In our final project session before Christmas we looked at an article published in The Observer on 19 December 2004 which included Alfred Anderson’s recollections of the Christmas Truce. Then 108 and living alone in Perthshire, Alfred had been 18 at the time of the Truce and billeted with his unit, the 5th Battalion The Black Watch, in a dilapidated farmhouse. He was away from the front so did not participate in any football matches but he did remember the eerie silence, a sharp contrast with the hissing and cracking of bullets he was used to. He also remembered shouting out ‘Merry Christmas’ though no one felt particularly merry.

After we’d read Alfred’s recollections, we then chose and re-enacted a few snapshots of what he described. We also filmed these but I think we all found it quite difficult to get into the right frame of mind to do this.