2025 – Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum

13

Dec

December’s Object of the Month had to be a Christmas special! Volunteer Geraldine has selected the iconic First World War gift sent out to troops overseas, researching the boxes themselves and where the men of the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry would have been spent their Christmas in 1914. Princess Mary’s Gift Boxes By Geraldine Howell Her Royal Highness The Princess Victoria Alexandra Alice Mary was the only daughter of…

15

Nov

Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum was recently approached by historian Feutry Bernard about a memorial to Allied airmen who were killed during the Second World War in the Avesnois region of France, which was recently unveilled in the village of Boussières sur Sambre. Of the 116 named on the memorial, 69 are British, with one Flight Lieutenant known to have hailed from Leafield in Oxfordshire. Paul Geoffrey Chapman flew with No.…

29

Oct

Object of the Month (October 2025): Spitfire Rear-View Mirror, 1940 Object of the Month returned this October, with our first featured artefact chosen by volunteer Geraldine, who has also been selecting objects to go on display alongside our recent exhibition of Paul Joyce’s paintings in Remembrances of War. By Geraldine Howell This mirror was taken from a Spitfire that had flown from North Africa to RAF Lyneham after the…

22

Aug

From Midshipman to Yeoman: Charles Morgan Hoare Charles Morgan Hoare was the son of Charles Twysden Hoare of Bignell Park, Bicester, and the Hon. Blanche Frances Hoare, daughter of the 1st Baron Tredegar. He was educated at Osborne and Dartmouth, with the intention of him joining the Royal Navy, but he elected for the Army, being Gazetted into the Queen’s Own Oxfordshire Hussars in 1911 and then the 15th Hussars…

24

Jul

Oxfordshire’s VJ Day Stories: Sergeant Major Albert Benjamin Pritchet By Joseph Vale Oxfordshire’s VE Day Stories are our series of articles covering Second World War stories with county connections, celebrating the 80th anniversary of VE and VJ Day in 2025. Our commemorative exhibition is now open until 18 November 2025, but when we called out for your stories from the local area, we received more than we could fit…

29

Jun

Oxfordshire’s VE Day Stories: Captain Montague Flower and ‘T’ Force By Joseph Vale Oxfordshire’s VE Day Stories are our series of articles covering Second World War stories with county connections, celebrating the 80th anniversary of VE and VJ Day in 2025. Our commemorative exhibition is now open until 18 November 2025, but when we called out for your stories from the local area, we received more than we could fit…

30

May

Oxfordshire’s VE Day Stories are our series of articles covering Second World War stories with county connections, celebrating the 80th anniversary of VE and VJ Day in 2025. Our commemorative exhibition is now open until 18 November 2025, but when we called out for your stories from the local area, we received more than we could fit into the exhibition alone! John Sheldon has long been a research volunteer at…

20

May

Private 5384940 Henry ‘Spud’ Durley – 1st Bucks Battalion (Territorial Army) – POW by John Sheldon Part of a series of articles covering Second World War stories with county connections, celebrating the 80th anniversary of VE and VJ Day in 2025. Our commemorative exhibition is now open until 18 November 2025, but when we called out for your stories from the local area, we received more than we could fit…

04

May

The Long March From The Camps – Winter 1944/5 by Ingram Murray The Archives of the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum hold many accounts by British Prisoners of War of the forced marches from camps in Eastern Europe to the west as the Red Army swept through Poland and Prussia in late 1944. There is none so moving as the story of Bernard Green, known as ‘Pop’ because of…

03

May

Welcome to the first of a series of articles covering Second World War stories with county connections, celebrating the 80th anniversary of VE and VJ Day in 2025. Our commemorative exhibition is now open until 18 November 2025, but when we called out for your stories from the local area, we received more than we could fit into the exhibition alone! Last year, Tom Davis shared his many finds from…

Year: 2025

Object of the Month (Christmas 2025): Princess Mary Gift Tin

Search for Avesnois Airmen

Object of the Month: Spitfire Rear-View Mirror, 1940

The Man Behind the Medals: Lt. Charles Morgan Hoare

Oxfordshire’s VJ Day Stories: Sergeant Major Albert Benjamin Pritchett

Oxfordshire’s VE Day Stories: Captain Montague Flower and ‘T’ Force

Oxfordshire’s VE Day Stories: RSM Edward Hawtin MM, MSM

Oxfordshire’s VE Day Stories: Private ‘Spud’ Durley, POW

Remembering the Long March – January 1945

Oxfordshire’s VE Day & VJ Day Stories: Youlbury Battle School