Princetown phone box converted into WW1 exhibition

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-46073119

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A phone box has been transformed into an exhibition space to mark the centenary of the end of World War One.

The "micro-museum" in Princetown, Devon, commemorates the lives of village men killed during the war.

It follows research by Christine Faulkner into the lives of the men whose names are on the village's war memorial.

Residents have fought to save the village's payphones from being decommissioned.

The museum has been developed after Dartmoor Forest Parish Council bought the box from BT earlier this year.

Ms Faulkner said: "I always went to the services at the memorial when I lived in Princetown.

"It was when the vicar read out the names but could only say their initials that I thought the men who died deserved to be remembered properly, so I started to look up their names and it snowballed from there."Councillor Greg Manning said the village "suffered a loss of 35 men" during the war.

"I don't know exactly what the population was, but it must have been a huge loss," he said.

Inside the phone box are two folders containing a "record form" for each man which include - among other things - their rank and when they died.

Their names are also etched on the windows.

Steve Cox, clerk to the council, said: "All of these are evocative and they tell a story to you as an individual and I think that's what makes it more poignant."

Some of the men commemorated in the exhibition:

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