A local Huddersfield soldier who served during World War II. © Courtesy Wakefield Libraries and Information Services
A new online archive describing the lives of people from across the Wakefield District who served their country in twentieth century conflicts has gone online.
We Will Remember Them - Wakefield District at War is an archive of stories written and researched by local historians and local people using the resources of the Local Studies Collections of Wakefield Library. It was funded by the second phase of the Their Past Your Future initiative, a Big Lottery Funded scheme to increase understanding of twentieth century conflicts.
The Wakefield project is designed to be an indispensable resource for family historians and a valuable learning resource intended for use by all ages and abilities. The scheme has already yielded a rich and growing resource that reflects the ways in which conflicts have affected families and local communities.
“We put out a call to people in the Wakefield District for people who had ancestors now deceased who fought in the major conflicts of the 20th century,” said Katie Hanks, Cultural Officer for the Local Studies Collection.
“It’s been a steep learning curve but we had series of events including a workshop that attracted over 30 people and a series of one to ones that have brought people in to use the resources here.”
The resulting stories that have emerged from this engagement are illustrated with treasured family memorabilia including photographs, postcards and official documents and visitors to the site will find several insights into the experiences of soldiers in the two world wars.
Local soldiers serving during World War I take camel rides at the pyramids in Cairo. Courtesy Wakefield Libraries and Information Services
The experiences of a soldier serving in the far east during World War I is movingly portrayed in a letter home to Castleford from a sergeant serving in Egypt in March 1918; “Last night as I sat and watched the shrapnel bursting like fireworks and saw the flashes of our guns, I wondered what would be the finish of it and how long this would last.”
From the Second World War are equally fascinating tales such as that of a parachute trooper from Pontefract who was sent in a Hamilcar glider to cross the Rhine on March 24 1945, or a Wakefield man who escaped from a prisoner of war camp in Poland, or a Royal Engineer from Castleford who served in Italy in 1944 where he developed a love of classical music.
“What we wanted was to really push the family history angle,” added Katie, “we didn’t want to run a reminiscence project but rather encourage people to explore their military family history.”
The Big Lottery Fund funded the We Will Remember Them project as part of the Museums Libraries and archives Council’s Their Past Your Future 2 (TPYF 2) programme.
See www.wakefield.gov.uk/remember for more information.
A selection of the stories forms the basis of two learning journeys on the MyLearning website can be seen on www.mylearning.org.
See www.culture24.org.uk/tpyf for more information about Their Past Your Future Phase Two.
