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The Wartime Memories Project is the original WW1 and WW2 commemoration website.
Announcements
- The Wartime Memories Project has been running for 24 years. If you would like to support us, a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting and admin or this site will vanish from the web.
- 22nd April 2024 - Please note we currently have a huge backlog of submitted material, our volunteers are working through this as quickly as possible and all names, stories and photos will be added to the site. If you have already submitted a story to the site and your UID reference number is higher than 263973 your information is still in the queue, please do not resubmit, we are working through them as quickly as possible.
- Looking for help with Family History Research?
Please read our Family History FAQ's
- The free to access section of The Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers and funded by donations from our visitors. If the information here has been helpful or you have enjoyed reaching the stories please conside making a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting or this site will vanish from the web.
If you enjoy this site
please consider making a donation.
Want to find out more about your relative's service? Want to know what life was like during the War? Our
Library contains an ever growing number diary entries, personal letters and other documents, most transcribed into plain text. |
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Wanted: Digital copies of Group photographs, Scrapbooks, Autograph books, photo albums, newspaper clippings, letters, postcards and ephemera relating to WW2. We would like to obtain digital copies of any documents or photographs relating to WW2 you may have at home. If you have any unwanted
photographs, documents or items from the First or Second World War, please do not destroy them.
The Wartime Memories Project will give them a good home and ensure that they are used for educational purposes. Please get in touch for the postal address, do not sent them to our PO Box as packages are not accepted.
World War 1 One ww1 wwII second 1939 1945 battalion
Did you know? We also have a section on The Great War. and a
Timecapsule to preserve stories from other conflicts for future generations.
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Want to know more about 2nd Battalion, Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry? There are:1354 items tagged 2nd Battalion, Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War. |
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Pte. John Atkinson 2nd Btn. Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (d.22nd Jan 1945) John Atkinson, son of Simeon and Martha Ellen Atkinson, was born on 18th of December 1914 in Swinton, Lancashire, and died in 1945 from a tropical disease after being in India with his battalion for 3 years. He had joined up in 1940 and went abroad in 1942. His wife Sarah, who lived at 19 Coniston Rd., Swinton, first received news he was dangerously ill from pneumonia and was assured by friends and family he had a good chance of recovery. Later on being told that he had died from a tropical disease, Sarah described how it affected her "Then a knock came on the door... I flew down, opened the letter, and read he had died, I almost dropped". They had one son. Before joining the Army, John had attended St. Peter's School and later worked for the L.U.T. bus depot in Swinton as a bus conductor. John is buried in Delhi War Cemetery.
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L/Cpl Arthur Graydon 2nd Btn King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry    My dad, the late Lance Corporal Arthur Graydon, was a regular soldier who joined up as a 17-year-old lad in 1938. He was a very proud K.O.Y.L.I and, as a member of Slim's forgotten 14th Army, made his contribution to King and country at Kohima, Imphal, Dimapur and Chittagong.
He was very proud to serve alongside the formidable Ghurkhas and was exceptionally fond of the local people for whom he had great respect. He valued the opportunity to learn and use Hindi and developed expert bargaining skills that he enjoyed using on trips to Singapore and Bali upon his retirement.
During the four years he served in India, he carried a photograph of my mother: a photograph I still have. He wrote to her as often as he could while she too was making her contribution as Private Kathleen Smith [ATS] back home in Bradford, West Yorkshire.
Dad was a gentle man with a wonderful sense of humour and humility. While he rarely spoke of his wartime experiences, he told the most wonderfully evocative stories of how he would share broken pieces of tinned biscuits with elephants; and the genuine friendship he developed with the monkeys who shared their camp. One of the few stories he told involved his return from a mail run. He arrived back at camp to find a note on a table. It simply read: Jap broken through perimeter. A lasting and treasured memory of my father was witnessing the enormity of his sorrow upon visiting Kranji War Memorial during one of our many family trips to Singapore. As we wandered silently through the headstones he would stop occasionally to remember a fallen mate. Although he never said it, I wondered whether his burden was heavier because their fate could so easily have been his.
He returned home to West Yorkshire in August 1945. There was no welcome home parade, no thank you, no celebration, no support. Mum, now in her late 90s, recently revealed how dad struggled upon returning home. He experienced bouts of recurring malaria; and the terrors of what we now understand as PTSD. Yet he never complained. Right until the end, he remained a stoic, British soldier. I have the utmost respect and adoration for men like my father. While he may not have been part of the Invictus Generation, he shares their courage and determination and deserves to be remembered for the sacrifices he made in the service of his country.
He passed away in his beloved adopted home of Australia in 1987 after a short but courageous battle with cancer. He may not have been a decorated war hero, but he was my hero. May he and those with whom he served know that they will never be forgotten and forever rest in peace.
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L/Bmbdr. William Green 2nd Btn. King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry William Green was born on 13th November 1908. He joined the KOYLI in 1926 on 18th November, five days after his 18th birthday. He enlisted at Newcastle and served eight years with the colours, of which five years were served in India and four years in the reserve. His military conduct was described as exemplary.
When the Second World War broke out in 1939, William re-enlisted in January 1940 at Sutton. He was retrained and went to war.
After the war ended in 1945 he, with his wife and child, had been given two requisitioned rooms in a convent where his second child was born in 1948. Later, they were able to move to a local authority house where a third child was born in 1955. A true account of a man who served his country and went to the aid of others, came home, and quietly worked very hard to help bring up his three sons. He never forgot those who were left behind on those killing fields, including his own brother.
William died in 1970 when the rigours of a hard life and hard work took its toll.
There are probably many stories like this but they need to be told so that maybe others can understand what they went through. Yield to none.
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Pte. John Frederick Warren 2nd Btn., HQ 3inch Mortar Pltn. King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry With 500 rookies, I joined the 65 remnants of the 2nd King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry in New Delhi.
They had to train us to make a fighting battalion again. We had mules as transport to get used to and did training in various parts of India - the last three months in the Mysore jungle during the monsoon period, June to August 1945. We were due to move into Burma on 1st September 1945 but the dropping of the two atomic bombs on Japan ended the war and our trip was cancelled at the last minute.
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CSM. Harold "Darky" Turford 2nd Btn. King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry Harold Turford served in Burma with the 2nd Btn KOYLI from March 1941 to May 1942. He then moved with the battalion to India from May 1942 to Jan 1945. He achieved the rank of W/S/Sergeant during this time then subsequently Act/CSM on his return to England.
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