RGS Contributes to National Archive with ‘Their Finest Hour’
Back in June 2023, RGS Worcester held a digital collection day for Oxford University’s ‘Their Finest Hour’ archive. Last week, Mrs Harrison, Head of History and Politics, spoke about our event at King’s College, London as part of the Second World War Research Group’s 2025 conference, ‘The Second World War: 80 Years On’.
The digital collection day at RGS Worcester involved visitors from all over the Midlands bringing in artefacts from the Second World War. Thirty-five groups of participants joined Sixth Form and University of Worcester interviewers on the day to talk about their own or their family’s memorabilia and memories of the war. Year Seven digital leaders then took photographs of the objects. These images, with their stories, were then uploaded to the archive which went live on 8 June 2024, in time for the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
Over 150 papers and talks were given at King’s last week, with speakers travelling from all over the world to take part. Mrs Harrison’s paper, jointly presented with Dr Elspeth King from the University of Worcester, was part of a panel on ‘Expanding Sources’. Focusing on the significance of the stories attached to the artefacts, Mrs Harrison and Dr King argued that an archive like ‘Their Finest Hour’ opens up new information about the war. The nature of the archive, free to all and online, also broadens the reach of archives while new technology allows digital searching in a way that has not been seen in the past. Dr Matthew Kidd from the University of Oxford was speaking on the same panel, and he explored this latter idea in more detail, showing how these new types of searches could enable us to find out more about people’s attitudes and ideas towards the war and also to events today.
Mrs Jane Harrison, Head of History & Politics
