Remembrance and the World War Zoo Gardens Project

November and Armistice / Remembrance is always a bit of a sombre period for the World War Zoo Gardens project.

Although the allotment side has now finished (2009-2019) and some of the research and education materials on wartime food, wartime gardening and wartime life have been moved on to good homes for educational use such as at our local Bodmin Military Museum in Cornwall,

https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2023/10/09/the-end-of-our-wartime-zoo-garden-allotment-plot-autumn-2023/

Our wartime zoo keeper’s allotment ready to be re-landscaped back to lawn, 2023/4

we intend to keep this  World War Zoo Gardens research blog online partly for its Remembrance section on zoo and botanic gardens war memorials.

Like many public places,  at Newquay Zoo we offer staff and visitors the chance to observe the national Two Minutes Silence on 11th November and on Remembrance Sunday morning.

The rare zoo with a staff war memorial –  London Zoo still has a gathering of staff who lay wreaths at 11am on Armistice Sunday at their ZSL Staff War memorial.

The Lost Keepers of London Zoo WW1 and WW2 

https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2010/11/09/%e2%80%9clost-in-the-garden-of-the-sons-of-time%e2%80%9d-remembering-the-fallen-zoo-staff-from-wartime-zoos-onremembrance-sunday-and-armistice-day-2010-in-the-wartime-zoo-gardens/

This is the rough listing of dates of death of these ZSL London Zoo staff and Belle Vue Zoo staff. If you read through the past blogs, you will find that we wrote individual blog posts for many  of the London Zoo and Belle Vue Zoo  around the centenary of their death on active service.

This formal laying of wreaths  may not happen at the damaged war memorial to the  Belle Vue Zoo staff in Gorton cemetery in Manchester, but I hope a few poppy crosses are left.

This Victorian ‘theme park’ or leisure gardens  creation of  Belle Vue Zoo closed in the mid 1970s.

Botanic Gardens often had an animal or zoo element, so we widened our search and found some interesting examples from Edinburgh Botanic Gardens, Melbourne , Birmingham and  Kew Gardens amongst others https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/ww1-and-botanic-gardens/

https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/ww2-in-zoos-and-botanic-gardens/ 

Header panel, Kew Gardens staff war memorial. Image: Mark Norris, World War Zoo Gardens Project

 

The Lost Gardeners of Kew WW1

https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2013/07/19/such-is-the-price-of-empire-the-lost-gardeners-of-kew-in-the-first-world-war/ 

The Lost Gardeners of Kew WW2

https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2013/04/06/the-lost-gardeners-of-kew-in-world-war-two/

Irish Botanic Gardens https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2016/05/22/commemorating-the-great-war-in-irelands-zoos-and-gardens/

Natural History Museums, Naturalists and Scientists such as the Linnaean Society lost staff in WW1 and WW2

https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2013/09/11/lost-fellows-the-linnean-society-roll-of-honour-1914-1918/

https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/ww1-related-posts/

These are just a few links to the many stories of so many men and women  whose lives and careers were changed by WW1 and WW2 across Britain, Europe and the World, alongside the animals and plants they looked after.

As we say at the end of the war memorial service  in my Cornish village and many people say around the world on Armistice Day / Sunday – “We will remember them!”

Blog posted on 8th November 2023 by Mark Norris,  Newquay Zoo Education Dept.

The end of our wartime zoo garden allotment plot Autumn 2023

Our World War Zoo Gardens wartime zoo keeper’s allotment which flourished at Newquay Zoo from 2009 to 2019 has now officially been dismantled.

After a couple of post-Covid fallow years as a wildlife friendly wildflower pollinators’ garden, we have started to dismantle what remains.  

The wartime zoo research project and this research blog will carry on here online but the garden itself has now been cleared. Some of the useful perennial herbs have been replanted elsewhere for keeper use as animal scent enrichment.

The vintage bricks will be reused on site and the twelve year old fence panels recycled. 

It will be interesting, once this area is grassed over again, to see what wild flowers and herbs return!   

Kenneth Helphand in his thought-provoking book about gardening in wartime Defiant Gardens mentioned that many gardens are ephemeral and often do not last, often leaving only “ghost marks” of where they have been. 

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Last week we also donated some of the last surplus wartime artefacts used in our schools workshops to the Learning team at Bodmin Keep (Bodmin Military Museum)  in Cornwall 

They were gratefully received and I know that they will be well used teaching the next generation about what life on the Home Front in WW2 in Cornwall and Britain was like.

