Family Memories of WW2
In 2011 KLHS published ‘Memories of the Second World War 1939 – 1945′: a collection of random stories, anecdotes, photos and documents. One or two come from personal experience.
In 2025, on the 80th anniversary of the end of the War, a follow-up project was announced : ‘Family Memories of WW2’ . It acknowledged that the generation who experienced the War as adults was now sadly gone. This time villagers would be invited to submit stories they had inherited from older family members or from their own childhood. As the invitation said ‘These experiences don’t have to have any direct connection to Kingston.. the link will be that they are stories known to people living in our community now..‘
Carol Beard, who conceived this project, intends that these stories will again be made available in a printed collection at some point in the future. In the meantime we would urge villagers to submit stories to Carol if they haven’t already done so.
- Jeanne Curtis – Second World War Memories
- Bryan Watkins – Henry Gwynn Watkins (Merchant Navy.)
- Ian Seeley – From Cranwell to Tobruk!
- Carol Beard – Don Lugger, The Mattress with a Hole, and other stories
- Robert Beard – Childhood Memories
- Sandy Thompson – Childhood Memories of East London
- Andy Davies-Coward – When a bomber pilot met a Radar engineer
- Robin Mitchell – A Tale of Two Kingstons
- Carole Walters – My Family and World War 2
Flete in Time
KLHS is delighted to share an invaluable resource for anyone interested in Flete House and the Flete Estate, whose history is inextricably linked with that of our village. The Flete Maps Project 2018 – 2023 is the work of the late Dr. Robert Perrin who passed away recently at the splendid age of 102. With forensic attention to detail, the five year project involved studying and interpreting maps of the area around Grade 1 listed Flete House dating back to the Tudor period.
A product of this research is a Powerpoint presentation which was created in collaboration with Dr. Perrin by Adrian Wardle, Adrian has followed Dr. Perrin’s request that the presentation be passed to KLHS for posterity – for which we are extremely grateful.
The presentation is in the form of a Powerpoint show with animation and narration recorded by Dr. Perrin. It is essentially in three parts, but is divided into 12 sections for easier reference and navigation. We hope at some stage to be able to make a ‘click and play’ version available here, but for the time being the sections can be downloaded below and opened using MS Powerpoint or equivalent.
Kingston Local History Society 