Project
Teenage Girls’ WW2 Diaries from South Wales
Unit(s) of assessment: Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
School: School of Art & Design
Overview
On 3 July 1940, my Grandma wrote in her diary about anti-air shells over Newport, South Wales; ‘No damage done. Just kept riding bike’. The next day she described watching searchlights and bombers before noting, in the same sentence, that a boy she liked "kisses very sweetly". These diary entries reveal something striking: even during wartime, teenage life continued.
Her diaries prompted a simple question. Were other teenage girls in wartime Britain experiencing the war in similar ways?
Despite the importance of personal diaries as historical records, the voices of teenage girls are largely missing from archives, research and public history. Existing accounts of the Second World War often focus on soldiers, political leaders, or women's wartime work, while everyday teenage experiences remain overlooked. This project seeks to recover those lost voices and better understand how young women experienced adolescence, relationships, work, leisure and uncertainty during one of the most significant periods in modern history.
Discovering the experiences behind the diaries
This project will bring together five diaries written by teenage girls living in South Wales during the Second World War.
The diaries, held in archives across Wales and London, will be digitally preserved through transcription before being analysed using a combination of traditional historical research, qualitative analysis and creative methods. By comparing the experiences of girls living in different communities but facing the same wartime events, the project will explore themes such as friendship, family, romance, freedom, work, entertainment and the impact of war on everyday life.
Alongside uncovering what these girls wrote about, the project will develop practical approaches for preserving and studying similar diaries in the future, helping to lay the foundations for a larger national archive of teenage girls' wartime writings.
The people behind the project
The project is led by Dr. Annie Watson, a researcher, filmmaker and Deputy Head of Department of Design and Digital Arts at Nottingham Trent University.
Dr. Annie Watson
The project brings together expertise from a range of partner organisations including the Imperial War Museum, Glamorgan Archives, Gwent Archives and West Glamorgan Archives.
A Research Assistant will support transcription and analysis, while community participants, students and family history groups will contribute through workshops and public engagement activities.
The project is supported by a British Academy Small Research Grant.
Want to find out more or get involved?
Contact the project team to learn more about the research, upcoming activities and opportunities to contribute.
Images from the archives
Bringing hidden wartime stories to light
These diaries are fragile historical documents that have rarely been seen beyond archive reading rooms. By preserving, analysing and sharing them, the project will make previously inaccessible stories available to researchers, educators, community groups and the wider public.
The project will create digital transcriptions, public workshops, a regional exhibition, a national map of known teenage wartime diaries, academic publications and practical guidance for future research. Most importantly, it will help ensure that the experiences of ordinary teenage girls are recognised as an important part of Britain's wartime history.
By bringing these voices back into view, the project offers a richer, more human understanding of how young people lived through war, balancing air raids and uncertainty with friendships, ambitions, family life and first romances.