GERTRUDE FARR was 99 when she died and for most of her years she kept a shocking secret from even her closest family.

Her husband, Harry, was executed for cowardice during the First World War.

Now Gertrude’s struggle in the aftermath is being played out on stage in The 306: Day.

And her granddaughter, Janet Booth, who successfully fought to have shell shock sufferer Harry pardoned 90 years later, had a front row seat to see her family’s history being dramatised.

Read the full Sunday Post Story.

The Scotsman– Four Stars:

“although there have been many shows created in memory of the Great War over the past three years, I can’t recall one so possessed by the urgent sense that however much has changed, the world of these women is the same one we still inhabit today.”

The Herald– Four Stars:

“Jemima Levick’s production is a beautifully conceived construction.”

The Stage – Four stars:

“a production which finds modern resonances in century-old injustices.”

“A century ago, on a wet December evening in 1917, as the incessant slaughter and grinding hardships of the First World War were extracting an ever greater toll from the working-class families of Glasgow, groups of protesting women marched from Govan and Bridgeton, from Partick and Maryhill, carrying placards and singing songs through the city streets. They converged on George Square, distributing illegal leaflets and holding banners aloft bearing slogans including “Peace Is Victory” and “Stop The War” – not quite “Trump is a bawbag”, but their message was just as direct and extremely provocative at a time when the government’s policy was for total military victory and the unconditional surrender of Germany. The Women’s Peace Crusade (WPC) was on the march.

That story of Scottish women-led movements putting their bodies on the line to protest against carnage at the Front and the draconian policies of a militarised state has remained mostly untold for a century.

In recent years, Scottish historians and activists have contributed to a revival of interest in researching and highlighting the diverse ways that women responded to the experience of the war years. The Remember Mary Barbour Association has successfully campaigned for a lasting memorial to “a great Govan hero”.

Last year, Glasgow Women’s Library hosted learning groups, an exhibition and re-enacted a rally at Glasgow Green to commemorate the WPC centenary. And now, a new piece of theatre tells the story of three women who follow different paths of speaking and silence, of dissent and resistance, as they struggle in their own ways to survive the impacts of war in their lives.”

Read Lesley Orr’s full Herald article.

Our Producer Rebecca visited Glasgow Women’s Library last weekend to hear more about the characters in The 306:Day, their stories and the context for the experiences of women in WW1 from a panel including by feminist, historian and writer Dr Lesley Orr, the play’s writer Oliver Emanuel and composer Gareth Williams.

The work of participants who took part in Silence and Song workshops was also on display in the library, including over 200 embroidered handkerchieves with the names of women effected by the deaths of the 306. It was a fascinating and moving day.