Martin Bisiker, Legasee Educational Trust
2025 has been a good year for my charity Legasee Educational Trust, and by default, for me also.
I finished the National Lottery Heritage Fund project about the Women’s Royal Army Corps (WRAC). I was interviewing women who served during the post war and Cold War years. Once the filming was done, and with the help of a great project manager (Lucy Smith deserves a mention), I got the material ready for an exhibition featuring a video stream of their stories. I also worked with a lovely school in Hampshire and got the students to interview a former Colonel of the WRAC.
In October I also received news from the NLHF that they would support a new project about the Aden Emergency (1963–67). A lot of work went into developing this and it was a massive relief to get it. In 2026, I’ll be looking to film interviews with 30 to 40 veterans, plus creating educational resources and audio versions. It’s really important as not for nothing is Aden known as a Forgotten War.
On the back of the success of our D-Day podcast series, I helped to produce a new podcast series about the Berlin Airlift. It was really wonderful to be able to revisit the interviews with Airlift veterans that I recorded in 2013. I was not able to speak with any of the men and women we featured which made it even more poignant. Certainly, it felt like a nice way to recognise their sacrifices and to bring a new audience to what has increasingly become a very hot topic.
I also did some more Korean War veteran interviews with the support of the Holy Sepulchre Church in Holborn – they’re home to the Memorial Chapel of the Royal Fusiliers [London branch].
Lastly and recently, I’ve been testing the water with some community work: helping schools and local history groups learn basic interview and filming skills. It’s early days, but I hope to have more to share in 2026.
Sarah Gudgin
My primary focus over the past year has been delivering a range of oral history projects that capture voices at risk of being lost, preserving lived experience at moments of social, cultural and historical transition.
Royal British Legion
I recorded interviews with six Second World War veterans—among the last surviving witnesses of that conflict, with a combined age of 606 years! Their testimonies were gathered as part of the commemorations marking the 80th anniversary of the end of the war and offered rare, first-hand insight into service, survival and memory at the close of an era.
Alongside this, I conducted interviews with LGBTQ+ ex-service personnel whose lives and careers were profoundly affected by the blanket ban on gay men and women serving in the UK Armed Forces, which remained in place until 2000. These interviews formed part of a commemoration marking 25 years since the ban was lifted and followed the publication of the Etherton Review (2023), which addressed the lasting harm caused by this policy. For many LGBTQ+ veterans, Remembrance remains complex and emotionally fraught. One interviewee movingly described the significance of finally being able to march openly alongside fellow veterans. “I’m not alone and the two parts of me aren’t contradictory or in conflict, they are one. I’m not a gay man and a veteran. I’m a gay veteran, and those two things came together, and that was really, really monumental”.
Unearthing London’s Past
In parallel, I have been developing a podcast series for the City of London Archaeological Trust (CoLAT). Beginning in 2024, I recorded interviews with seven archaeologists involved in the early development of urban archaeology in London, working under the DLA and DGLA, later MOLAS. Following successful funding for a second phase in 2025, I conducted further interviews and these oral histories are now being shaped into six podcasts that trace the evolution of archaeological practice in the capital.
English Heritage projects
I delivered two further projects in 2025. One at Walmer Castle in Kent, where the primary focus was recording the working lives of those involved in preparations for the Queen Mother’s annual visits and memories of the late QM. The other project, at Kenwood House, London, captured the memories of four siblings growing up on the estate in the 1960s’ and ‘70s, amid the Communist political activism and anti-apartheid campaigning of their parents and other anti-apartheid activists who were regular visitors to their home. The family’s commitment to social justice, shaped the sibling’s identities and was a fascinating and unexpected element of the interview.
Both projects reaffirmed that it is often recent, personal history that is most vulnerable to being overlooked or lost but this is now preserved through oral history and securely archived for the future.
Sam Guthrie (also see Northern Ireland)
I began 2025 as the RAN for Northern Ireland (see Northern Ireland section) and shifted to become a RAN for London. After moving to London my focus shifted to projects related to Islington and the development of yet completed bids on projects related to the local Ukrainian community, surviving WWII Evacuees, and work on promoting increased engagement and accessibility of extant oral history collections as part of Islington Archives.
I met with representatives of and provided advice two numerous projects in 2025 including:
- An American family-history based project in Derry, Co. Londonderry
- A 1798-focused project in Rostrevor, Co. Down
- Representatives of Redeemer Church in North Belfast
- A production company working on a project through Hillrise Community Centre, Islington
- A community-based project focused on Caledonian Park, Islington
- Representatives of a Greek-Cypriot association in Harringay
- I also returned to work on project(s) related to the British Red Cross in Northern Ireland in association with PRONI
Pam Schweitzer MBE, Director European Reminiscence Network
The Reminiscence Theatre Archive and Website
This last year has been focused on the archive and website of the Reminiscence Theatre Archive. This is held in the University of Greenwich Archive, under the supervision of Nathan Finlayson and Pam Schweitzer. Hundreds of interviews conducted in connection with the Reminiscence Theatre productions created between 1983 to 2005, are now fully transcribed and digitised. These are organised on shelving in the archive, including images, videos of performances, theatre scripts, press coverage. All can be accessed, some on-line and many more physically preserved in the archive via the University Library in Stockwell Street, Greeenwich.
We have been encouraging interested students from History, Psychology and Drama to undertake student work placements with us and some have returned as volunteers. We are looking to make further links with students of health, education and social welfare.
Reminiscence in dementia care
Since 1997, the European Reminiscence Network has been conducting reminiscence workshops for people with mild to moderate dementia and their family carers. These are following our developed project Remembering Yesterday, Caring Today in venues in Greenwich, Lewisham, Westminster and Camden and other more far-flung venues. With eight or nine families we work together over an 8-10 week period focusing on a different topic each week. We are using arts-based activities, such as music, re-enactment and visual arts to explore intact memory and build self-confident communication.
For the family carers, the project provides support and recognition for their role and practical ideas to maintain communication. It also helps the families in making new friendships, based on shared memories. This project has attracted funding from the world of health care. We shall start the next round of projects in March 2026 with a 2-day Training course (5th – 6th March 2026) at the University of Greenwich.
Conference of European Reminiscence Network
This was held in March 2025 in Prague, organised by reminiscence networkers in the Czech Republic. It drew in partners from 8 countries, all of whom shared how they have been developing their skills in working with families living with dementia. In each country we have offered our 2-day experiential training course, exploring the relationship between oral, visual and expressive memory. This course is followed by an accredited apprenticeship scheme, which many people progress to, and which culminates in the submission of a reflective essay.
