VE80 at Bo’ness
From railway lines to the front line: A special, free exhibition to celebrate the anniversary of VE Day
May 8th is the 80th anniversary of VE Day. This historic day is a chance to come together and celebrate the people, families, and communities who fought overseas, worked on the home front, and sacrificed throughout WWII to safeguard the peace and freedom we all enjoy today.
To mark the occasion and continue the celebrations throughout the month, we will be sharing some personal objects relating to the wartime lives of Scottish Railwaymen at home and abroad in a special, free VE80 exhibition: From railway lines to the front line.
Follow John (Jack) Russell’s route from Thankerton station to North Africa, France, and Italy; explore life in the LNER (Local Section) Home Guard through the newly acquired papers of signalman Robert Aitchison Dippie; and find out how a letter written by a Helensburgh girl to a booking office acquaintance-turned-soldier created space for new love, new hope, and a lifetime of memories on Scotland’s railway.
Each object featured in the display will be included in our Railway 200 ‘200 Years in 200 Objects’ campaign and will be featured in detail on our blog very soon.
Letters to Loved Ones
During the Second World War, letter writing helped to ease the pain of separation, keep up morale, and preserve a comfortingly sense of the familiar in terrifyingly unfamiliar times. Letters written to family and friends are now a rich source of information about everyday life lived under the cloud of conflict.
Thanks to a grant from Townsweb Archiving, we have been able to digitize the wartime letters sent to Isabella Lumsden from her husband-to-be whilst on active duty with 164 Railway Operating Company of the Royal Engineers. We will be sharing the material as the project progresses, and hope that this story will inspire others to come forward with their own.
If you have a railway relative who was actively involved on the front line or home front, get in touch and help us to add their voice to the national narrative. We would love to hear from you.
You can also share your letters and postcards via the official ‘Letters to Loved Ones’ project website.
Shrapnel Boys Museum Trail
Throughout May, join us for the Shrapnel Boys: Life on the Home Front Museum Trail, organised by Kids in Museums and Usborne. This national family trail is inspired by Shrapnel Boys, a forthcoming novel by award-winning children’s author Jenny Pearson. Find out more.