The primary research for the project Beyond the Western Front began with a visit to the City Library, Newcastle, to explore their extensive WW1 archives.

Here there was an opportunity to explore the illustrated as well as the daily Newcastle Daily Chronicle newspapers for the summer of 1916.

What became evident through public opinion response columns within the Newcastle Daily  Chronicle was the feeling within certain sections of the region that there were far too many foreigners working upon British ships, and that British society should be training up young boys to come through the ranks like the Wellesley, moored at North Shields, was doing.

What was also evident from the City archives was how much the different communities within Newcastle welcomed the end of the war, as victory celebrations carried on from years after the end of the First World War, through street parties and dressing up. Clowns, nurses and blackface were popular characters to dress up as.