Ruth talks about her mother, Joyce Mary Maxwell, a founding member of the War Widows’ Association of Great Britain. Ruth’s father died in 1950 after having served in the British Army during the Second World War. Read More …

Romana met her husband Nigel at university in Nottingham during a Christian Union gathering. Nigel joined the RAF as a Navigator and married Romana in 1992. Romana relates her experience of balancing her teaching career with her husband’s service and Read More …

Tracey was born in Newbury, Berkshire, and married her first husband, Trevor, in 1988. Trevor, a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, died of a sudden heart attack aboard the HMS Gloucester in 1997, when their son was four years old. Tracey lost her war widows’ pension when she married her second husband, and she is one of several hundred women who, despite recent legislative changes, have not yet had their pensions reinstated. Read More …

Sue grew up in Darlington, County Durham. She married Alan, a sailor in the Royal Navy, in 1973. Sue shares her experiences raising her two daughters and living on and off-base at Rosyth. Alan died of cancer on 29 May 1993. Sue describes her journey as a war widow after the death of her husband and describes the acute emotional challenges personally and for her children. Read More …

Anne talks about her childhood and the life and war widowhood of her mother, Patricia Starr Vicary. Anne’s father was killed during at the Battle of Arnhem during the Second World War. Read More …

Susan, originally from Glasgow, lives in Otley, Yorkshire. She married her first husband in 1971 and was widowed less than a year later, while six months pregnant with their daughter. Susan lost her war widows’ pension when she remarried in 1989. She talks about her early life, her struggles as a young wife and widow, her second marriage, and her fight to have her pension reinstated. Read More …

Kate, who lives in Scotland but grew up in Stockport, talks about her training and work as a nurse, her life with her first husband, Mike, her remarriage seven years later, and her status as one of the approximately three hundred women to whom the government refuses the reinstatement of their war widows pension because of their remarriage. Read More …