The East Yorkshire Living History Group maintains close links with the York Army Museum and over the years we have supported them at a number of their events in the heart of York. These events are always very rewarding, with large numbers of people who might never visit a living history event interacting with the group. On Saturday 12th August, whilst most of the group were representing the regiment at Spetchley, myself and Pte Dixon set up a small weapons and kit display outside the main entrance of the museum in conjunction with their Military Memorabilia Roadshow. This free event encouraged people to bring in their military objects for appraisal by experts, with free entry to the museum, we were there to add an extra dimension to the day and help draw visitors into the museum itself.
As expected the day was a busy one, people were coming up to us as we were setting up and a full hour before the roadshow was due to start. The day was thoroughly enjoyable with many interesting questions posed by the public, as well as many ex-servicemen and women stopping by for a chat a chance to reminisce- some common themes came out: they all loved the Bren and hated the Sten! The highlights of the day included one gentleman who had brought an original D-Day invasion jerkin that he allowed Pte Dixon to model, to those of us who are ‘kit anoraks’ this was a rare opportunity to examine something most will only see in replica form.
However for me the memory that will stay with me for many years to come was the chance to speak to a veteran from the 2nd Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment who had been amongst the first wave to land on D-Day. This gentleman, now 94, had joined the regiment at 14 in 1938 and served throughout the war. He had brought with him a folder containing copies of the War Diaries relating to D-Day and a map of the invasion, it was very humbling to hear him explain what had actually happened and to point to the route inland he took on the map. These sort of opportunities are rare indeed today with so few veterans left alive so it was a very special half hour.
The day ended around 4pm and the museum had reported that an unprecedented number of visitors had been inside, we certainly saw a lot of people at our display. These events are a great opportunity to bring a small piece of our history to life and to reach an audience who would never normally take an interest in the Second World War, indeed one young American couple stayed and chatted for over forty minutes and we seemed very popular with a number of Chinese tourists!
Plus we received a piece in the local newspaper! read it here
PTE Hallett
As expected the day was a busy one, people were coming up to us as we were setting up and a full hour before the roadshow was due to start. The day was thoroughly enjoyable with many interesting questions posed by the public, as well as many ex-servicemen and women stopping by for a chat a chance to reminisce- some common themes came out: they all loved the Bren and hated the Sten! The highlights of the day included one gentleman who had brought an original D-Day invasion jerkin that he allowed Pte Dixon to model, to those of us who are ‘kit anoraks’ this was a rare opportunity to examine something most will only see in replica form.
However for me the memory that will stay with me for many years to come was the chance to speak to a veteran from the 2nd Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment who had been amongst the first wave to land on D-Day. This gentleman, now 94, had joined the regiment at 14 in 1938 and served throughout the war. He had brought with him a folder containing copies of the War Diaries relating to D-Day and a map of the invasion, it was very humbling to hear him explain what had actually happened and to point to the route inland he took on the map. These sort of opportunities are rare indeed today with so few veterans left alive so it was a very special half hour.
The day ended around 4pm and the museum had reported that an unprecedented number of visitors had been inside, we certainly saw a lot of people at our display. These events are a great opportunity to bring a small piece of our history to life and to reach an audience who would never normally take an interest in the Second World War, indeed one young American couple stayed and chatted for over forty minutes and we seemed very popular with a number of Chinese tourists!
Plus we received a piece in the local newspaper! read it here
PTE Hallett
