Author and Nobel Laureate John Galsworthy is best known for ‘The Forsyte Saga’, which dramatised social class and life in Edwardian England. However, his campaigning for injured servicemen from the First World War has gone almost entirely unnoticed, until now.
Born on Kingston Hill in 1867 and although too old for active service in the First World War, Galsworthy worked for a time as a hospital orderly in France. This contributed to his determination to argue through essays and articles for rehabilitation of wounded servicemen.
Commissioned by the Rose Theatre, Kingston, Digital Drama’s interactive exhibition drew on the collection of Galsworthy archives; letters, poems and journals which were narrated alongside recordings of local residents of the Borough of Kingston remembering their family stories from the First World War and were available as an app and tour guide.
Galsworthy images courtesy of Cadbury Research Library:Special Collections and Research and Cultural Collections, University of Birmingham.
