Sunderland school boy shows great-grandfather's precious war memorabilia as school gives virtual VE Day tribute

Harry Wilson had planned to show off his collection of artefacts from the conflict to his classmates at Sunderland’s Barbara Priestman Academy.

But while physical celebrations might have been called off, the 14-year-old was able to use virtual commemorations of VE Day on Friday, May 8, to reveal some of his medals, dog tags and bullets.

“It’s just a small selection of what he’s got,” said dad Neil.

“He’s been collecting them for a couple of years now, my dad, his grandad, gave him the medals and once he got those he started to look into the other memorabilia.”

Part of the collection includes mementos from his great grandfather’s, also called Harry, time as an engineer in the Durham Light Infantry regiment.

Harry Senior’s war service took him from the beaches of Dunkirk, to Italy and North Africa, as well as Malta.

The photograph shows him returning to one of the island’s bars in the 90s, decades after the war’s end, insisting it ‘hadn’t changed’ since he was last there in 1943.

As well as his great grandfather’s medals from WWII, Harry’s haul also includes mementos from the First World War, such as a tobacco tin and leather dog tags which belonged to his great great grandfather.

Harry said: “I just find the realm of history interesting and collecting items like this just makes me feel closer to the time period it is from.

“I mainly try and collect items from the time period of the two world wars and the time between them, mainly because my family have personal history to those wars.

“I’m showing the items from the two world wars in honour to the 75 anniversary of the end of the Second World War.”

The Barbara Priestman Academy marked VE Day with a virtual party for pupils, parents and staff, including competitions for best bunting and best bake.

VE Day marked the end of war in Europe and was followed by VJ Day on August 15 to signal the end of the conflict in Asia.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you

How to subscribe to the print edition

It’s easy to subscribe to your local newspaper. We have arranged a special 20 per cent off subscription offer for people to take advantage of. Visit www.localsubsplus.co.uk, choose the newspaper title, the type of subscription and enter your details.