91热爆

As part of 91热爆 Gloucestershire's Remembrance 90 season, we took a party from the Cotswold School in Bourton-on-the-Water to Great Rissington to find out about one of the most affecting of all the county's many family losses of the First World War.

Writer Michael Walsh discovered the story of Great Rissington's Souls brothers - five sons of the same family who all died in the Great War - when he dropped in by chance to the village church one day.

Albert Souls was 20 when he died

He was so moved by the haunting images of the brothers on a simple memorial in the church that he dug into local and military records to find out more about Walter, Alfred, Albert, Arthur and Frederick Souls, then brought the tragedy to national attention.

Now after hearing first-hand Michael's account of the Lost Souls, Ben Edwards, head of history at the Cotswold School, is adding the story to the school's history curriculum.

Powerful and poignant

Ben said: "We do a Battlefields trip every year, and we talk a lot about Remembrance, for example we try to find people from Bourton-on-the-Water who died in the war, but the Souls story is new to me.

"It's a powerful and poignant story that gives local children an idea how their own community was affected in a much bigger conflict."

The church in Great Rissington

Student George said: "Learning about individuals is much more emotional. If you learn about one of the Souls brothers and the horrors they went through you think 'These people were amazing, they put their life into serving their King and Country.' "

His friend Oscar added: "It brings it home a bit more and really makes you think. It must have been awful for their mother to lose five of her children."

Michael Walsh said: "It's amazing the story stayed hidden for so long. This a family that had nothing and lost everything. But it's pleasing to know that boys and girls are learning what their great-great-grandparents' generation went through.

"I hope they're as humbled as I am by the story, not just of the Souls, but of every family who lost someone in the First World War."