2025/01/01 by Katherine J. Roberts · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Vietnamese History and Culture Studies
paper · doi:10.5325/nursinghistory.33.0086
openalex publication_date 2025/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2025/12/28
The WW2 People’s War website was the idea of Chris Warren, executive editor at the BBC. Warren proposed that the BBC should create a site where families of World War II veterans could research their family history and share their wartime experiences. The site aspired to create a narrative of World War II consisting of the personal stories and memories of ordinary people to compliment the “official” grand narratives of the war. The project ran from June 2003 to January 2006, during which time a national story gathering campaign launched by the BBC compiled over 47,000 stories and 15,000 images. The project overlapped with, and helped to commemorate, the sixtieth anniversary of D-Day and the end of the war. Submissions to the site were closed in January 2006 and the site itself is now archived.The site serves as a repository for personal narratives about the Second World War and it emphasizes that these narratives should not be considered factual or authoritative accounts of wartime events, but rather that they are representative of the authors’ personal perspectives and memories. As the site itself is archived, the search function can be difficult. The site’s homepage provides three routes for moving forward: “About the archive,” “WW2 Timeline,” and the archives subject list. The archive subject list is the most useful search tool on the site. The subject list groups contributions under different headings such as location, theme (Home Front, Armed Forces, Occupation, etc.), and key events. The Home Front theme features the sub-category “Nursing and Medicine,” which includes 193 stories from nurses and doctors who worked during World War II. When users select this category, they will find that the first stories listed are the “Recommended stories,” which are indicated by stars located next to the story’s title. The site’s editorial team designated certain narratives as “Recommended stories” due to their “particularly vivid storytelling, an unusual theme not covered in other stories, a dramatic or particularly resonant account of the events.”1While the archive subject list is the most convenient way to navigate the site and interact with its content, should a visitor want to find a specific record or search for a term that is not included under the subject list, the site recommends entering the phrase “site:bbc.co.uk/history ww2 people’s war,” followed by their desired search term, into a search engine. Site users should not attempt to use the search bar at the top of the webpage as that search feature is attached to all BBC content and will return search results outside of the archive. As previously stated, the homepage also features a link to the site’s World War II timeline, which was developed in order to provide context for the events discussed in the personal narratives. The timeline content was commissioned by the BBC and written by Helen Cleary, Phil Edwards, Bruce Robinson, and Victoria Cook. It provides a broad overview of and useful context for the events and services discussed throughout the archive. These “fact files,” however, do not include references to where the information listed in them was acquired, which may make them a difficult resource to use in academic historical research.Most of the narratives hosted in the archive are reminiscences recorded during the project, some sixty years after the events described, but the site also does contain diaries and letters written during the war. The majority of the diaries and letters featured on the site have been transcribed, which ensures their readability; however, some original letters and postcards have been photographed and uploaded to the site. Since these photographs were uploaded by users, the quality of the images varies widely and, therefore, some letters and postcards are not very legible. All photographs associated with the stories collected under a theme are available in a photo gallery that is included on the right side of the theme homepage. Within the stories themselves, there is a text box at the top of the page that contains the name of the person who contributed the story to this site. This could be the story’s narrator or an individual who contributed the story on their behalf; this designation is indicated in this text box. Additionally, this text box includes the date that the story was submitted, its Article ID, and the story’s location.The content listed under the “Nursing and Medicine” theme can serve as an excellent resource for any undergraduate course that discusses nursing and medical history. These narratives provide a fascinating contrast to contemporary nursing policies and procedures, as well as illustrate the evolution in healthcare from the 1940s to today. For example, in her contribution entitled “My First Three Months as a Fever Nurse,” Cissie Ridings recounted many elements of her early nursing experience that would appear odd to nurses today, such as etiquette rules, which required that nurses stand when a senior staff member entered the room and forbade them from overtaking them on the stairs; and strict visitation rules, which kept parents from being able to visit their sick children. Ridings also explained that most of her nursing education was acquired on the ward by observing and copying senior nursing staff. Two common themes that often appear throughout these narratives are healthcare personnel’s struggles with disease and infection prior to the mass availability of effective antibiotics, such as penicillin, and nurses’ grassroots approach to providing therapeutic care. For example, in her discussion of treating children in a fever hospital, Ridings acknowledged that “Child psychology was never mentioned so love for children and common sense were important factors” in directing the nurses’ provision of care.2While much of the content related to nursing is located under the “Nursing and Medicine” category, the categorization system is not foolproof. There is a fair bit of crossover between the “Nursing and Medicine” category and the “Medical Units” category, with some nursing narratives only listed under “Medical Units.” I located an army nurse’s diary under the “Diaries” category that was not included under either “Nursing and Medicine” or “Medical Units.”3 Furthermore, under the “Letters” category, I discovered a narrative entitled “In the Care of Angels,” which included transcripts of two letters that a Sister Waddell wrote to the family of Lance Corporal William Entwistle while he was in critical condition in No. 14 Casualty Clearing Station in Italy.4 Throughout the Second World War, it was common for nurses to correspond with family on behalf of their patients and these letters provide some fascinating insight into the manner in which these women interacted with patients’ families and the tropes that they drew on to provide them with comfort and assurance. As these two examples show, this archive at times requires a more intensive search than the presence of the subject list might suggest.Despite its occasionally cumbersome search capabilities and categorization system, this website is a repository of fascinating primary sources. While this archive is clearly focused on the British wartime experience, its content provides information that can be useful and intriguing for students considering nursing history from a global or comparative context. Overall, these narratives offer a personal and intimate approach to nursing history that can be compelling for students and teachers of nursing history alike.