Wartime memories to be held digitally for future generations

Precious stories that are fading fast from living memory are being digitally recorded in a Second World War archive.

People from Liverpool and beyond can share experiences and objects linked to the conflict at a one-off freeevent on Saturday 2 March 2024.

The ‘Digital Collection Day’ event is taking place at the Museum of Liverpool between 11am and 4pm.

The event is part of a nationwide campaign organised by Their Finest Hour (theirfinesthour.org), a team based at the University of Oxford that has been preserving, digitally, the everyday stories and objects of the war.

Attendees at the Liverpool event will be given the opportunity to share their family’s wartime experiences, which will be recorded in an interview setting.

Associated objects – such as diaries, letters, medals, journals and ration books – will be photographed on the day.

Transcribed interviews and photographs of the objects will then be uploaded to an online archive, which will be free for anyone to access from June 2024.

The project team want to record stories from people of all backgrounds to increase the diversity of Second World War history. They are also looking for any war-related stories and objects, from the extraordinary to the seemingly ‘ordinary’. Every story and object matters. However, please do not bring any weapons or dangerous items (including gas masks) to the event.

Full information about the event can be found here.

If people cannot attend the event, they can upload stories and photos of objects directly to the Their Finest Hour archive by clicking ‘Share Your Story’ via the project website.