A Chiswick student who took part in last year’s Poppy Run for the Royal British Legion is to take the title role of Cosmo Clark in the Remembrance Day reading of Cosmo’s War at St Michael & All Angels Church. Jamie White (above), who is studying history at Royal Holloway College, ran with teammates from London University’s Royal Naval Unit. His father and two grandfathers all served in the British Army.

Cosmo Clark volunteered for active service at the age of 17 and won the Military Cross. He documented his experiences in drawings and letters from the front and later became a well-known artist. Cosmo’s War is based on his letters, to and from his family at 44 Rusthall Avenue, in the Borough of Ealing section of Bedford Park, W4.

The play will be narrated from the pulpit by the vicar of St Michael & All Angels Church, Fr Kevin Morris (left).

Other parts will be read by professional actors, including Emma Laird Craig (right), who is playing Sarah, Duchess of York, in the new season of The Crown. Emma appeared in the 2022 UK tour of Fatal Attraction, with fellow cast member Christina Balmer.

Others in the cast include Edward Anderson who can be seen this week in the premiere of Ashley at the Theatre at the Tabard; Freya Alderson who plays the lead in the horror film Claire, to be released in 2023; and Lauren Jones, who graduated last year from ArtsEd in Chiswick. Edward’s family has a rich military history and Emma also comes from a military family: she has spent several years working as an actress for the MOD in training roles.

The staged reading, with music and images, will take place at 7.30pm on Friday November 11th in St Michael & All Angels Church in Bath Road W4. Refreshments will be on sale from 7pm and in the interval. There will be a collection for the veterans’ charity Combat Stress and the evening is being supported by Andrew Nunn & Associates, Belinda Norcliffe Casting and Home Instead.

Tickets, costing £10 for adults and £5 for under-20s, are on sale here. 

Cosmo Clark’s father was also a well-known artist.  James Clark painted The Great Sacrifice, described as “the most popular painting of WW1” and, after the war, he created The Salutation mural which is displayed in the north aisle of St Michael & All Angels Church.

 Read more at James & Cosmo Clark: WW1 artists in Bedford Park.

Bernard Adams, the writer of Cosmo’s War and a former BBC producer, says: “The play is, literally, a documentary. Every word spoken, other than by the narrator, is taken from the marvellously preserved letters the family exchanged, detailing their deeply contrasted lives.”

Father Kevin Morris, the vicar of St Michael & All Angels, says: “This is a remarkable story of World War 1, rooted in the artistic community of Bedford Park, and powerfully told through the family’s letters. It seemed appropriate to read the play on Remembrance Day in the centenary year of The Salutation, which James Clark painted for St Michael & All Angels.”