Oxford University collecting for World War Two archive

Walter Hutchinson's passport contains some surprising visa stamps

A team from the University of Oxford is collecting stories and objects from World War Two for a national archive.

The Heritage Lottery Fund-supported project, called Their Finest Hour, has been holding events for people to share memorabilia and memories.

Items brought in to an event in Gosport included a passport with a mystery attached.

The stories, photos and objects will be available to view on a Their Finest Hour website from June.

Valerie Cope hopes to get some answers about her grandfather's passport

The British passport, brought in by Valerie Cope, belonged to her grandfather Walter Hutchinson and bears visa stamps from locations in Latvia and western Russia in the late 1930s.

She said: "His occupation has been crossed out. It's not something you normally see on a passport.

"I just want to know more. Why was he going to those countries on those dates?

"There's also a note in there from various embassies saying that he has taken money out of the country and that amount of money on those dates is a lot."

Stephanie Cunningham said the team aimed to preserve stories that would otherwise be lost

Joint event assistant Stephanie Cunningham said first-hand histories were becoming increasingly rare.

She said: "We're in danger of losing them and we have many people coming to the event day saying they didn't know where else to turn, especially if younger generations aren't necessarily interested in keeping them.

"This is a good way to preserve those stories and make sure that they don't get lost to history."

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