BANKIE women could help remember and honour the role of their mothers, grandmothers and others during the war.

The West Dunbartonshire Women’s History Group won a grant for £9,200 to spend a year researching, documenting, preserving and celebrating the “changing roles” of women throughout the Second World War.

A Heritage Lottery Fund grant will now help provide training to develop new research techniques such as digital recording and camera equipment to capture personal reflections and interpret the oral and written histories of the area.

During the war, women took on integrated roles of mother, father, breadwinner and keeping house, all within wartime rationing and restrictions. They had to often take on jobs traditionally limited to men such as munitions workers, electricians, crane drivers, machine operators, Air Raid Wardens and more.

The history group said this new “force to be reckoned with” deserved dedicated research.

Lorna Stevenson, project tutor and support worker, said: “We are incredibly excited to have been awarded this grant and are very keen to get started in providing local women with the training and skills required to discover, gather and engage in their own rich West Dunbartonshire Women’s heritage.

“We can now ensure that the wider life-changing experiences of local women during the Second World War will be recognised, documented, championed, preserved and shared with the local community before they are lost.

“We are appealing to the local community to support this project through providing their, and/or their female family member, wartime life experiences in the form of oral/written histories; and the loaning or donating of; artefacts of the period; recipes, wartime women’s clothing or quality WW2 women’s uniforms etc.

“To do so we would be delighted to hear from you.”

The collected history will eventually be showcased through a publication filled with women’s testimonies, anecdotes, memoirs, photographs, and more to highlight the numerous and changing roles women experienced throughout the war.

There will also be a VE Day-themed celebration at the end of the project and the entire collection will be made available to the community in the summer of 2017.

Contact May Semple at may.semple@talktalk.net or 0141 952 3377, or Lorna Stevenson on lorna.stevenson05@gmail.com or 07504 303473.