Second World War stories

We were pleased to be awarded funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to uncover the experiences of those in South Gloucestershire during the Second World War. These stories were collected to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the war.

The stories

Watch these moving stories of 10 people’s experiences of the war. We would like to thank all those who so generously shared their memories with us. Sadly, some of those who contributed have now passed on, but we are grateful to them and their families that we could capture their unique stories.

Jim Perrett

Born in 1917, Jim remembers his father returning from the First World War. Jim grew up in Filton and became a dispatch rider for the First Calvary Division of the Royal Army Service Corp, carrying messages between units based in Palestine, North Africa and the Siege of Tobruk. Later, Jim became a mechanic and worked with the Sudanese Army.

The Evans Family

Brother and sister, Ken Evans and Molly Rogers, tell how each of their eleven siblings were in services during the war.

Roland Wood

Roland was born on 21 October 1928 and grew up in Kingswood. He remembers the Bristol Blitz, nights in air raid shelters and joining the National Fire Service as a bugler. Roland’s National Service after the war involved mine clearance duty.

Hella Hewison

Born in Berlin on 7 January 1925 to German Jewish parents, Hella witnessed Kristallnacht and escaped on Kindertransport. She reads the Red Cross letter from her mother saying goodbye before going to a concentration camp. Hella’s mother and grandmother were both killed. Hella became the first non-British nurse at Southmead Hospital.

Marjorie Bennett

Born on 2 November 1922, Marjorie was working at Newman’s factory in Yate the day war broke out. She tells stories of catching a German spy at Yate cinema, the dramatic bombings of Parnall’s factory in Yate and joining the WAAF despite being underage.

Rose Kuhn

Rose was born on 14 August 1929 and grew up on a small holding in Elberton. She met Richard Kuhn, a German Prisoner of War, at the nearby camp. Rose married Richard despite negative feelings from her family and community.

Eric Garrett

Eric grew up at the White Hart Inn in Olveston. He was ten years old when war broke out. He tells stories of dodging enemy planes, mock invasions, collecting a gas-attack warning rattle, simple rural life, evacuees and the impact of the war on agriculture.

Joan Davis

Joan was born on 28 November 1919 and lived with her grandparents at the Swan Inn, Yate. She wanted to go to university but was discouraged. When war broke, Joan jumped at the chance to join the WAAF and was stationed in Calshot. She tells stories about handing out warm clothing to soldiers after the evacuation of Dunkirk and how she became an Officer.

Molly Rogers

Molly was born 17 February 1920 and was a young women looking after her younger siblings in Patchway. She survived three narrow escapes when the houses she was in were bombed, including the daylight raid on Bristol Airplane Company in Filton. Molly volunteered for the St Johns Ambulance and did war work at the Bristol Air frame training school.

Iris Arnold

Iris was thirteen years old the day after war broke out. She remembers rolling bandages for the front line when still a school girl in Thornbury. She was conscripted for war work, armature winding at Newman’s in Yate, she visited a blinded soldier at Tortworth American Hospital and met a Henry Arnold, a young soldier from Cornwall who was part of the 6^th Maritime Regiment, billeted in Thornbury.

How the Second World War affected South Gloucestershire

Look at our exhibition to see how the war affected the area, including war time industry, those away on the front line, the home front, civil defence, evacuees and prisoners of war.

The exhibition is also available as presentation slides. Contact Kingswood Heritage Museum if you would like to borrow the exhibition stands.

Through reminiscence sessions and community events we spoke to a number of people about their memories and experiences which you can read here.

Resources for schools

The presentation slides and notes for schools are designed to help your pupils or youth group understand more about the war. They can be used as a whole or broken into lessons looking at different aspects of the war.

Resources for those working with older people

We also held reminiscence sessions in care homes and older people’s settings which proved hugely successful as a way of encouraging people to talk and understand each other’s pasts.

This guide to reminiscence sessions, includes a number of ideas to run your own.

War memorials

Discover more about those who died in service during the Second World War on the South Gloucestershire War Memorials website.

We would like to thank our volunteer researchers for this huge undertaking to honour those who gave their lives during the war.

Other resources

South Gloucestershire Museums

We would like to thank all the South Gloucestershire museums who helped develop and deliver this project, sharing their collections with us to build a picture of life in South Gloucestershire during the Second World War. View the details of the museums in South Gloucestershire and their fantastic collections.

Searchlights over South Gloucestershire

Brass Works Theatre and writer Adrian Harris have been funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund to develop a project to commemorate the Second World War. Searchlights over South Gloucestershire is a dramatic interpretation of real life experiences gathered from oral histories, letters and diaries of people living in the area during the Second world War and retold on Twitter. Follow the lives of three fictional families as they do their bit for the war effort, visit the Brass Works Theatre website.

Know Your Place

Details of the war memorials and other links to the Second World War can be found on the Know Your Place website.

Heads and Tales

In 2010, Lesley Ann Gittings was commissioned by Heads and Tales to write a story for Filton based on real wartime events. You can follow her audio story and walking tour on the Heads and Tales website.

WW2 People’s War

Find more stories from the area with this BBC World War Two Memories website.