Discover the unique stories of Ashford and Kent in the First World War through three local films which explore the role of women, the housing of Belgian refugees, and Kent’s important role as a front-line coastal defence.
FREE ADMISSION
Presented by: Ashford Borough Council
Finding Ella Harling: The Film
Ella Harling was a girl who lived in Wye during the First World War. At just 16 years old in 1918, Ella volunteered for the Women’s Royal Air Force, becoming a sailmaker and mending the fabric on planes at the Wye Aerodrome. What makes Ella’s story unique are the diaries that she compiled during the war, which are now displayed at the Imperial War Museum.
Finding Ella Harling: The Film uses archive footage supplied by Wye Historical Society, the Imperial War Museum and members of the Harling family – to document what we know about Ella’s life both during the war and afterwards, and how the project to find Ella came developed.
Echoes from the Kent Coast
Screen South, Kent in WW1 commissioned this short film from award-winning director Nichola Bruce, to illustrate the world of hidden stories and connections that mark Kent and its people out as particularly important in the impact and legacy of the First World War.
Shortlisted in two categories at The IWM Short Film Festival 2016, The film evokes an impression of the war years in Coastal Kent and aims to set the viewer on a journey of exploration into the multi-faceted contribution made by Kent at that time and its ripple effect on future generations.
The First and The Last
This evocative film, produced by the Belgian Tourist Board, Brussels and Wallonia, provides a context to the War and Britain’s involvement from a Belgian perspective using original images, and archive footage. Interesting topics covered include invasion, resistance, support from Allies and British aid to refugees.
The First in the title refers to the First British casualty in Belgium Private John Parr of the 1st Middlesex on the 21st August 1914 and The Last Private George Ellison of the 5th Royal Irish Lancers on 11th November 1918; both of whom fell in Mons, Wallonia.
Find out more and book your tickets here.
