.
The project, called ‘The Streets They Left Behind’, shows where nearly 9,500 people from the borough lived before they became casualties of the First World War.
Janet Burgess, Islington Council’s executive member for health and wellbeing, said: “Whole communities were tragically ripped apart by the War. This poignant project will be a lasting, online legacy for residents to engage with the stories of the people who left Finsbury and Islington to serve in the First World War and did not return home.”
Each poppy on the map represents a person with a connection to the borough, having lived there at some point during their life. The poppies in Australia, Canada, Italy and New Zealand represent people who were born in Islington but moved away before their deaths.
John Shepherd, project manager of ‘The Streets They Left Behind’, said: “There is no doubt that the stories of the loss of these men in so many theatres of war around the world is a terrible thing to consider, but the real impact of their loss was felt in their homes in Finsbury and Islington.”
The only woman to be listed on the map, Clara Shead, a Stewardess in the Merchant Navy, was killed after her ship was torpedoed on 27 June 1918 near Fastnet Rock, Ireland.
Islington Council received £85,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to create the project.
I lived in polygon buildings off eversholt street during the war. I remember a young married man who came back after the war looking like an old man. His name was Iillingworth. The vision is still with me now but was just a child at the end of the war and did not realise the significance.