Exclusive: Christmas truce matches to be recreated on Belgian battlefield in 2014, with £50m set aside for school trips and exhibitions

This article is more than 7 years old

This article is more than 7 years old

Britain's plans for commemorating the centenary of the first world war include recreating the football match played against German troops to mark the Christmas truce which remains one of the most poignant moments of the conflict.

The proposal is one of a number of initiatives being supported by ministers in anticipation of public interest in a war during which 956,000 members of the British army were killed, including 250,000 from countries which were then part of the Empire.

Six state occasions, school trips to battlefields, new exhibitions and fresh academic debate about the causes of the war will be fundamental to the centenary. But the minister in charge of overseeing the commemorations said he believed football had an important part to play because of the way British and German troops came together between the trenches on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in 1914. Children from the UK and Germany may be involved in any match, or tournament, staged next year.

Andrew Murrison told the Guardian: "I think football has a particular part to play because of the totemic significance of the Christmas truce in 1914.

"We have been in touch with Football Association and the National Children's Football [Alliance] to see how this can be done. I know they are enthused and have already clocked the fact that other countries are thinking along similar lines."

The minister said that staging a football match in Belgium on the battlefields where soldiers had briefly put down their weapons was "a no-brainer in terms of an event that is going to reach part of the community that perhaps might not get terribly entrenched into this".

He added: "It is clear the Christmas truce is going to be commemorated in a very significant way. It had no real relevance to the outcome of the war but at that deeply, intensely, personal level, it is something that people really do latch on to."

Murrison said planning was at an early stage and "discussions are ongoing".

Some of the £50m set aside by the government for the commemorations will be used to send pupils from every state secondary school to places such as Flanders in northern France, where much of the fighting took place. "We want two pupil ambassadors plus a teacher from every secondary school to go to Flanders and Belgium," said the minister. "Going to battlefields, seeing names on tombstones, that is very powerful. I have been to these sites when kids go and you see them come out and it has really made a big impact on them."

Murrison added that "it would be remarkable if the Great war was woven into practically everything that goes on" between next year and 2018; from exhibitions to questions in school exams, from programmes on TV to academic debate.

The Imperial War Museum, which was established in 1917 – will have a pivotal role. It is setting up a digital archive that it promises will be the most comprehensive collection of documents and memorabilia of the first world war ever assembled.

The museum in London will also open new galleries, and is developing a film about the battle of the Somme in 1916, was one of the bloodiest in history with more than 1 million casualties on both sides.

Unusually, the UK will commemorate the start of the war – 4 August 1914 – with a national service that is expected to include a delegation from Germany.

Focusing the world's attention on a conflict that was supposed to have ended all wars may not pass off without controversy. But in a sign the government wants to avoid being dragged into arguments about whether the UK should have gone to war, Murrison said he believed the focus of public interest will "be personal and parochial", adding: "Frankly, most people aren't really interested in the grand strategy of this time. If you can engage them in things like the Christmas truce then I think that you do offer them something that is of relevance and use and of interest to them."

But some experts believe the government should not avoid such issues – there is understood to have been heated argument among members of a Great war committee set up by David Cameron.

The author Sebastian Faulks, the historians Prof Michael Burleigh and Sir Hew Strachan, and former military grandees Lord Stirrup and Lord Guthrie, both former chiefs of the defence staff, are among those advising ministers about the commemorations.

In a foretaste of potential arguments to come, Guthrie told the Guardian: "It was a totally unnecessary war. We slid into it unnecessarily. There were horrifying casualties. It was not the soldiers' fault, it was the politicians'."

The way Europe was "carved up" in the treaty of Versailles at end of war was "disgraceful", he added.

Remembrance diary



Events to commemorate the centenary of the first world war:

• 4 August 2014 National church service to mark beginning of the conflict

• Christmas 2014 Christmas truce football matches in "no man's land" of Flanders

• April 2015 Event to mark battle of Gallipoli

• 1 July 2016 Event to mark the first day of the Battle of the Somme

• May/June 2016 Events to mark the naval battle of Jutland

• June/November 2017 Events to mark the battle of Passchendaele (The Third Battle of Ypres)

• August-November 2018 The last 100 days leading to Armistice Day, 11 Nov

Education/culture



• £50m has been committed from government and National Lottery funds to support history projects and exhibitions

• Every state secondary school to send delegation to battlefields including Flanders

• Imperial War Museum to curate a new first world war digital archive

• British Legion to sow poppy seeds in gardens, fields, and verges

• Imperial War Museum to unveil new galleries on the conflict

• A new film on the Battle of the Somme is being commissioned

• Events and exhibitions at national and local navy, army, and RAF museums

• The BBC is expected to commission telling the stories of individual soldiers

Other anniversaries will be marked between 1914 and 1918, including:

• the D Day Normandy landings, 1944

• the Battle of Waterloo, 1815

• the Battle of Agincourt, 1415