Launched on VJ Day 2025, the Watson Collection brings together over 2,600 never-before-seen letters, diaries, photographs, artefacts, and memoirs charting the wartime lives of Frank and May Watson – his in captivity in Java, Singapore, and Japan, hers on the home front in England.

ONLINE ARCHIVE

Discover over 25,000 objects and stories from the Second World War, newly digitised and preserved between 2022 and 2024.

EXPLORE THE ARCHIVE

INTERACTIVE MAP

Follow the journeys of 100 people through the Second World War, mapped using real locations from the Their Finest Hour Online Archive.

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FEATURED COLLECTIONS

D-DAY: 6 JUNE 1944

Personal stories and objects linked to the Normandy landings and the liberation of Europe.

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BRITAIN UNDER FIRE

Memories and artefacts from families who experienced bombing raids across the UK.

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WOMEN'S EXPERIENCES

Accounts and items highlighting women's contribution to the war effort.

Marking eighty years since the end of the war in Europe, this curated selection from our archive brings together voices, images, and objects that capture how ordinary people experienced VE Day in Britain and across the world.

Their Finest Hour, a University of Oxford project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, empowered local communities to preserve the stories and objects of the Second World War before they were lost to history.

ARCHIVE HIGHLIGHTS

D-Day embarkation sign

Used in Plymouth, the sign was to direct American troops to the right ships for embarkation. It was found in a hedge in 1950.

Drawings from a POW camp

Wing Commander J. R. Blackburn (RAF) was captured and placed in Stalag Luft I. He escaped twice, was caught both times, and was eventually released by the Russians.

'Alien' registration card

Betty Hausner and her husband left Vienna for Britain shortly after the Anschluss. They were interned as 'enemy aliens' in separate camps on the Isle of Man.

Strubbi the toy dog

Gisella left Stettin, Germany towards the end of the war as the Russians invaded. The only thing that she took was her toy dog, Strubbi.

Photo of Mary Watkins

Mary Watkins, from Margate, served in the Intelligence Branch of the Auxiliary Territorial Service.

Top secret D-Day (BIGOT) map

Kept by Major Stidwell, who was selected for special duties on D-Day as a member of the Combined Operations.

Scrapbook from Burma

Features drawings, poems and notes sent by Wilfred Creek to his son, Graham, who was born in 1941.

Shrapnel from a Coventry factory

Kept by Robert K. Holden, who worked in a Coventry factory building planes.

Incendiary bomb tail fin

A tail fin of an incendiary bomb that Frank Kemp found in Colston in 1940.

Mass before El-Alamein

Photo of troops attending Mass before the Battle of El-Alamein.

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Sergeant Moses Okotoghaide, REME

Photo of Sergeant Moses Okotoghaide taken by John William Meacher of the British 8th Army.

Christmas Fare in India

Booklet for a Christmas Dinner arranged by Jim Dexter, RAF, who served in Africa and India.

French doll bought in the aftermath of D-Day

During the D-Day landings, Bill Harwood purchased a French-made doll for his 3-year-old daughter.

Souvenir from Hitler's private yacht

Captain Ernest Fisher took this barograph from the Aviso Grille, the yacht that Hitler planned to use after a successful invasion of Britain.

MORE WAYS TO EXPLORE THE ARCHIVE

Thousands of items in the Online Archive were digitised at public events called 'Digital Collection Days'. Click below to explore the stories and objects captured at each location.

EXPLORE BY COLLECTION DAY

Over 50,000 keyword tags have been added to records to assist your search. Click below to uncover content related to specific battles, events, countries, and other topics.

EXPLORE BY KEYWORD