WW2 - A Cornish Story (BBC Radio Cornwall Upload Series)

For the final episode in their series, the Digital Interns at Bodmin Keep and the Museum of Cornish Life are speaking on the fighting men who were mobilised in Cornwall during the war, at first to defend against an invasion of Britain, and later to mount an invasion of Europe. 

Joseph shares his detailed research on the Cornwall Home Guard - the veteran volunteers and underage cadets who would have defended us from an enemy invasion had it taken place. 

Charlotte discusses aspects of her project research on the 29th Infantry Division of the U.S Army - the American G.I.s who came to Cornwall to prepare for the invasion of Normandy to liberate the continent of Europe from Nazi oppression.

This podcast series is brought to you in partnership with Bodmin Keep as part of a national project developed by the Imperial War Museum (IWM). (Episode cover image courtesy of The Archives and Cornish Studies Service, Kresen Kernow [Ref No: corn01969]. Cornwall Home Guard cadets in training, 21 April 1942.

In this episode, the Digital Interns at Bodmin Keep and the Museum of Cornish Life are speaking on the role of women during the Second World War. They offer two diverse perspectives on the topic:

Charlotte tells the story of Beatrice Frederika Rathbone, an esteemed American-born British politician and former Conservative Member of Parliament for Bodmin during 1941-1945, while Joseph shares his research on role of the Women's Land Army in keeping Cornwall, and the United Kingdom, fed during the conflict.

This podcast series is brought to you in partnership with Bodmin Keep as part of a national project developed by the Imperial War Museum (IWM). (Episode cover image courtesy of The Archives and Cornish Studies Service, Kresen Kernow [Ref No: corn01550]. Land Girls being transported by horse & cart through a potato field at Ludgvan, Penwith, 18 March 1942.)

For their fourth episode, the interns discuss the topic of Prisoners of War (POWs). Joseph unveils the research which he and the team at Museum of Cornish Life have uncovered on enemy POWs, both German and Italian, who were interned in Cornwall. Meanwhile, Charlotte shares the story of Gerald Cecil Williams, known as ‘Toot’s’, a Cornish-born senior British officer who was captured during the North African Campaign and spent three years as a POW in Italy, Czechoslovakia and Germany.

This podcast series is brought to you in partnership with Bodmin Keep as part of a national project developed by the Imperial War Museum (IWM). (Episode cover image courtesy of The Archives and Cornish Studies Service, Kresen Kernow [Ref No: corn01170]. Italian prisoners photographed at a social event with local Cornish ladies) 

This month, our interns mark Flora Day with two special stories. Joseph tells the fascinating story about how a component part of a German Heinkel bomber, which crash-landed at a farm near Helston, became part of the Flora Day Dance Clock held at the Museum of Cornish Life. Meanwhile, Charlotte shares the beautiful story of Edith Doreen Kearney, a young nurse from Devon based at Bodmin’s St Lawrence’s hospital during the war and the wartime romance she began with her future American husband Frank, a radioman with the US Army’s 29th Infantry Division.

In this second episode of WW2 - A Cornish Story, Charlotte at Bodmin Keep talks about the amazing military feats of Major Kitchen, a DSO winner and war hero who served with distinction with the 5th Battalion of the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry in Northwest Europe, while Joseph at the Museum of Cornish Life shares the story of Mary Beazley, the daughter of a Cornish-born Royal Navy admiral, and her incredible wartime experiences at her family home near Bodmin.  

This podcast series is brought to you in partnership with Bodmin Keep as part of a national project developed by the Imperial War Museum (IWM).(Episode cover image reproduced by kind permission of the Imperial War Museum, London. © IWM A 21574. Vice Admiral H B Rawlings, CB, OBE, photographed on 15 January 1944 at his office in Freetown, Sierra Leone, where he was briefly stationed as Flag Officer Commanding, West Africa.)

In this first episode of the series the two Digital Interns, Joseph Quinn at the Museum of Cornish Life and Charlotte Marchant at Bodmin Keep Army Museum, share their recent findings since beginning their roles.

Charlotte tells the wartime tale of Nurse Olive Barnicote from Bodmin who worked at Bodmin St Lawrence's hospital while Joseph tells the story of a child evacuee of Italian heritage named Carmin Sidonio, who, along with his brother, was sent off to Cornwall to escape the Blitz on London.

This podcast series is brought to you in partnership with Bodmin Keep as part of a national project developed by the Imperial War Museum (IWM). (Episode cover image reproduced by kind permission of the Imperial War Museum, London. © IWM HU91777. Terence, son of Francis and Alice Matthews, as a child during the Second World War. Terence was evacuated to Cornwall during 1940 – 1944.)

We are delighted to be working in partnership with Bodmin Keep throughout 2021 on a national project developed by the Imperial War Museum (IWM). This project will see both museums delivering a range of projects that uncover lesser-known stories about Cornwall in the Second World War. 

This short Promo upload outlining our forthcoming upload series 'WW2 - A Cornish Story', featured on Evenings on BBC Radio Cornwall presented by Tiffany Truscott, on Thursday 3rd February 2021.