HARRY Patch, the last fighting Tommy, is gone but his memory lives on.

He died aged 111 in 2009, the last surviving combat soldier of the First World War from any country.

As memories of the Great War fade, special efforts are being made in Oxfordshire to ensure soldiers’ sacrifices are not forgotten.

Troops from Oxfordshire, and the lives of families on the Home Front, are being remembered in a special exhibition at the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum.

Last week the Oxford Mail reported that curators at the military museum in Woodstock are urging people to visit as the 100th anniversary of the Armistice on November 11, 2018, approaches.

Oxfordshire Remembers 1914-18 (Part II) a centenary exhibition, is now open and will run until December 2.

It focuses on the experiences of troops fighting with the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry and The Queen’s Own Oxfordshire Hussars.

The displays also attempt to explain the impact of the war on Oxfordshire in the closing years, as well as the global significance, consequences and legacies of 1918.

County chairwoman of the Royal British Legion in Oxfordshire, Lynda Atkins, is keen this year to engage young people to find out more about the First World War.

She wants them to visit the exhibition and to take part in a series of educational projects later in the year.

A Great War conference is being planned at St Hugh’s College, later this year, involving a number of secondary schools.

One youngster visiting the exhibition at the weekend was Harry Isom, eight, who enjoyed testing out the museum’s replica First World War bunker.

Mum Laura Isom, who lives near Aylesbury, said she and her husband Paul made a special trip to the museum to show Harry the artefacts.

She added: “We were all very impressed with what we saw.

“Harry has been learning about the First World War at school and I think it’s important that kids these days know what happened, even though it can be a bit shocking for them.

“Harry loves seeing all the exhibits including the guns and listened very carefully to all the audio bits.

“The displays were very accessible for young people, very interactive and we were very impressed with the exhibition and the museum as a whole.”

Young and old have been enjoying what is on show.

One the same day the Isom family paid a visit Jack Bridgewater, 90, also toured the displays.

As well as focusing on the heroics of Oxfordshire soldiers, including Captain Noel Chavasse, one of only three people to be awarded the Victoria Cross twice, the exhibition takes a close look at the experiences of families waiting anxiously for their loved ones to return.

A ‘welcome home’ sign made by the family of Private Eli Smith expresses their relief at his return from captivity in Austria in 1919.