Wartime Reminiscences Project Created Lasting Legacy for Local Generations to Come

Grantown Museum is celebrating following the launch of the results of Their Past Your Future Scotland Phase 1, an exciting programme of events and a touring exhibition, which took place in 2005 to commemorate the 60^th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. The project saw great success in the area, with over 3,000 people taking part in the commemoration activities throughout the year. One of the biggest outcomes was the gathering of invaluable first hand local accounts, experiences and veterans' stories that otherwise would have been lost. The majority of these were recorded through conversations and interviews with schoolchildren or groups of young people. 

Commenting on the initiative, Molly Duckett, Curator / Manager at Grantown Museum said: “Grantown Museum was privileged to be one of six Scottish organisations involved in Phase 1 of Their Past Your Future. The projects we worked on resulted in the production of some of the most important work to date for Grantown Museum, ensuring that the memories live on.”

Their Past Your Future Scotland was funded by the Big Lottery Fund and led in Scotland by Museums Galleries Scotland. The project explored how the Second World War changed the people and the landscape of our country forever, looking at the legacy of the war that lives on in our towns and cities, and in our education, social and health services.

 The Territorial Army Centre at Elgin hosted a touring exhibition from the Imperial War Museum in 2005, which received an impressive total of 1,686 visitors over 25 days, which is ranked as one of the most popular visiting exhibitions Elgin has seen.

 The exhibition was brought to life for visitors through two additional local exhibitions. The Victory Garden at the Highland Folk Museum, Newtonmore, commemorated the 'Dig for Victory' campaign as Britain was forced to be self sufficient in food production in the face of wartime restrictions. The Kitchen Front at the Highland Folk Park celebrated the resourcefulness British housewives employed during the war to ensure their families were well fed on the limited rations available.

In addition, five events were held throughout the year involving a broad rage of members of the local community, of all ages, from veterans and families to schools and local community groups. In particular, there was a strong emphasis on intergenerational learning, bringing together veterans and people who had lived through the war who could share their wartime experiences with local school children through tea dances and story telling workshops. These innovative learning experiences allowed people to learn through hearing personal accounts first hand, which in a number of years will no longer be possible, and allowed visitors to experience something of what it might have been like to have lived through this period in their history. A professional storyteller, a songwriter and a film maker were involved in the project.

A valuable legacy of learning resources and materials has been created that complements existing archives and collections held by Grantown Museum. Future generations will learn from resources including a book featuring interviews of over 40 veterans carried out by school children and a DVD of the tea dances and a concert.

Different generations spent time getting to know each other and many veterans greatly appreciated being given the chance to talk about their wartime experiences. Pupils learnt to respect the veterans and had a greater understanding of what they had experienced and the sacrifices they had made for their country. Likewise, veterans changed their opinions of the young people they had met. Above all, people improved their knowledge of the Second World War and learnt to appreciate that the freedoms we have today were a direct result of the actions of these local veterans during the 1940s.

Joanne Orr, CEO of Museums Galleries Scotland, said: “The impact Their Past Your Future Scotland projects have had on communities across the country is staggering. Personal accounts and reminiscences like these hold much fascination for young people and they can bring a greater understanding of what life was like for their grandparents’ generation.   People are now acutely aware of the importance and urgency to continue to gather this information now while the opportunity remains.”

Museums Galleries Scotland today also announced details of Big Lottery funding of £540,200 for the continuation of Their Past Your Future Phase 2 – Remembering Scotland at War. This phase will see young people working with older generations in communities across Scotland to capture oral histories focussing on World War II and subsequent conflicts. The outputs from these oral history projects will be a series of some 300 online mini-exhibitions or 'vignettes' - oral histories that will culminate in the launch of a website in 2010. 

The vignettes and other outputs generated will be available as a classroom teaching aid via Learning and Teaching Scotland’s new Scottish schools’ intranet, Glow. This ensures that these projects become a rich educational resource for teachers, and a global legacy for young people and the wider community involved.