What is Their Finest Hour?
Their Finest Hour is a University of Oxford project, launched in July 2022 with funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, which aims to empower families and local communities to share and digitally preserve their stories and objects relating to the Second World War.
How can I help?
By contributing stories and uploading photographs/scans of your letters, photographs and other objects relating to the Second World War, using the Share Your Story submission form, you can directly support the work of this project, and help to ensure that the memories of a wartime generation are not lost.
Please note: The Share Your Story submission form will remain open until Friday 5 April 2024 - so if you would like to contribute to the Their Finest Hour Online Archive, please complete your submission prior to this date.
When and where will I be able to see my contribution online?
In addition to accepting contributions online, the Their Finest Hour project team will be helping communities across the UK to organise in-person Digital Collection Days, where anyone can come along to be interviewed and have their objects digitised (photographed/scanned).
On the 6 June 2024, after all the planned Digital Collection Days have been held and online submissions received, the Their Finest Hour Online Archive will be published online and made freely available via the theirfinesthour.org website.
Why now?
Very few families in Britain and the Commonwealth were untouched by the war but the stories and objects of the men, women, and children who were part of the 1939-1945 generation are being lost. In what was a truly global conflict, over 8.5 million people from the Empire and Dominions served in all major theatres of the war. Many of those affected have since passed their stories and objects onto their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, all of whom now act as custodians of their relatives’ remarkable legacy. The photographs, letters, diaries, medals, and other objects symbolise the sacrifices that the wartime generation made, and it is vital – for individuals, families, communities and the country as a whole – to preserve and value this heritage before it is lost to posterity.