Transcribing our / my collection of WW2 Home Front Wartime Diaries will continue in my own spare time and be placed online. 

The wartime garden books have been donated to a friend in Scotland.

The wartime recipe books have already been donated for use online and in the kitchen by food historian and food blogger Carolyn Ekins of The 1940s Experiment blog. https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2022/11/03/our-wartime-recipe-books-have-found-a-new-home/

All good things come to an end … 

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The biographical blog posts about the lost staff of  zoos and botanic gardens remembered on war memorials will remain online in remembrance, and we will mark the odd topical event such as the 80th Anniversary of D-Day in June 2024.

Blog posted by Mark Norris, Newquay Zoo Education Officer, 9th October 2023 

 

 

 

Remembering D-Day 79 years on 1944 2023

79 years ago many GIs of the US Army quietly left the Torbay, Devon and Cornwall area heading for the beaches of Normandy and D-Day on the 6th June 1944.

This included the Americans camped around the site and wooded areas such as Clennon Gorge surrounding Paignton Zoo.

Here is the post we wrote in 2021 https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2021/06/06/remembering-d-day-6th-june-1944-the-wild-planet-trust-connection/ 

and more links in our D-Day 75 post in 2019 https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2019/06/05/remembering-d-day-at-the-zoo-75-years-on/

A curious part of Paignton Zoo’s wartime history (in its centenary year 1923-2023)

Although our wartime allotment is now turned over to wild flowers (rewilding?) and the World War Zoo Gardens project (2009-2019) now exists online as a research blog, we should remember these many brave young men.

Next year 2024 will be the 80th anniversary …

Blog posted by Mark Norris, Newquay Zoo, 6th June 2023

Ukranian Rhinos at Newquay Zoo 2022

Our Ukrainian Rhino at Newquay Zoo, Spring / Summer 2022

As we move towards Armistice Day on November 11th and Remembrance Sunday on 13th November this year (2022),

I think not only about the disruption and destruction caused to zoos, their staff, visitors and animals in WW1 and WW2

but also about the conflict in the Ukraine that has engulfed Ukrainian Zoos in the last year.

Earlier in 2022  Newquay Zoo and Paignton Zoo joined many British  zoos and other  zoos across Europe in fundraising for the eventual restoration and rebuilding of Ukrainian zoos when peace returns and the war is over.

https://www.newquayzoo.org.uk/news/wild-planet-trust-raises-25000-for-ukraine/

https://www.paigntonzoo.org.uk/news/wild-planet-trust-is-supporting-the-ukrainian-zoo-community/

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Poppies in our old wartime garden allotment recreation (2009-2019) – seen below –  now resown 2020-2022 with wildflowers and poppies.

Lest We Forget …

Post by Mark Norris, Newquay Zoo Education Officer, World War Zoo Gardens project 2009-2019 and research (ongoing) 09/11/2022

Our Wartime Recipe Books have found a new home …

Pictured, part of our original wartime life collection at Newquay Zoo including recipe books 

The World War Zoo Gardens research project, schools workshops and allotment at Newquay Zoo ran from 2009 to 2019 (from the 70th to the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of WW2).

I wanted to explore what we could learn for the future from how zoos, their staff, visitors and animals survived the challenges of wartime life and rations. 

Whilst this occasional research blog remains, along with my wartime diaries research, we have been steadily rehoming some of our original 1940s research materials, prior to a building move at Newquay Zoo. 

The garden books have already found a new home. 

I am delighted to have passed on our collection of original recipe books and paper cuttings of recipes to an active new home with Carolyn at The 1940s Experiment blog. 

During the time that we ran our project here, Carolyn has also been researching and cooking healthy and cheap wartime recipes, as relevant today in an age of austerity and food and fuel insecurity as when these books were printed. 

The 1940s Experiment blog at  https://the1940sexperiment.com/ Well worth following … we wish Carolyn all the best with these lovely old books and recipes finding a new modern audience. 

November  – Poppy time again … these were ours here in July 2022 in our old wartime allotment recreation, now sown with wildflowers. 

Blog post by Mark Norris, Newquay Zoo – World War Zoo Gardens project (2009-19) on 3 November 2022

 

Poppies and Bees 2022

The old  World War Zoo Gardens wartime garden patch (2009-2019) at Newquay Zoo is now this summer (2022) covered in wildflowers, attracting wildlife and pollinators.

These Flanders poppies are very popular with the Bumblebees first thing in the morning whilst it is cool. 

