Dewsbury Sacrifices are a grant-funded organisation to help find Dewsbury soldiers that didn’t return from the war. The project was set up to honour and commemorate the lives of those who died in battle, of which there were 1,053 names. There were, however, many details missing so the committee’s first job was to try and fill in those details by identifying who the men were, what they did, their background etc.
The organisation was established in 2014 and they were awarded their grant in 2016. Their main aim is to show Dewsbury in a more positive light and pay tribute to the fallen to ensure they’re not forgotten.
The project is still in its infancy and therefore their biggest challenge is reaching a wide audience to help make people aware of what they are trying to achieve. They currently have a website and are trying to appeal to local surviving families in the Dewsbury area.
Not only do they want to raise awareness of the project itself by reaching as many people as possible, but they are also trying to create an interest to help the community understand their local heritage and the part that Dewsbury played in history.
Our project is obviously based around the history of Dewsbury so working with a local paper to reach more people in the area was a huge benefit to us.
With this in mind, they approached us here at JPIMedia to create a print advert in their local paper to promote the launch of the project and to make people aware of their existence. They advertised an event to commemorate those that were killed in the Battle of the Somme, of which over 40 of them were Dewsbury men.
They saw fantastic attendance as a result of the campaign, with over 100 people turning up to register their interest.
Working with their local paper ultimately enabled them to reach more people and they were able to positively raise awareness of their project.
Working with the team was a great experience; they took the time to understand our project and were extremely professional throughout.
