Never Such Innocence held an Awards Ceremony to recognise the wonderful work and overwhelming success of our Poetry and Art Competition.

The law firm Jones Day very generously hosted us in their auditorium.

We were thrilled by how many of our winners had made the journey to London from all over the country in order to celebrate their work.

Joined by our sponsors, partners and friends, the wonderful Dr. Martin Stephen spoke about First World War poetry and how impressed he was with the calibre of entries, while the brilliant Charlie Barton, who was also a judge for the art competition, spoke about how talented the entrants were.

We were honoured that Lieutenant General Andrew Graham CB CBE presented the awards for the art category and Brigadier David Ross CBE awarded prizes to our winning poets.

We very pleased that some of our talented poets read aloud their work for those assembled:

Melissa Kastrati, The Love of A Mother, First Place, Age Category: 9-11
Max Park, The Body of War, First Place, Age Category: 11-14
Sam Kaplin, Frontline, Touchline - In Memory of Geoffrey Marriott, Age Category: 14-16

The evening ended with a reception which allowed the winners to mingle and to meet the Never Such Innocence team, our committee members and the judges of our competition.

Our sponsors CH2M and the kind support of 13Hundred have made all of this possible. Jones Day provided an incredible venue for the evening and ensured everything ran smoothly, for which we are very grateful.

We are hugely grateful to the judge of our competitions:

Dr Anthony Wallersteiner, Caroline de Peyrecave, Tim Betjeman, Charlie Barton  and Peter Biggs for the art competition;

The Ambassador of Ireland HE Dr Daniel Mulhall, Stanley Johnson, Anna Trethewey and Androcles Scicluna for the poetry competition.

Your advice, expertise and support has been invaluable in allowing the competition to flourish.

Finally, we would like to thank all of the organisations who donated prizes for our winners: The Combat Veteran Players, the Globe, The Poppy Factory, The National Memorial Arboretum, the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, the Royal Pavilion and Runner Bean Ltd.

For more details on current or upcoming competitions please email enquiries@neversuchinnocence.com