Calling Croydon's War Survivors

Residents' own experiences of wartime in Croydon are set to bring to life an exhibition commemorating the end of the Second World War.

Organisers of the mobile exhibition, due to be held in the Whitgift Centre later this year, want war survivors - both veterans and those on the home front - to get involved with the project.

Are you in this picture?

Organisers of the Their Past - Your Future exhibition want to identify air raid patrol wardens pictured here. The man second from the right with a moustache and Wellington boots has been identified as Arthur Lowe, who died in 1971, of Norbury who joined the ARP in 1938. He lived in Acacia Road, Norbury

Picture: From (tie John Gent Collection, held by Croydon Local Studies Library and Archives Service

The touring exhibition Their Past - Your Future is part of a project co-ordinated by the Imperial War Museum and will commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. The exhibition comes to Croydon in September this year for one month and will explore the lasting impact of this conflict on people and places. Croydon's museums service wants to hear from people who are happy to talk about their own personal experiences as part of the exhibition. Croydon will host the national exhibition's London stop-off for four weeks at the Whitgift Centre and each week will feature a changing weekly theme relating to Croydon. The first week will feature Croydon Kids At War, followed by the Battle of Arnhem, Croydon Home Front and the Legacy of the War. Tam Wragge, exhibitions manager for Croydon Museum Service, said: "Pretty soon there won't be any generations left who have experienced the war.

"The concept of war to us I today is all so distant. Young people in particular have no real idea of what life was like during the war so what better way to understand what it was like than to talk to war veterans and others who lived through it ?

"Ideally we would like to hear from people who would be happy to spare a morning or an afternoon to speak to visitors.

"The greatest way to pass on their experiences on to the next generation is to do it face to face.

"As part of our themes we want to speak to those residents who were children during the war, veterans who fought in the Battle of Arnhem - particularly significant as Croydon is twinned with Arnhem - and those on the home front.

"A lot of people on the home front don't really think their contribution was very significant but I disagree. I've already been in touch with one woman who worked at Trojan's munitions factory making bomb plungers who can remember working on Christmas Day and going dancing at the Savoy and hearing the sound of bombs dropping all around."

Organisers are also appealing for personal stories relating to evacuations and are hoping to feature a Croydon evacuee story in the exhibition.

The museum service also wants to hear from anyone who knows more about a picture of air raid patrol wardens, believed to have been taken in Norbury.

It is hoped the story behind the photograph can be used in the exhibition and, in particular, organisers would like to know who is in the picture.

hi addition to the touring exhibition, Croydon's museum services also want to hear from the borough's black and minority ethnic communities to be interviewed for an educational film, planned to be shown in local schools.

In particular, the museum service would like to locate black and minority ethnic residents who lived or worked in the Croydon area between 1939 and 1950 and to trace families where three generations have lives in this country since the war.

If you would like to get involved with either of the historical projects contact Croydon museum services on 020 82531025.