YOUNG people from a Poole school learnt about life in the First World War as part of commemorative events to mark this year’s centenary.

Students from Carter Comm-unity School visited Hamworthy Library, on Blandford Road, to hear a talk from Chris Copson, curator of The Keep Military Museum in Dorchester, about life as a soldier in the trenches.

After the event, Chris said: “We have just started up our education service at the museum, where schools can come to us, or we can go to them and give a talk.

“We bring along things so that can, say, feel the weight of the webbing or the rifles.

“It is one of the most important events in history, and centenaries like this don’t come along very often, so there has been an absolutely massive amount of coverage on the World War One’s centenary.”

Gregory Etheridge, head of humanities at Carter, said: “The students at the talk are our gifted and talented pupils, known as the Enrichment group, who were chosen or put their names down to come along.

“They had a look at the equipment and demonstrations about what it would have been used for. They also heard what people think about the First World War and they took a great interest in it all.”

Laura Sneddon, head of children and youth services at Poole Libraries, said this event was one of many organised by Poole Libraries, alongside Borough of Poole, to commemorate the First World War centenary.

She added: “We had helmets, gas masks, uniforms and grenades at Chris’s talk, so the students could see whether they would have made a good Tommy.

“The students from Carter Community School were quite interested in interacting and handling all the items and uniforms.

“Then Chris spoke at Poole Central in the evening, which is also where we have a selection of his favourite books about World War One.”

Schools are welcome to contact The Keep Military Museum if they wish to host a talk. For more information, call 01305 264066.