Pupils from Dornoch Primary School drafted in to Record local wartime histories
Issued by Absolute PR
As part of The Highland Council’s Their Past Your Future Scotland project, “Hidden Highland Histories WWII”, pupils from Dornoch Primary School will interview Bill Grant, a war time evacuee from Glasgow who now lives in Dornoch and Andrew MacKenzie who also lives in Dornoch and flew Lancaster bombers with the RAF. This is part of a major World War II local history initiative, which is capturing the experiences of the people living in the Highlands in wartime.
Bill Grant was evacuated from Glasgow during the war and went to stay with family on a farm just outside Dornoch. He remembers school days in Dornoch and racing on his bicycle to the airfield every lunch time in order to see what aeroplanes were there.
Andrew Mackenzie grew up in Edinburgh and was too young to sign up at the outbreak of war, but joined the RAF as soon as he was 17. He trained in Britain and Canada and became a pilot flying Lancasters. He flew many missions to the continent but said that, even though there were a few less people in the canteen every morning, he never felt real fear, as being of that age he thought he was invincible.
Primary 7 pupils will work with Bob Pegg, project worker and oral history specialist, to devise questions and the interviews, which will be conducted on Friday 11th September, will be filmed by filmmaker Mary Fergusson.
“Hidden Highland Histories WWII” sees Highland Council partnering with a number of museums including the Highland Print Studio, Dingwall Museum, Timespan in Helmsdale, the Highlanders Regimental Museum, Inverness Museum and Art Gallery, Historylinks at Dornoch and Gairloch Heritage Museum. In addition, a number of primary schools across the region will also support the project.
The project, which launched in May 09, explores a number of themes from the period from D-Day Landing Training at Inver, which saw the evacuation of the village of Inver for secret training and military bases at Lochewe to Fort George during the Second World War.
In addition to exhibitions held in the museums locally, the project will culminate with a large exhibition, which brings together all the material gathered, at the Inverness Museum and Art Gallery in February 2010. A DVD will also be produced and educational loan boxes for schools and local reminiscence groups.
Councillor Bill Fernie, Chairman of The Highland Council’s Education, Culture and Sport Committee said: “For most young people the only opportunity that they get to learn about the past is through text books or at best watching DVDs on the television. To actually meet and speak to people who were affected by the Second World War is a great opportunity to help them appreciate history. This project between The Highland Council, Museums Galleries Scotland and independent museums and other venues is an excellent contribution to the educational curriculum in the Highlands.”
Commenting on the project, Andrew Salmond, Their Past Your Future Scotland Project Manager for Museums Galleries Scotland said: “Young people meeting the generation which experienced the Second World War and sharing with them their memories is a vital element of Their Past Your Future Scotland. They can learn firsthand exactly what life was like in the Highlands and the personal sacrifices that were made in wartime Britain.”
Their Past Your Future Scotland Phase 2, which is led in Scotland by Museums Galleries Scotland and sponsored by The Big Lottery, brings young people and older generations in the local community together to capture oral histories that focus on the Second World War and all subsequent conflicts.
Their Past Your Future Scotland will culminate with the launch of a website in 2010 which will feature some 300 online mini-exhibitions or 'vignettes’. For more information about the project and to view a sample exhibition, visit www.tpyfscotland.org.uk
The vignettes and related historic objects will be available as a classroom teaching aid via Learning and Teaching Scotland’s new Scottish schools’ intranet, Glow. This ensures that these projects become a rich educational resource for teachers and a global legacy for young people and the wider community.
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