JCoSS students helped build Queen Elizabeth’s digital memorial

Students from JCoSS have been recognised for helping create the new Queen Elizabeth Digital Memorial, after volunteering to digitise more than 70 years of the late monarch’s official engagements.

The Cabinet Office-led project has reached a major milestone with the launch of a fully searchable version of the Court Circular – the official record of Queen Elizabeth II’s public duties throughout her reign from 1952 to 2022.

JCoSS is among eight schools whose students helped convert decades of Court Circular records into searchable digital data, work that now forms part of the permanent online memorial.

Zaki Cooper, a member of the Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee’s Digital Delivery Group, who previously worked for Lord Jonathan Sacks and is a longstanding interfaith campaigner, said the idea began as an independent project more than a decade ago.

He explained that in 2013 he brought together eight schools, including JCoSS, asking students to extract information from the Court Circular and organise it into spreadsheets. That work has now been incorporated into the completed archive.

The memorial website, which launched on 21 April to mark the centenary of Queen Elizabeth II’s birth, has now been expanded with thousands of official engagements, new archive material and the first collection of memories submitted by members of the public.

Among the latest additions is a video message from the Prince of Wales, who reflects on childhood visits to Windsor Castle with his grandparents.

He says: “Whilst I had the privilege to know the late Queen better than most, some of my fondest memories of my grandmother are from here in Windsor.

“I remember many quiet afternoons, having tea with her and my grandfather at the castle, chatting, sharing stories, and seeing how completely at ease she was here, surrounded by family and her much-loved dogs and horses. To this day, she’s given me a love of teatime that I never knew I needed.”

Cooper told The Times: “We’re hoping to drive people to the website to submit their own memories of the late Queen. We hope that this will generate interest and remind people of a memory.

“The beauty of this being a digital project is that it has a global reach and, as we know, the Queen was a huge figure throughout the Commonwealth and beyond.”

The memorial also brings together archive material from organisations including the BBC, the BFI National Archive, the British Library, the Royal Collection Trust, Royal Mail, The National Archives and the Press Association.

Readers who would like to contribute their own memories of Queen Elizabeth II can do so through the Queen Elizabeth Digital Memorial website. Selected submissions will continue to be added throughout the year, creating a lasting public record of Britain’s longest-reigning monarch.

Jewish News has contacted JCoSS for comment.