The Heritage Lottery Fund has awarded a grant to Tameside Council and Tameside Armed Services Community (TASC) to run a veterans heritage project to mark the centenary of the Armistice in November 1918.
Veterans have spent time at Tameside Local Studies and Archives learning how to use the archives. Veterans chose to research and write about diaries, maps, postcards and rolls of honour.
The project delivered training to veterans in blogging and photography as well as a visit to the Imperial War Museum and the Regimental Chapel at Manchester Cathedral.
Billboards featuring the chosen regimental archives were on display across Tameside during November.
Veterans have written and researched blogs telling the story of the regimental archives:
- The story of the amazing sketches of Thomas Brough of the 17th Battalion of the Manchester Regiment by Graham Braithwaite
- An introduction and invitation to the Turning of the Leaves ceremony at Manchester Cathedral by Don Rhodes
- The story of Joseph Lowden of the Cheshire Regiment who died of his wounds 47 years after the guns fell silent by Graham Braithwaite
- The story of Henry Bridge’s emotive notebook by Christine Pleszak
- How Lynda Fisher traced her great-uncle James Hall’s First World War service
- How can I research my Manchester Regiment relative? by David Govier
- A journey of discovery – how Don Rhodes found a Manchester man’s grave far from home
- The diary of Charles Grimes part 1, The diary of Charles Grimes part 2 – one soldier’s long journey towards Gallipoli
Tameside Armed Services Community supports the 7,500 members of the armed forces family in the borough under the guidance of the Armed Forces Covenant: a promise from the nation that those who serve or have served in the armed forces, and their families, are treated fairly.
Tameside Local Studies and Archives in Ashton-under-Lyne is part of Tameside Council and holds an outstanding collection of military history archives including the Manchester Regiment Archive. The records include service records, war diaries, photographs, personal papers, maps, letters, regimental newspapers and magazines, newspaper cuttings, oral history and ephemera.
You can see some of the archives the veterans have uncovered in the exhibition display case at Tameside Local Studies and Archives (Tameside Central Library, 92 Old St, Ashton-under-Lyne OL6 7SG open Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 10am-5pm and Saturday 10am-1pm).
GMStories 