The Heritage Buddy

Happy Volunteers Week 2025! It is volunteers week this week and can only mean one thing... a huge celebration of volunteering in lots of different sectors and celebrating the work of volunteers themselves. It is not just charities, children's services, care homes and animal rescue centres where people volunteer, it also includes museums, arts and culture. I first started volunteering as a poppy collector with the Royal British Legion which was a heartwarming experience and considering going back when the time comes as I have done some individual fundraising for them since. I am proud to share I have been involved with museums for 8 years which has been such an incredible journey. I'll start by sharing where it all began: my autism group set up a work experience project with the Museum of London in their archives and collections. The title itself is self explanatory; the Museum of London explores the history of London from the Roman settlements in Britain (whereby London was kno...

8th May 1945 - Churchill announced Germany’s surrender marking Victory in Europe Day. ✌🏻 🇬🇧 8th May 2025 - marking the 80th anniversary of VE Day. I was so stuck for ideas of how I’ll celebrate whether that’ll be a living history object handling session or demonstration or hosting a tea or street party. I liked the idea of a wartime singalong karaoke session to overcome my vocal insecurities as an actor, but why not do a mini drag performance for my autism group with some costumed interpretation? The original idea was Home Guard or British Tommy, but finding a uniform was not only mega expensive, but also difficult to find the right size as the measurements of the outfits I looked at would be too big for me (surely there could be one out there equivalent to a modern day XS or S in men’s size or uniform designed to fit a teen boy soldier or a solider of a small build). I stumbled upon a Civil Defence ambulance women’s uniform, so I then had an idea of playing an air raid warden that ...

Before I left for my Pilates class this morning, I heard on the radio that a flotilla of “Little Ships” will be setting sail from Ramsgate in honour of the 85th Anniversary of the Dunkirk Evacuations. There will be a special Dunkirk post coming up very soon, but in the meantime, I was doing a bit of research to remind myself of the subject when on YouTube I came across this video by BFBS Forces News: It’s so exciting how they have preserved all these civilian boats known as “little ships” that helped rescue troops from Dunkirk from the increasing German occupation in France. These boats are considered veterans; the human Dunkirk veterans are sadly not with us as I have learnt the last surviving veteran has now sadly passed away aged 105. Veterans don’t have to be human, objects and animals are too. For now, here is a news story on the flotilla from the Royal Navy: https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news/2025/may/21/250521-dunkirk-85-sailing-with-coastal-forces-squadron They say that once th...

There is literally a lot for me to write about and writing continuous prose takes a lot of brain power that I lose at least two spoons (if you know the spoon theory and you fellow AuDHDers would understand how much energy it can take up). I will catch up eventually! On Tuesday 6th May 2025, me and a friend thought we’d spend the evening in Central London to see historic landmarks and bridges along the Thames light up red, white and blue for the 80th anniversary of VE Day (Victory in Europe Day). We arrived really early so we could take our time and not rush, starting with a slow stroll from Westminster and Lambeth down towards Tower Bridge via the Southbank to the Tower of London, thinking we’d get a good glimpse of the poppies. Making our way to the Tower of London, we stopped at the end of Hay’s Galleria for me to pose with HMS Belfast in my Agent Carter-inspired dress which is red, white and blue and considering the character played by Hayley Atwell in the Marvel Cinematic Universe...