For a new BBC Upload series, our Digital Intern Charlotte Marchant, and the Museum of Cornish Life’s Digital Intern, Joseph Quinn, are working together to explore the diverse aspects of life in Cornwall during the Second World War and to connect these stories to what’s happening in people’s lives today.
Both ‘Digital Intern’ posts form part of a much broader national project coordinated by the Imperial War Museum as part of their new Second World War and Holocaust Partnership Programme initiative.
Our shared aim is to engage with people that may never have been involved in such a project before, to share hidden or lesser-known local stories of life in wartime Cornwall. As part of this, over the coming months, the Cornish wartime stories uncovered by Charlotte and Joseph will be aired on BBC Radio Cornwall.
BBC UPLOADS
Promo: This short Promo outlines the Digital Interns forthcoming upload series ‘WW2 – A Cornish Story’ featured on Evenings on BBC Radio Cornwall presented by Tiffany Truscott, first aired on Wednesday 3rd February 2021.
WW2 – A Cornish Story – Episode one: The Digital Interns at Bodmin Keep and the Museum of Cornish Life share their recent findings of Bodmin Nurse Olive Barnicoat and the story of an Italian child evacuee.
WW2 – A Cornish Story – Episode Two: The Digital Interns at Bodmin Keep and the Museum of Cornish Life share the military story of Major Arthur Frederick Cotton Kitchen (Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry) and the story of Mary Beazley, who spent part of her teenage years in Cornwall during the Second World War.
WW2 – A Cornish Story – Episode Three: the Digital Interns at Bodmin Keep and the Museum of Cornish Life share the story of how the wheel of a German aircraft came to be a part of Helston’s Flora Day Clock and the story of Edith Doreen Kearney; a young lady from Chulmleigh, Devon, who trained as a nurse at Bodmin’s St Lawrence’s hospital during the war and met her American husband Frank whilst in the town.
WW2 – A Cornish Story – Episode Four: In this episode, the Digital Interns at Bodmin Keep and the Museum of Cornish Life are speaking on the theme of Prisoners of War. They offer two diverse perspectives on the topic; discussing the experiences of enemy Prisoners of War, held here in Cornwall as well as the story of Gerald Cecil Williams; British Army Officer, held as a Prisoner of War overseas from 1941-1945. First captured in North Africa in late 1941, Gerald moved through multiple camps in Italy, Czechoslovakia and finally Germany, where he narrowly escaped death when his camp was bombed by the US Air Force.
WW2 – A Cornish Story – Episode Five: In this episode, the Digital Interns at Bodmin Keep and the Museum of Cornish Life are speaking on the role of women during the Second World War. They offer two diverse perspectives on the topic; discussing the story of Beatrice Frederika Rathbone, an esteemed American-born British politician and former Conservative Member of Parliament for Bodmin during 1941-1945, as well as the role of the Women’s Land Army during the conflict.
WW2 – A Cornish Story – Episode Six: For the final episode in their series, the Digital Interns at Bodmin Keep and the Museum of Cornish Life are speaking on the fighting men who were based in Cornwall during the war; both the Home Guard – the men who would have defended us from an enemy invasion, as well as the U.S Army – the men who came to Cornwall to prepare for the invasion of Normandy to liberate the continent of Europe from Nazi oppression.