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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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If you have a general question please post it on our Facebook page.
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 32nd Field Regiment, Royal Artillery ? There are:21 items tagged 32nd Field Regiment, Royal Artillery 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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Gnr. George Henry Drax 32nd Field Regiment Royal Artillery Gunner George Drax went across to France with the British Expeditionary Force. He retreated to Dunkirk during which he lost his best friend (who he joined up with) to a Stuka bomb. He eventually swam about 2 miles out to a boat and was repatriated to England on 24th of May 1940. Back in the UK he ran as a dispatch rider with convoys from London to Nottingham. During one of these convoys he collided with a horse and cart injuring his back and was put out of the war.
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WS/Sgt. John Mullen Stoker 32nd Field Reigment  My story is full of holes. My Grandfather Jack Stoker would have been 101 this year.
He joined the Royal Artillery in 1935 and was stationed at Folkestone in Kent. Originally from Sunderland, Durham, he had gone down the mines at 14 but as soon as he was able he left and joined up.
At the outbreak of war he went with the BEF to France and was one of those rescued at Dunkirk. He saw action in North Africa and in Italy and I think he finished up in Greece. He had signed up for 12 years and was released into the Army Reserve in 1947.
He was a hard man to know sometimes, I always had a lot of respect for him but he could be very hard. He passed away in 2004 and when I was organising his funeral, I came across some of his Army certificates, medals and postcards and with the agreement of the rest of the family I collected it all together, scanned and copied everything and made albums for everyone and we donated the originals the Royal Artillery Museum.
Recently I have started working at Dover Castle and part of my duties is to give tours of the tunnels there involving Operation Dynamo (The evacuation of Dunkirk) and consequently I have read and researched a lot.
I was talking to his sole surviving sister-in-law about the war years and my grandfather and how he was. She told me something extraordinary, when he came back from Dunkirk, he broke down, this hard Northern man. He never did again, but Doreen said he came back a different man.
He served as I said until 1947, he then worked on the railways until he retired. Although he always called Sunderland home he never went back, staying in Folkestone.
I would have liked to have known the happy man he was said to have been, and would like to know more about his service.
He always seemed a bit semi detached except when he was with his wartime friends, when he was having drink or when watching his beloved Sunderland AFC. Ironically their new ground was built over the colliery he worked down.
He was probably like thousands of his fellow soldiers, whose lives were shaped and possibly scarred by their wartime experiences. He just carried it with him.
This may seem a little downbeat but its not really, I'm extremely proud of him and his generation and what they did for us. I just wish I knew a little more.
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Kenneth "Don" Williamson 60th Field Rgt. Royal Artillery My grandfather served in North Africa with the 60th Field Artillery and went on with the 32nd Artillery through Italy into Germany.
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