Their Finest Hour

Joseph Quinn speaks to Indian journalist, bestselling author and historian, Shrabani Basu, about the life and career of legendary SOE agent, Noor Inayat Khan. In this, the second of three special podcast episodes recorded for South Asian Heritage Month, Shrabani documents the extraordinary origins of Noor Khan, a pacifist Sufi Muslim woman, whose life took an unlikely turn during the Second World...

Joseph Quinn speaks to Amandeep Madra, founder of the UK Punjab Heritage Association, about Pubjabi and Sikh soldiers in the British Indian Army. In this episode, recorded as part of South Asian Heritage Month, Amandeep tells Joseph about the important role that the former Raj province of Punjab played in Indian Army recruitment during the first and second world wars. He discusses the proud martia...

Emma Huber, German subject librarian at Oxford's Taylorian Library, speaks to Joseph Quinn about the life and career of Professor H.G. Fiedler. In this short episode, Emma details the career of Professor Hermann Georg Fiedler, the first Taylor Professor of German Language and Literature at the University of Oxford, and his lifelong activities in support of peaceful relations between Germany and th...

Interview with Scott Edgar at the Linen Hall Library, Belfast, just after hosting the first TFH Collection Day event in Northern Ireland. Joseph Quinn speaks to Scott Edgar, the coordinator of Wartime NI and Arts and Cultural Programmer for the Linen Hall Library, Belfast, about his experience of coordinating a TFH Collection Day and the stories gathered during the course of the event. Joseph and...

Interview with Stephen Bourne about the experiences of gay men in the British Armed Forces and at home during the Second World War. Out of the 6.5 million men and women who served in the British Armed Forces during WW2, as many as 1.2 million may have experienced some form of same-sex intimacy. In this episode, Matthew Kidd speaks to Stephen Bourne about his book "Fighting Proud", a fascinating st...

Interview with Stephen Bourne about the contribution of black men and women in wartime Britain during the Second World War. To mark the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the Empire Windrush, Joseph Quinn speaks to "Black Poppies" author, Stephen Bourne, about the subject of his recent book, "Under Fire: Black Britain in Wartime 1939–45". Stephen shares with Joseph his experience in uncovering the...

First episode of a new Their Finest Hour podcast mini-series examining a selection of stories submitted to the Online Archive. In this first episode of "Stories from the Archive", Dr Joseph Quinn guides us through the Online Archive by introducing us to a selection of 5 personal stories submitted by participants from across the UK. These stories include a heart-warming tale of local friendships wi...

Interview with Dr Sarah-Louise Miller about the role of the WAAF in British air intelligence. For our first expert interview in the podcast series, our Project Coordinator, Dr. Joseph Quinn, speaks to Dr. Sarah-Louise Miller about the role of Women's Auxiliary Air Force servicewomen in British air intelligence during the war, and her new book, 'The Women behind the Few'. Dr. Miller, who is serving...

A short interview with the project's technical lead, Catherine Conisbee, on building the digital archive. A short talk by the project's technical lead, Catherine Conisbee, on building the digital archive. In this Catherine covers a brief outline of crowd-sourcing at Oxford, digital humanities, and the platforms we are building the project on.

The Project Lead, Dr Stuart Lee, discusses his most memorable finds on previous crowdsourcing projects In this short episode, presented by Stuart Lee (the project lead), he shares his most memorable finds and moments on 'Lest We Forget' and 'Europeana 1914-18' - the precursor crowdsourcing projects to 'Their Finest Hour'. Stuart provides us with a 'Top 5' breakdown of the most unforgettable discov...

A brief introduction by the project team to 'Their Finest Hour' Introduced by Joseph Quinn from the project, this podcast features Stuart Lee (the project lead) and Matthew Kidd (the project manager) discussing 'Their Finest Hour'. What the project aims to do, its history, how it will work. The project is crowd-sourcing material held by the public related to the Second World War to go into a freel...