Picture posted by Mark Norris, Education Officer  Newquay Zoo  for the World War Zoo Gardens research project,  24 July 2022. 

Charles Frederick Ball new biography by Brian Willan – Kew Gardens, Glasnevin, Dublin and Gallipoli WW1

 

A new biography of Charles Frederick Ball, gardener at Kew Gardens and Glasnevin (Dublin Botanic Gardens) has just been published by Brian Willan of Devon, who kindly sent me a copy of this book.

Leicester born C.F. Ball or ‘Fred’ enlisted in The Royal Dublin Fusiliers and was killed at Gallipoli in 1915 during WW1.

Pictured in uniform in Garden Illustrated magazine 1915

Private Charles Frederick Ball, service number 16445, 7th Battalion, Royal Dublin Fusiliers (Pals Battalion), died at Gallipoli on 13/09/1915, aged 36.

C.F. Ball  featured on our Kew in WW1 blog post, amongst  the many names on  staff war memorial at Kew Gardens and remembered in the  plant variety name of  the popular and colourful Escallonia ‘C.F. Ball’.

https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2013/07/19/such-is-the-price-of-empire-the-lost-gardeners-of-kew-in-the-first-world-war/

Not every gardener named on the Kew Gardens staff war memorial (C.F. Ball’s entry, above) gets a full and well illustrated biography like this, although many of them received a short obituary notice in the Kew Guild Journal.   

https://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com/2015/09/13/remembering-c-f-ball-of-kew-glasnevin-killed-gallipoli-13-september-1915/

The story of Fred Ball will have to stand in for many less fortunate names of his generation. 

 

This interesting well illustrated book is based on family letters and photographs recently discovered in 2018 and inherited by Brian Willan, who is grandson by marriage of C.F. Ball’s widow Alice.   

It is published by the Liffey Press  www.theliffeypress.com   and should be available (to order)  in all good bookshops. 

https://theliffeypress.com/charles-frederick-ball-from-dublin-s-botanic-gardens-to-the-killing-fields-of-gallipoli-by-brian-willan.html

I will write a fuller review when I have finished reading this fascinating book.

Blog post by Mark Norris, Newquay Zoo – World War Zoo gardens research project occasional blog post 15 July 2022 

Remembering D Day 6 June 1944 at Paignton and Slapton Ley Wild Planet Trust sites 78 years on

Another year passes and again we remember the many American, British and Allied troops who left our shores of Devon and Cornwall to land on D Day 6 June 1944 from several Wild Planet Trust sites.

Remembering D-Day 6th June 1944 – the Wild Planet Trust Connection

Ukraine Zoos in the War Zone

Yet again during my fairly lengthy zoo career and my wartime zoo research project, another set of zoos are sadly in the firing line in a warzone to join a lengthening recent historic list of  Kabul, Iraq, Congo DRC , West Africa,  Yugoslavian zoos  …

No doubt zookeepers’ thoughts around the world at this difficult time will be with the Ukraine zoo staff, families and their animals at three Ukrainian  collections  (candidates for EAZA membership in 2019/20) and other wildlife parks in the Ukraine.

The Kyiv / Kiev Zoo website link showed (in translation) this morning: “In connection with the declaration of martial law, the Kiev Zoo is closed to visitors.”

In connection with the declaration of martial law, the Kiev Zoo is closed to visitors.

https://zoo.kiev.ua/ 

1. Ukraine – Kyiv Zoological Park – KIEV

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2. Ukraine – Kharkiv Zoo – KHARKIV – their Facebook entry for 25 February 2022 (I cannot translate this Facebook post)

https://zoo.kharkov.ua/timetable-en

Only two peaceful weeks before, their website was full of their Valentine’s Day events, family fun and everyday zoo life, just like all our own local zoos.

3. Ukraine –  Nikolaev Zoo – NIKOLAEV

http://zoo.nikolaev.ua/en

I hope that all is as well as it can be with these collections.

The Zoo News Digest facebook page has several Ukraine linked entries (again Internet translation) such as this Facebook post (retrieved today 28.02.2022 from Zoo News Digest)

Zoo News Digest reposted this message from The President of the UAZA Association of Ukrainian Zoos

****** Thanks to Peter and  the Zoo News Digest Team https://www.facebook.com/zoonewsdigest/ for relaying and reposting messages **** 

I have been fortunate to meet and learn from zoo keepers, zoo educators  and zoo staff from all over Europe and the world over the past  25+ years and they are pretty much the same wonderful,  dedicated and slightly strange bunch the whole world over. We all do the same important conservation and education work.

