The Angel of Passchendaele

1st Half – Futility (20mins) – Film about one man’s horror at the battle of interval in 1917, where half a million men died in 3 months. Veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan will read the letters sent home from the trenches of Passchendaele with narration by Lt General Jonathon Riley CB DSO. The film also features the poetry of Wilfred Owen considered to be the leading war poet of his generation. Interval – Drinks reception with readings and songs by pupils of Wakefield High School about Nellie Spindler. 2nd Half – The Angel of Passchendaele (20mins). Staff nurse, Nellie Spindler was tragically killed in a First Aid Clearing station positioned just behind the front lines at Passchendaele. Although aware of the danger from enemy bombing, Nellie stayed at her post and did her duty in helping nurse injured and wounded soldiers. She is buried at the Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery. She is the only woman amongst 10,000 allied soldiers buried there. The film will include letters, photographs and presents sent from France to her family in Wakefield over a hundred years ago. Plus memorial pieces created by school children from Nellie’s old school, Pinders Primary in Eastmoor. The evening will end with a performance by composer/pianist Lizbet Sempa who has composed original music for this film.

All profits from this evening will be split between SSAFA which was only military charity around at the time of WW1 and the Nurses Memorial Appeal ? which looks to remember the 1200 nurses killed in both world wars.