The memories of armed forces veterans are being preserved for future generations in a pioneering project managed by Age Cymru Dyfed.

Vivid recollections of D-Day landings, memories of working as a land girl and even first hand accounts of handing memos to Winston Churchill have all been collected and catalogued in a unique archive.

The West Wales Veterans Archive – funded by the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust – is accessible to the public via the People’s Collection at the National Library of Wales.

The archive project is headed by Hugh Morgan who has spent the past few months with the aid of volunteers gathering veteran memories across West Wales.

Hugh, who has written several published books on World War 2 military history, says the archive has been one of the most rewarding projects he has ever worked on.

“It is already becoming a valuable learning resource for historians, researchers, schools and colleges and for family historians,” he said.

The archive contains accounts submitted by largely older military veterans with a connection to Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire or Pembrokeshire.

“For example, Gordon Prime now living in Pembrokeshire landed on Juno Beach on D-Day. In the War Office during the London Blitz, Jean McKay who like Gordon retired to West Wales, personally handed bomb-damage reports to Winston Churchill. An upcoming retrospective account written by a family member shows the late Kemys Morgan from Whitland flying members of the Danish Legation to Copenhagen to meet the surrendering German occupation forces just before VE Day in May 1945,” said Hugh.

“There are many more superb accounts from peacetime as well as during wartime and post-war conflicts,” he added

The development of the Archive is being overseen by a Project Board consisting of academia (History and Law); veterans and mental health charities, archive bodies, and veterans themselves.

If you are a veteran of the Armed Forces with a connection to West Wales and would like to contribute your own account of military service to the Archive, or a relative keen to provide an account of a late veteran(s), then please contact hugh.morgan@agecymrudyfed.org.uk .