No doubt over time the EAZA website / social media will be the one of best places to keep a look out for further updated  information.

A further list of Ukraine Zoo and wildlife collections can be found here the EARAZA Eurasian Zoo Association http://earaza.ru/?p=3871

WAZA website https://www.waza.org/

I have this afternoon read a WAZA member comms statement by Martin Zordan CEO of WAZA that he had heard (as above Facebook entry) from Volodymyr Topchiy, President of the Association of Zoos of Ukraine and Director of Nikolaev Zoo (a WAZA member). Martin Zordan says: “We have also seen online updates from other zoos in the country with information from Kyiv Zoo sharing they are working hard to keep animals safe, and we understand that some animals have been killed in the conflict at Kharkiv Zoo.”

“WAZA will continue to monitor the situation and try to find ways to provide support where we can. We will also share further updates from Ukraine when we hear more and will let our members know how you can get involved and help your colleagues in Ukraine. We are aware of several zoos in neighbouring countries currently offering support. Thank you. WAZA shares its sympathies and concerns with our colleagues in Ukraine. We hope for the best outcome for the people and the animals. Our work to save species and provide the best care possible for animals at our organisations relies on global collaboration.” WAZA 28.02.2022

Posted by Mark Norris, World War Zoo Gardens research project blog (Newquay / UK zoo based) on 28 February 2022. Information is up to date as of lunchtime 28.02.2022. All views are my own.

Images screenshotted / archived for historic reference purposes. Please note if any of the visuals on this blog are distorted, try clicking on the image or looking on a different device (mobile / Tablet / PC).

 

Gardening as an Education tool for Equity and Equality – Edutopia article

Interesting article on Edutopia site about using gardening as an “Education tool” to teach about equity, fairness and equality, as well as teaching about growing edible plants and plant science.

https://www.edutopia.org/article/teaching-concept-equity-through-gardening

Edutopia is a free (weekly?) education resource blog set up by George Lucas, the film maker of Star Wars fame, originally to tackle visual illiteracy or to positively support the teaching of visual literacy in schools.

Edutopia then grew wider into disseminating good ideas to support the teaching of all subjects at all school ages worldwide by the George Lucas Education Foundation. If you are a teacher or involved in education, well worth signing up to their free newsletter and article archive at https://www.edutopia.org/

The idea of teaching about equity, fairness and equality in treating all plants exactly the same (irrespective of where they come from and their needs) could also be extended to looking after zoo animals.

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The Edutopia article by Simi Sardana asks:

Ask your students, “Do our plants need the same amount of sunlight and water, or do they need different amounts?” Lead the students to the conclusion that the plants need different amounts of sunlight, water, and soil depths to grow, and from there explain how the term equality (“everyone gets the same thing”) compares with the term equity (“everyone gets what they need”).

Discussion: “Once you have terminology established, tell your students, “If we treat all of the plants equally, it will mean that we will give them the same amount of sunlight and water, even if they need different amounts.”

Then ask them, “Does this approach to taking care of the plants make sense?” to prompt discussion. Leave the conversation open to your students’ interpretation.”

“Provide concrete examples with your selected plants … Then introduce the comparison: “That’s if we treat all of the plants equally. If we treat them with equity, then we give them the amount of sunlight and water that they need.” Ask your students what makes the most sense in tending to plants: equality or equity?”

Interesting idea, interesting article by Simi Sardana.

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Although the wartime zoo keeper’s allotment recreation part (2009-2019) of our World War Zoo Gardens project has now progressed to a simpler ‘Nearby Nature’ pollinator / wildflower plot as this area of Newquay Zoo is slowly redeveloped, we are maintaining this World War Zoo Gardens blog site for our occasional blog posts and ongoing occasional research on wartime zoos and wartime animal nutrition, gardening history, gardening as an education tool, zoo and botanic garden staff wartime memorials in WW1 and WW2, zoo history and related subjects.

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Thanks to my colleagues at Cornwall College (Newquay) delivering EDI Equity Diversity and Inclusion training CPD Refresher for bringing this article to my attention. Although I subscribe to the Edutopia e-newsletter, there are so many interesting articles, resources and ideas that I missed this one back in February 2021. Subscribe! https://www.edutopia.org/

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Blog posted by Mark Norris at Newquay Zoo Education, 24 January 2022