Poppyscotland captures veterans’ voices for new project

Poppyscotland has unveiled a new project to capture the stories of veterans, on the eve of the 75th anniversary of VE Day.

Veterans’ Voices, which is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Chancellor, will feature veterans across Scotland in a bid to create a dossier of every conflict from the past 80 years.

Gordon Michie, head of fundraising and learning at Poppyscotland, said: “Veterans’ Voices is a unique resource of high-quality film archive of interviews with veterans living in Scotland who have served in conflicts from 1939 to the present day.

“Over the next two years we will capture scores of personal recollections so that these stories can live on.

“It is vital that these stories are captured now before they can no longer be told, ensuring greater understanding for future generations.

“What’s more, our research has shown that the public are just as keen to understand more about the experiences of our veterans from recent conflicts as they are from stories of life during the Second World War.”

With VE Day celebrations taking place on Friday, the first three Veterans’ Voices stories broadcast will be from Second World War veterans Mary Sim, Charles Horne and Ian Forsyth.

Speaking about VE Day itself in the film, Mrs Sim said: “The night that war finished we never went to bed. We were out partying all night.

“The officers invited us into the officers’ mess. Now that was the holiest of holies and if you were non-commissioned you were never invited into the officers’ mess.

“But we were all invited, and I’ve got a photograph there showing me and some of my colleagues the night war ended.”

The project will feature prominently on Bud, the charity’s mobile museum, which reaches more than 30,000 individuals a year through school visits and public events.