Christiane talks about her childhood in South Shields, the conditions she faced when starting work in service at the age of fourteen, and how she met her husband, who later died in the Second World War. Read More …
Primrose has lived an interesting and varied life in Britain and South Africa and has worked for organisations such as MI5, the NSPCC, and the Probation Service. She married retired Second Sea Lord Sir Andrew Lewis KCB JP in 1989 Read More …
Mary from Bangor in Northern Ireland, is a former Chair of the War Widows’ Association of Great Britain. Her husband served in the Ulster Defence Regiment during the Troubles and was killed in 1988. Read More …
Ruth talks about her mother, Joyce Mary Maxwell, a founding member of the War Widows’ Association of Great Britain. Ruth’s father died in 1950 after having served in the British Army during the Second World War. Read More …
Romana met her husband Nigel at university in Nottingham during a Christian Union gathering. Nigel joined the RAF as a Navigator and married Romana in 1992. Romana relates her experience of balancing her teaching career with her husband’s service and Read More …
This volume is a collection of the first twelve interviews conducted for the project, both with war widows and their daughters. Read More …
The War Widows Quilt is a beautiful, moving, and challenging piece of collaborative art that expresses the realities of war widowhood in Britain, past and present. Our digital exhibition book allows you to explore the quilt and each of its squares and stories, as well as the creative, historical, and academic work that inspired it. Read More …
Tracey was born in Newbury, Berkshire, and married her first husband, Trevor, in 1988. Trevor, a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, died of a sudden heart attack aboard the HMS Gloucester in 1997, when their son was four years old. Tracey lost her war widows’ pension when she married her second husband, and she is one of several hundred women who, despite recent legislative changes, have not yet had their pensions reinstated. Read More …
Sue grew up in Darlington, County Durham. She married Alan, a sailor in the Royal Navy, in 1973. Sue shares her experiences raising her two daughters and living on and off-base at Rosyth. Alan died of cancer on 29 May 1993. Sue describes her journey as a war widow after the death of her husband and describes the acute emotional challenges personally and for her children. Read More …
Anne talks about her childhood and the life and war widowhood of her mother, Patricia Starr Vicary. Anne’s father was killed during at the Battle of Arnhem during the Second World War. Read More …
