Kemsing Heritage Centre - WWI Kent Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD), Patients, Staff and photographs from 1914. Celebrating the Census conference – 1 October 2011. Kew. What did you do for the Festival of Britain?

Kemsing Heritage Centre - WWI Kent Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD), Patients, Staff and photographs from 1914.

In 1914 the Kent Voluntary Aid Detachment  set up hospitals to cope with the large number of casualties from the Western Front, many types of building were offered as accommodation, from private houses to village halls.

Kemsing Heritage has details of the VAD at Kemsing and can be found at Kemsing VAD Hospital Patients and Staff names are given as well as photographs of both.

There are also details of fallen soldiers on the Kemsing War Memorial and names the residents of Kemsing in 1939 based the Electoral Roll for 1939. 

Celebrating the Census conference – 1 October 2011. Kew.

Interested in the Census and the information it can give?  The National Archives is holding a one day conference at Kew on Saturday 1 October 2011. It is for anyone who wants to know more about the census – from genealogists to local and social historians.

All aspects of the census will be looked at - what the censuses can tell us about our ancestors and society through the ages. Speakers include specialist staff from The National Archives, academics and professional genealogists. Ancestry, Findmypast and Genesreunited will also be offering hands-on workshops on census searching.

Tickets cost £30.00 each. Earlybird rate tickets cost £25.00 each - must be booked by 31 July 2011. Full details can be found at National Archives - Celebrating the Census

What did you do for the Festival of Britain?

The Festival of Britain took place in 1951. The main exhibition site was at South Bank, London. Other exhibitions were held in other parts of the country such as Poplar, Battersea Park and Scotland.  This was the first major events in Britain after WWII and many people went along to enjoy the festival.

The Southbank Centre has now put out a request for memories, personal photographs, film, letters, postcards, diaries or other personal writing about at any of the Festival events that took place at the Southbank Centre or anywhere else around the country. It is a time that is now passing into history and any memories or letters postcards etc will make an important contribution to the history of those days.  Full details can be found at Festival of Britain

On  28 August 2011  The South Bank Centre is holding at The Front Room at QEH  a Memories and Memorabilia Roads Sunday where you can bring along your Festival of Britain memorabilia to share with experts, and swap memories and stories of 1951 with others over tea and cake. Details at Memories and Memorabilia Roads