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History students bring letters to life
History and English students from The School of Cultural Studies and Humanities were granted exclusive access to PwC’s London-based archives to help create/produce a new book called Mr Squirrel’s Boy’s. The book tells the stories of the employees who fought in the First World War.
Partnership
PwC is a global professional service network. It also has a rich company archive, including a unique collection of letters sent and received by its employers during the First World War. The wartime letters Cooper Brothers & Co, a predecessor or PwC, received from staff were combined into a monthly newsletter named ‘Budget’ by a senior clerk, Samuel Squirrel.
The History students involved brought the letters to life in a book that marks the centenary of the First World War. The book, ‘Mr Squirrel’s Boy’s’ features nine men from Cooper Brothers & Co who went to fight and sadly never returned. PwC hosted an event at their Leeds Central office on 9 November 2018 to celebrate the book's launch.
I got involved with the project because I love conducting research. I really enjoyed working with other people, collaborating as a team and bringing all this together into what actually turned into a book was really exciting. I’m currently doing my dissertation and the research techniques I learnt on the project will really help me on the research part of my dissertation.
impact
The students really enjoyed the project. It allowed them to apply academic knowledge from the modules they studied, hone their research skills and develop their creative thinking. They also got a profound sense of the reality of the First World War in ways that are hard to replicate with the digital resources they use every day.
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