Beneath the Battlefields

The winners of the Western Front Association Malcolm Doolin Award for 2026 Penair School, showcased their winning topic 'Beneath the Battlefields' at Kresen Kernow on the 7th November.

The students from Penair School in Truro, Cornwall explained about the research they did on the miners and soldiers from Cornwall who some survived the war and others who came home.

The research also told stories of the hardship in the county during the war (pasty rationing!) and also told about the tragic disaster at Levant Mine in 1919 which killed 31 miners and some of these only just returned home from the western front.

There was also some great displays of Sapper John French MM MC from Redruth who family members displayed his artifacts and also his medals which are safe in the archives at Kresen Kernow. His diaries which he wrote at the Western Front was also on display.   

It was a fantastic presentation and part of winning the award the students will be travelling to London to lay a wreath at the cenotaph on the 11th of November.

Well done to the school and many thanks for bringing the stories of these Cornish men and women to light.