One of Dorset History Centre’s latest accessions is the eight part audio drama series Children of World War Two and the research behind it, including more than five hours of oral histories that went into producing it. At the time of writing more than 5200 episodes of the drama have been streamed. In the first of… Read more Children of World War II – How to make a drama about the Home Front
As Remembrance Sunday rolls around again for the UK, at a time of saddening and shocking conflict in Europe, the Middle East and around the world, words can fail us. So, for our Remembrance blog this year we are borrowing from John Berger and presenting a ‘picture essay’ – images to invite your own reflections… Read more Reflecting on Remembrance
Our final blog about the Dorchester men who died in the advance spear-headed on D-Day commemorates two further men who served with the Dorsetshire Regiment. Nicholas O’Connell Nicholas’s parents were Daniel and Kathleen O’Connell, and he was born in Waterford, Ireland. He became a Warrant Officer Class II with the Dorsets and forged a connection… Read more Dorset D-Day: Part 4
We continue our commemoration of Dorchester men who died on or around D-Day by remembering two men who were not from the Dorsetshire Regiment. Leonard Clifford Elmes served with the Durham Light Infantry and Thomas Henry Baker was in the East Yorkshire Regiment. Leonard Elmes Leonard was the youngest of the Dorchester men killed around… Read more Dorset D-Day: Part 3
Of the eight Dorchester men killed on or around D-Day, five were in the Dorsetshire Regiment, including Privates George Adams and Robert Rogers and Sergeant George Ernest Cheffey. George Adams George’s parents, Thomas and Rebecca Jane Frampton, married in Dorchester in 1904, and George was one of their eight children. His siblings were Henry, William,… Read more Dorset D-Day: Part 2
80 years ago, World War Two wasn’t won. Nazi Germany occupied most of Western Europe, and was in full occupation of the French coast, just across the English Channel. British forces had been forced into an ignominious retreat from Dunkirk in N France in 1940. The struggle for aerial superiority had seen British and German… Read more Dorset D-Day: Part 1
WHO’S AFEAR’D is not just the motto on the Dorset Coat of Arms but also the name of a Spitfire which crashed near Meopham, Kent on 23rd June 1942. This fighter aircraft had been funded by local contributions from Blandford & Sturminster Newton District people and paid for in a manner which today would be… Read more Who’s Afear’d
The idea of ‘Remembrance’ as a period of reflection on the atrocities of war, and the lives of those who have been asked or compelled to go and fight in them is one which continues to resonate with people. This may be because rather than the ‘war to end all wars’ actually ending all wars,… Read more The Change in Remembrance
For three weeks in July 2021 Dorset History Centre has hosted three students undertaking work experience. For obvious reasons, this year has been very different to previous years, with the students having to work remotely for large parts of their time, with the occasional day in the building learning about collections. The students have written… Read more Work Experience 2021: Edna Bolton and the importance of oral histories
For three weeks in July 2021 Dorset History Centre has hosted three students undertaking work experience. For obvious reasons, this year has been very different to previous years, with the students having to work remotely for large parts of their time, with the occasional day in the building learning about collections. The students have written… Read more Work Experience 2021: The Letters of Richard Gossling
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