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Memoirs of a Derby couple

online resource
posted on 2024-06-05, 19:32 authored by Their Finest Hour Project Team

The contributor's parents are deceased now. Her mother was born in 1930 and her father was born in 1927. Both her parents grew up in Derby.

Her father had a sharp recollection. His memoir was written after the war in the 1980s. Her father was in the Home Guard as a Despatch Rider. Then he was in a reserved occupation as he was in the mines.

Her mother did not write things down. But she talked a lot about her experience and kept things carefully. She used to collect shrapnel with her brother by trawling with a magnet behind their bikes on their lawn.

History

Item list and details

1. Memoir 2. Photographs 3. Gas mask tin 4. Photo of a company of soldiers 5. Captain Frank Stanier heading parade 6. Photo of Home Guard platoon 7. Box of shrapnel 8. Satchel 9. ARP badge 10. Book-"Nerves vs Nazis" 11. Parachute silk knickers 12. Junior Red Cross handbook 1944 13. St John's ambulance book 14. Letter from King to schoolchildren 15. ID card wallet 16. ID card Ella Lake (grandmother) 17. Unused fuel ration book 18. ID bracelet Eugenie Lake 19. ID bracelet Lucy Lake 20. ID bracelet Ella Lake

Person who shared the story/items

Gillian Clay

Relationship between the subject of the story and its contributor

They were the contributor's parents.

Type of submission

Shared at National Memorial Arboretum, Staffordshire on 17 February 2024.

Record ID

116852 | NMA004