Below you can find the press release for our project and its funding. If you’d like to have a custom article, conduct and interview with us about the project, or require images or other information, please contact us here.
War Widows’ Stories Project Celebrates Award from Heritage Lottery Fund
What is it like to be a war widow in Britain? Every year we celebrate and commemorate the lives and sacrifices of those who have fought and fallen in service for our country. Still, we know little about the experiences of the wives and families they leave behind.
This is why Dr Nadine Muller, Senior Lecturer in English Literature and Cultural History at Liverpool John Moores University and author of The Widow: A Literary & Cultural History (2017), is working with the War Widows’ Association of Great Britain (WWA), an organisation that has been fighting to improve the conditions of war widows and their dependants since 1971.
Together, they want to raise awareness of the everyday lives of war widows, past and present. The project – called War Widows’ Stories – will give war widows and their close relatives the opportunity to tell their stories, be trained as interviewers to record the memories of others, and to learn about how war widows’ lives have changed over the centuries.
The interviews will be available in print and on the War Widows’ Stories website (https://www.warwidowsstories.org.uk) alongside a wealth of material that brings to life the history of war widowhood in Britain.
The project has now been awarded a Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) Sharing Heritage grant of £9,800. Commenting on the award, Dr Muller said: “War widowhood is an inevitable and undeniable, yet largely ignored, part of war. We want the War Widows’ Stories project to help afford these women their rightful place in history by making their stories heard”.
Mrs Mary Moreland, Chair Elect and Public Relations Officer of the WWA, said a project like this was long overdue, and the Association is excited to work with Dr Muller: “Part of our mission to improve the lives of war widows and their families is raising awareness of their circumstances and of what life is like as a war widow. Our members have so many different stories to tell – we are thrilled they will finally have the chance to share them”.
Nathan Lee, Head of HLF North West, said: “At Remembrance-tide, so many stories are told to ensure we do not forget those who lost their lives in the conflicts of the twentieth century and today. Now, this new project, made possible thanks to National Lottery players, will mean that the LJMU and WWA can do more to shine a light on the lives and stories of those war widows left behind and honour their place in history”.