Registered Charity Number 1044195
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HALL PLACE NEEDS YOU!
APPEAL FOR STORIES & MEMORABILIA AMERICAN GIs AT
HALL PLACE, BEXLEY IN WWII (1943-45)
Kirsty Macklen, Collections Manager for Bexley Heritage Trust at Hall Place in
Bexley, Kent curates a 6 month exhibition each year at Hall Place for the
public using the Bexley Museum collection. In an exhibition starting this
September 2014, she will be focusing on GIs who were stationed in Bexley
as part of the joint Anglo-American code-breaking exercise known as
Operation Ultra, which was centred at Bletchley Park, but incorporated a
traffic intercept station at Hall Place housing some 200 U.S. GIs.
A u3a Shared Learning Project is currently under way at Hall Place to help
Kirsty gather material for this exhibition. We are so excited to be able to tell
the hidden story of the GIs and their life here. But, we need your help! Sadly,
there is very little physical evidence left of their time there. Kirsty would
love to personalise the exhibition and tell the stories of the men behind the
uniform, so we are on the hunt for any photographs, uniforms, letters,
keepsakes from the GIs or their families, telling us what they did when they
were based here.
We are also looking to explore in the exhibition how the GIs integrated with
the local community that lived in the borough. So we are now appealing to
local U3As to ask whether anyone remembers, or knows anyone who
remembers, the period 1943-45 when the GIs were stationed here at Hall
Place. Perhaps you played softball with the GIs, or attended local dances? If
so, we would love to hear from you.
More of the research
Photo courtesy of Bob Frederickson
Bexley u3a
Hall Place
