An online living memorial has been launched to commemorate Caribbean war veterans and their role in WW2. With £9,000 funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, a core team of 12, assisted by volunteers and approximately a year to complete the process, The Living Memorial was completed on 27th November 2015. The project is a collection of profiles, artefacts, videos, photos etc. of veteran’s stories, which will be available online, as well as in the Black Cultural Archive and the London Metropolitan Archive.
Founder of the project, Marc Wadsworth, who lives in Thornton Heath, created the memorial after filming ‘Divided By Race, United in War and Peace’, a documentary showcasing the stories of these veterans. Like almost 20,000 other young men from the Caribbean, Wadsworth’s Jamaican father left his homeland as a teenager to serve the RAF during WW2 and sadly died in 1989. This developed a strong desire in Wadsworth to share narratives of veterans from a similar background to his father’s.
Although the project predominantly focuses on Caribbean veterans, it also features some African and White veterans telling their stories. Wadsworth said he found the project ‘‘Worthwhile and rewarding. It’s important to capture their stories so they are not lost to posterity’’. When asked if he is proud of his work, he responded ‘‘very much so. [there were] fantastic stories to tell, especially from African and Caribbean’s’’.
The stories shared in this memorial range from experiences of racism, to veterans having to make split decisions in life-threatening situations. The Living Memorial can be viewed at this link: http://www.livingmemorial.org.uk/
By: Maxine Harrison
