Living Memorial | About

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About

This website is brought to you by The-Latest Limited, the social enterprise arm of Britain’s first dedicated citizen journalism news portal The-Latest.com. It has forged a role in providing a high profile media platform, which includes social media, for ordinary members of the public to connect, share and learn to tell their stories. Some of these are the previously unheard voices in marginalised communities, including Black and Minority Ethnic people, migrants, the homeless, war veterans, young people and people with mental health issues.

Our organisation has developed a wealth of experience in the area of collating, recording and archiving oral history and in particular with reference to World War Two. We successfully completed a full length film Divided by race, united in war and peace in 2013, and an accompanying photography project, based on World War Two oral testimonies. Then there was our work with the BBC in 2014 to produce a version of our documentary entitled Fighting For King and Empire, Britain’s Caribbean Heroes, which was aired by the public broadcaster in 2015 to much critical acclaim.

QUICK FACTS

UK POPULATION LOST IN WWII0%

BELARUS LOST A QUARTER OF ITS POPULATION0%

ALLIED MILITARY DEATHS IN WWII0%

ALLIED CIVILIAN DEATHS IN WWII0%

We know there is a big need for a national “living memorial” of World War Two veterans’ stories because of the opinions and views canvassed among the relatives and friends of veterans. People are eager to find out how they can record for posterity the stories of the veterans in their own family, friends and community networks. Every one of us lives in a world that is profoundly shaped by the events of World War Two, or has family, friends or neighbours who were touched by the war. It changed our world forever and its oral histories need to be recorded for posterity before they are lost.

Our World War Two Living Memorial website has for the first time in this format put the fascinating stories of veterans on the internet as an online resource for all. These oral histories are told in text, still images and seven to 10-minute videos of each of the veterans talking about their Second World War experiences. We were painfully aware that female veterans were absent from the Divided by Race, United in War and Peace and BBC films. This has been rectified by this online project, which features three women, two white and a black one, who have wonderfully inspiring tales to tell. Young, enthusiastic volunteers have filmed interviews with the veterans, taken photographs, written text and done research that included collecting memorabilia.

The website has a learning pack on how oral history can be best recorded, the type of questions to ask an interviewee and appropriate equipment to be used. We also encourage visitors to upload personal items related to veterans like letters.