Help
Using the Online Archive
To search the archive, click 'Search' when you are in the archive (see screenshot below) or click here.
Enter the search terms in the 'Search Content' box and press the Enter key on your keyboard. The search results will then be displayed.
TIP: Using quotation marks in your search helps you find exact matches. For example, searching for "British Army" will give you results with that exact phrase, excluding results that have just "British" and "Army" separately.
Keyword tags are specific words or phrases used to describe the content in the archive. For example, for stories and/or items relating to members of the Women's Land Army, keywords may include "Women," "Land Girl," "Farming," and "Work."
Searching or browsing by keyword will return relevant records with matching keyword tags. To do this, you can:
- Type a keyword into the 'Search' box and press the Enter key on your keyboard
- Select from a list of keyword tags on our 'Explore by Keyword Tag' page
- Select a keyword from within a record (see screenshot below)
All material in the Their Finest Hour Online Archive is made available for reuse under the CC BY 4.0 licence. You are free to:
- Share - copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially.
- Adapt - remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
Under the following terms:
- Attribution - you must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
- No additional restrictions - you may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
This project is concerned with recording the stories that people remember and pass on, and therefore we think that it is important that the text reflects the stories as they were told. Users of the website can, if they think it appropriate, do their own research to check the historical facts of the events described.
If you have noticed a factual error with a submission, then this is not something that we will correct. This project is concerned with recording the stories that people remember and pass on, and therefore we think that it is important that the text reflects the stories as they were told. Users of the website can, if they think it appropriate, do their own research to check the historical facts of the events described.
If you have noticed an administrative error with the website, please email theirfinesthour@ell.ox.ac.uk with more information so that we can look into it.
This project is concerned with recording the stories that people remember and pass on, and therefore we think that it is important that the text reflects the stories as they were told. Where we have considered the material to be particularly offensive/sensitive, we have included a warning so that users are made aware of potentially difficult subject matter in advance. If you come across something on the website that does not currently have a warning message, but you believe that it should, please email theirfinesthour@ell.ox.ac.uk with details.
We have published the best quality images that we have available.
For contributors
To find your story or your family's story, click 'Search' when you are in the archive (see screenshot below) or click here.
Enter your name or a relative's name in the 'Search Content' box and press Enter on your keyboard. The search results will then be displayed.
TIP: Using quotation marks in your search helps you find exact matches. For example, searching for "Winston Churchill" will give you results with that exact phrase, excluding results that have just "Winston" and "Churchill" separately.
We are sorry if you are disappointed to find that your submission is not in the archive. There are multiple reasons why your submission might not be online.
If you submitted using our website, it is possible that:
- Technical issues meant that we did not receive your submission.
- Your submission may have been deemed inappropriate for inclusion because of reasons of limited size or information, or not being relevant enough to the subject of the archive (i.e. the Second World War).
- The submission would have breached copyright or had other legal ramifications if published.
If you submitted in-person via a Digital Collection Day, it is possible that:
- Technical issues on the day, or in the transfer of the material to us, meant that your submission has been mislaid. The project is grateful to the support of volunteers for the running of Digital Collection Days, and inevitably mistakes may have occurred due to the nature of the data collection.
- The material was deemed inappropriate for inclusion because of reasons of limited size or information, or not being relevant enough to the subject of the archive (i.e. the Second World War).
- The submission would have breached copyright or had other legal ramifications if published.
It is possible that due to technical failures, we did not receive all of your files. It is also possible that we thought that some of the images were breaching copyright or privacy laws, or were not relevant to the subject of the archive (i.e. the Second World War). We might also have chosen not to include images if we felt that the quality was not good enough (e.g. not in focus) to make them available online.
The Online Archive is freely available online to everyone around the world. As such, the material in the archive could be viewed by children or people who might find some material distressing or triggering. We have therefore added sensitivity warnings to submissions where we think that users might benefit from advanced warning of particularly difficult material.
Please email theirfinesthour@ell.ox.ac.uk with details of your submission and someone will arrange for it to be removed.
If you would like to request changes, please email theirfinesthour@ell.ox.ac.uk with details of your submission and the changes that you would like to make.
However, please note that Their Finest Hour is a two-year project that ends in July 2024. Any changes beyond this date will have to be made on an occasional basis by members of staff at the University of Oxford.
We have blacked out parts of your PDF file(s) because we felt that there was material present that we could not make available online. There are multiple reasons why we may have made this decision, including issues regarding sensitivity and the possibility that material is in copyright.
