I’m somewhat belatedly posting about VJ80, the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of victory over Japan and the end of WWII. This year I discovered a fantastic local museum called the Military Museum Scotland (MMS), based just outside Edinburgh. It’s run entirely by volunteers and does great work with local veterans as well as being packed with interesting items, indoors and out. There is a dedicated remembrance space for people to reflect and remember their loved ones and a reconstruction of a WWI trench to explore.

For VJ80, MMS hosted a tea party, at which I told Dad’s story to about 50 people, all with connections to the war in the Far East. It was a great occasion and many thanks to founder of MMS, Ian Inglis, for organising the party and inviting me to speak.

On the Sunday I went to a service in Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh, where there is a commemorative plaque donated by the Scottish Burma Star Association, with the Kohima epitaph on it. There was a beautiful service, drawing parallels between the horrors of WWII with current conflicts around the world. The choir sang a version of the Kohima epitaph which was very moving.

In a couple of weeks I am guest speaker at the AGM of my local residents group, the Liberton Association. Another opportunity to encourage people to research their family history before it is lost forever! My generation has the “one line legend” as a start point (e.g. Dad fought at Hong Kong, was taken prisoner and escaped across China) but often the generation down doesn’t even have that. Why would you look if you didn’t know there was anything to look for? Too often, history books cover the same old ground, famous battles and such like, but there are many untold stories that shed new light on the world wars and give us powerful examples of courage, compassion, community and resilience.

Copies of my book, Stranger In My Heart are available on Amazon as a paperback or ebook.