The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you agree to accept cookies. If you enjoy this site please consider making a donation.     Site Home     WW2 Home     Add Stories     WW2 Search     Library     Help & FAQs  WW2 Features     Airfields     Allied Army     Allied Air Forces     Allied Navy     Axis Forces     Home Front     Battles     Prisoners of War     Allied Ships     Women at War     Those Who Served     Day-by-Day     Library     The Great War  Submissions     Add Stories     Time Capsule     TWMP on Facebook     Childrens Bookshop  FAQ's     Help & FAQs     Glossary     Volunteering     Contact us     News     Bookshop     About Advertisements World War 2 Two II WW2 WWII 1939 1945

207443 Private Kenneth George Voisin British Army 1st Battalion Cameron Highlandeers from:St Helier, Jersey & Barnsley This is a brief outline of the story of my Uncle's war. He was evacuated from Jersey in the Channel Islands with his brother, mother, grandmother and some cousins. They reportedly saw the little ships on their way to evacuate Dunkirk as they crossed over to England.They had left everything they owned behind, including a family business. They were put into a basement of a church hall in Barnsley in Yorkshire until they were able to find somewhere to live. My Uncle then joined the Army. I am unsure when or where but he was in the Highland Light Infantry at one point. He was then transferred to the 1st Battalion, Cameron Highlanders. I am now going to type information from a very basic embarkation diary that he kept (not for very long) at the beginning of his journey to Japan. Thursday May 3rd 1945 Left Ayr, caught train for Greenoch and then joined ship on the Clyde (SS Corfu). Friday 4th May Still in the Clyde, awaiting rest of Convoy, beginning to settle down aboard Saturday 5th May Rest of convoy arriving and getting ready for sailing. Just before midnight sailed out of Clyde. May 6th Sunday On the way now but can still see England in the distance. May 7th Monday V.E. Day announced on the wireless for tomorrow. Sea very rough and not feeling too good. May 8th Tuesday V.E. Day. Churchill and King speak over ship's wireless. Sea still as rough. May 9th Wed. No work today and we are allowed 1 pint of beer to celebrate V.E. Day but did not feel too good to drink it all. May 10th Thursday nothing much to say only that sea is not quite so bad but still no sign of land. Drew weeks rations - 140 cigs, 4 bars chocolate, 7 packets of biscuits - 4/4d May 11th Friday Land at last.We sailed into Gibraltar for a few minutes and left most of convoy. Entered Mediteranean. May 12th Saturday Sailed past (Oman?) and Algiers in North Africa. Sea as calm as a lake and getting warm. May 13th Sun Passed (Bizerta?) and Cape Bon. Weather very hot. May 14th Passed Malta at 3 am and Tunis in evening. Sailing right along North African coast. May 15th Changed into tropical kit. Passed (Derna?) early this morning. Sadly he did not continue with his diary. By 1946 he was in Japan. I have to do more research to identify where he was in the interim but at Christmas 1946 he was at Kochi. Once I have furtherinformation I will update his story. I have a few interesting pieces from his time in Japan. before and after the bomb pictures, instruction cards about interacting with locals, silk handkerchiefs, a saki barrel and lots of photographs. He was a lovely man. Sadly he had no children of his own. But the war had a huge impact on him from a young age. Janet Young Add to this record.  Related Content: 1st Battalion, Cameron Highlanders (Queens Own) Highland Light Infantry Can you help us to add to our records? Add a record to our website. The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them Did you or your relatives live through the Second World War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial? Were you or your relative evacuated? Did an air raid affect your area? If so please let us know. Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice. Contact us. Celebrate your own Family History Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Secomd World War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc. Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.

The free section of the Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers. We have been helping people find out more about their relatives wartime experiences since 1999 by recording and preserving recollections, documents, photographs and small items. The website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions. If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running. Hosted by: The Wartime Memories Project Website is archived for preservation by the British Library Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV - All Rights Reserved We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.