A Call to Arms: Record Their Stories Before They Are Lost
The research for my book has taken nearly 20 years. In that time, I had the privilege of speaking with two of the most remarkable men I have ever met—Major Gordon Wilmot and Major Derry Livingstone.
Both fought along the Ypres-Comines Canal with the 2nd Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers in May 1940, holding the line against the Nazi Blitzkrieg to buy time for the Dunkirk evacuation. It was a last stand of extraordinary bravery. Gordon was wounded and evacuated; Derry spent five years as a prisoner of war. Yet, more than 70 years later, their memories were razor-sharp, their stories vivid, their voices filled with the weight of history.
But here’s the truth—we are losing these voices.
When I was growing up, these men were everywhere. In pubs, social clubs, and Remembrance gatherings, their stories were ten a penny. Now, we don’t see them at the local, we don’t hear their voices on street corners, and too often, their individual narratives are vanishing.
What happens when the last of them is gone? All we will have left are cold, dry facts in history books—dates, figures, battles, treaties. The human stories, the ones that connect us to the past in a way no textbook ever could, will fade unless we act now.
This is a call to arms.
Speak to your parents, your grandparents, your great-uncles and aunts. Ask them about their past. Record their stories. Preserve their diaries, letters, photographs, and anecdotes. These aren’t just old papers—they are threads in the fabric of history, the last echoes of voices that shaped our world.
History is about people, not just events. Let’s make sure we don’t forget them.