People flocked to share their war stories, family war memories and war memorabilia at a Peoples War Day at the BBC Learning Centre on Saturday. 
(People's War Day 2005 - 19 pics)
 | | Photos and documents like this Identity Card were brought to People's War Day |
Ration books, military papers, diaries, letters, photographs of street parties, souvenir shrapnel, a German Army map of Gloucester and even a genuine World War Two stirrup pump were all brought in as around 100 people of all ages came to find out more about the Peoples War project and contribute their own and their family's experiences of the Second World War. Linda Williams brought her dad Frank Conway and mum Doreen, and her own grandchildren Jessica, 10, Amy, 8 and seven-year-old Joanna. Frank, now 85 was in the Royal Engineers and was posted abroad just two weeks after the couple married in 1943. It was the last time Doreen saw him for years after he was taken prisoner by the Germans at Anzio. Linda typed his story on to the Peoples War website while Doreen told Learning Centre staff about the agony of wondering if she would ever see him again. Frank recalled how he met his lifelong friend Bob Awcock in the Army and they were taken PoWs together. I dont know if I would have got through if it hadnt been for him, he recalled. Read Franks story here: Frank Conway: Prisoner of War June Ayland, nee Kirby, brought a photograph taken by the Citizen when as an 11-year-old living in St Marks Street, Kingsholm, she made felt brooches and sold them to friends, relations and door-to-door in the neighbourhood. Then a pupil at Denmark Road, she raised enough cash to buy a first-aid cabinet for the local firewatchers, of which her father was a member.  Dad never talked much about his war service when he was alive, but when we read his diaries we felt it was important to record it... I think the Peoples War is a fantastic idea
 | Valerie Harvey |
Gordon Coombs brought photographs that his father took of German bombing raids on the Norwegian fjords, and a WW2 stirrup pump that he had kept from the war. He remembered: kids like me used a stirrup pump and a bucket of water to put out incendiary devices. And Valerie Harvey, from Brockworth, donated to the Peoples War project a home-made book, From Lofoten to Italy, compiled by her brother and sister of their fathers war diaries and photographs. Robert Meadows, who died in the 1980s, served in the Royal Navy from 1916 to 1945 and was mentioned in dispatches for his work as Chief Radio Officer on board HMS Princess Beatrix during the Mediterranean campaign. Valerie, who was a small girl in Plymouth during the war and remembers air raids and rationing, said: Dad never talked much about his war service when he was alive, but when we read his diaries we felt it was important to record it. We did it to keep Dads memory alive. I think the Peoples War is a fantastic idea. And it wasnt just older people who came to share their memories. Seventeen-year-old Steve Ridgway, from Tuffley, came to share his personal memories of his great-grandad John Wadley, who died two years ago. He was a Desert Rat in the North African campaign and I loved hearing his stories, including the landmine he thought was a dud and picked up and chucked into a nearby river .  | | BBC Larning Centre Manager Clare Parrack with the stirrup pump brought in by Gordon Coombs |
"It exploded moments after leaving his hand, just before it hit the water, which luckily for him absorbed most of the blast" Steve said: I think the Peoples War project is a really good idea. It was a privilege and an honour for these people to fight for their King and country and I think people in the future are going to want to know first-hand stories of what the war was really like. People's War Day had its lighter moments too. Josephine Street, nee Kirby, was nine on VE Day and had vivid memories of a street party in Massey Road, Gloucester. She shared a photograph of the day. "There's my Mum at the back doing the V for Victory sign," she said. "But she's got her fingers the wrong way round. And my brother in the front row is looking fed up while everyone else is happy because he had a terrible toothache that day!"
(People's War Day 2005 - 19 pics)
 See also:Graham Morse's story
See also:The People's War See also: People's War: the Commonwealth contribution People's War workshops at the BBC Learning Centre BBC People's War Return to the BBC Learning Centre homepage | 
From shrapnel to stirrup pumps! All sorts of souvenirs were brought to People's War Day at the BBC Learning Centre...
The BBC Learning Centre is financed by the European Social Fund