Centenary Overview

Legacy Books

All of the winning entries from the Centenary competitions have been published in a beautiful anthology. *Stories of the First World War* provides an introduction to the Great War period for young people, with poetry, art and personal stories from the period.

Award Ceremonies

Each year, competition winners were invited to a very special award ceremony - to celebrate their excellent work! Click the picture to learn more about the ceremonies.

Buckingham Palace

Competition winners from around the world travelled all the way to London for a special tea party to be recognised for their achievements!

Fundraising Galas

Over the Centenary, we gathered friends and supporters to celebrate the wonderful work created by children and young people to commemorate the First World War.

Never Such Innocence

Never Such Innocence is a registered charity (number 1156148) in England and Wales and is a unique project fitting into the wider series of 2014-2018 centenary activities. Our aim is to ensure young people nationally are inspired, informed and included in the centenary activities.

The charity takes its name from Philip Larkin’s famous poem MCMXIV, which reflects on the changes caused by the First World War. The driving force behind Never Such Innocence is Lady Lucy French, great-granddaughter of Field Marshal Sir John French who commanded the British Expeditionary Forces from 1914-15.

The launch of Never Such Innocence was kindly hosted at Australia House in May 2014 with a gala dinner and theatrical performance, blending poetry, prose and music from the Great War, compiled by Dr Martin Stephen. Since our inception we have been dedicated to engaging the nation’s children in the First World War centenary through learning, poetry, art and music.

T: 0207 836 2603
11 Slingsby Place, London,
WC2E 9AB

Never Such Innocence.
Registered Charity Number 1156148 Company Number 8680319

We all have our purple on today! Do you?!? It’s a busy day for us - We are holding a special poetry workshop at Tidworth Garrison with military children from Wiltshire. The @Voafcc are performing later tonight at the @ccfawards! They will even be singing a song they wrote especially for the awards!🥹 #motmc

Don’t know about you, but I’ve been doing the classic hold this hanger up, then hold that hanger up to pick my outfit for Friday! Still time to do some shopping! We can’t wait to see everyone’s fantastic outfits! Be sure to post them with #MotMC!

ONE MONTH LEFT TO GO! The deadline to enter our FREE international poetry, art, speech and song competition is Friday 24th May 2024! Open to young people aged 9-18 everywhere! Follow the link in our bio to enter. Artist credit: Indigenismo XXI by Rafaela (16-18, Ecuador)

@anotherartclub ran workshops in Helensburgh last week for Month of the Military Child at John Logie Baird Primary School, Colgrain Primary School, Rhu Primary School and Hermitage Primary School. We were really impressed with the cyanotype prints that were created by the pupils. Enter our Month of the Military Child Art Competition at the link in bio!