A FORMER red telephone box is helping to commemorate the lives of people from a Derbyshire village who fought in the First World War.
The Art Box was created out of the phone box a year ago in Little Eaton and the war exhibition is the latest in a series of displays and uses for it.
Parish councillor John Dallison has played a key role in decorating the box with photographs and information about the soldiers as he runs a printing company and was able to supply the images.
He said: "On display, we have people who both died in the war and those who survived the conflict.
"Work started in earnest on the project in March and villagers, such as Bill Hutchinson, helped research the information.
"The exhibition will continue to the end of the year and has already provoked quite a lot of comment and reaction."
At least one soldier lies in St Paul's churchyard in the village – rifleman WE Yates who died in May 1918 – and a list of the dead is situated on the church's lychgate, the dedication of which in 1922 is featured in photographs in the box.
Mr Dallison said: "A high percentage of the village's 1,200 or so inhabitants – in the region of 37 – were killed in the First World War.
"We are hoping that by staging this exhibition it will prompt more people to come forward with memories of relatives who fought from this area."
The box has pictures and maps of war events and locations and in a small space tells the story of a village's sacrifice in terms of its men.
Among them was TP Cameron Wilson, son of a vicar, who wrote poetry including The Magpies of Picardy but was killed just short of his 30th birthday in 1918.
Another story concerns Albert Clarke who joined the forces aged 14 just before war broke out but who was sent home only to rejoin again when he was 16. He survived the war and became a member of the Home Guard in the Second World War, which is also featured in an article in the box.
The Art Box and its exhibition is situated on Alfreton Road in the village.
