World War II commemoration attracted thousands of visitors

Jul 31 2008 by Lesley Brown, Hamilton Advertiser

IT was announced last week that a series of commemorative World War II activities which were held in South Lanarkshire attracted almost 30,000 visitors.

Their Past Your Future Scotland (phase 1), which was held to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of the global conflict, included a diverse programme of events and exhibitions.

The council are delighted with the visitor figures, which reveal that 29,421 people took part in the activities.

In addition, the council say a wealth of historical resources were gathered during the project.

Among these resources are video interviews with five Cameronian veterans, which have been stored for future museum displays.

Venues for Their Past Your Future (TPYF) events included Low Parks Museum as well as East Kilbride Arts Centre and the Scottish Museum of Country Life at Kittochside.

As part of the programme of activities, local schoolchildren were brought together with WWII veterans to learn first-hand about life during the conflict, and a series of wartime films were also shown.

Museums Galleries Scotland announced last week that over £540,000 has been provided by Big Lottery Funding for Phase 2 of TPYF.

This phase will see young people working with older generations on oral history projects to create 300 mini-exhibitions, which will culminate in the launch of a website in 2010.