OUR LIVES…

The British and Commonwealth forces were involved in many major campaigns during the Second World War across the world, including North Africa, Europe and Asia.
The Centre holds a substantial collection of varied personal experiences encompassing all events affecting British forces, as well as memories and memorabilia of those in the ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service) and FANY (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry). These pages present a selection of those experiences, in the form of biographies, photographs, documents and extracts from memoirs.

ASSOCIATED LIVES...

Leslie Alexander Barrett - Gunner RAA

Gnr Barrett L A

Leslie Barrett was born in London in 1908 and left England at the age of 15 to work on a dairy farm in New South Wales. He later moved to Sydney where he married and had twin daughters before enlisting in the Australian Army in 1939 as a Gunner in the Royal Australian Artillery (RAA).

Stan Hope - W.O. RAF

..first one engine failed over Austria and then the other started to show signs of failure over Belgium. Stan was ordered to bail out, having never parachuted before....