ARTEFACTS and memories from the First World War will be immortalised in digital form as part of a project at an Oxford school.

Cheney School will join Oxford University's efforts to create an online database, documenting stories as part of a major project called Lest We Forget.

The Headington secondary school's Rumble Museum will host a Digital Collection Day on November 10, where people from around the county can bring along war diaries, medals, letters and souvenirs and have them photographed and scanned. Staff and pupils will also record tales passed down from family members.

Lorna Robinson, who runs the museum through educational charity The Iris Project, said: "This means being able to preserve the items and stories for as long as possible.

"People from all over the world will be able to access the database. You will be able to listen to someone talking about an event that might otherwise get lost."

Specialist historians will also enlighten people about the objects they bring in.

Information collected on the day will be uploaded to the online database, which will launch on November 11 2018 to coincide with the centenary year of the war.

It will be accessible to people across the globe.

Dr Robinson said: "Obviously a huge part of the museum at Cheney is to engage students. This is a whole other way of learning - as well as textbook learning, there is learning through objects and speaking to a person.

"We are inviting anyone from the local or wider community. Hopefully they will find it really interesting."

Earlier this year the university launched a crowdfunding campaign to support its Lest We Forget project, which ended in £18,000 being donated.

It's website states: "We aim to unearth material which is personally held and which may be extremely rare and in danger of being lost.

"Few families in Britain were unaffected by the conflict, and in thousands of attics across the country there are photographs, diaries, letters, and mementos that tell the story of a generation at war, of the loved ones who fought in the conflict, served on the home front, or lost fathers and mothers."

A post on the project's Facebook page this week states research was 'starting to ramp up'.

Anyone who wants to contribute to the Cheney's part in the project can pop along to the museum between 2pm and 5pm that day.

For more information, contact Dr Robinson via lorna@irisproject.org.uk or visit rumblemuseum.org.uk.

Oxford University said it is also planning collection days at other schools, and any interested in hosting one can email ww1collections@it.ox.ac.uk.