A powerful collection of wartime letters, diaries, and photographs – never shared with the public before – was unveiled online on 15 August 2025 by the Their Finest Hour research project, to mark the 80th anniversary of VJ Day.
The Watson Collection tells the story of Frank Watson, an RAF serviceman captured by Japanese forces in 1942, and his wife May, who waited more than four years for him to return. Frank’s journey took him from the fall of Singapore to a brutal POW camp in Japan, where he endured forced labour, beatings, and near-starvation.
Back in Orpington, May Watson wrote to Frank almost daily, not knowing if he was alive. While Britain celebrated VE Day, Frank was still in captivity. His long-awaited return came months later, to a country eager to move on. This moving and deeply personal story unfolds through more than 2,600 scanned items, including diary entries, official documents, handwritten memoirs, photographs, mementos from captivity, and May’s handwritten letters – many of which were never sent or meant to be seen by anyone else. It is the first time that these materials have been made available to the public.
Dr Matthew Kidd, who has prepared the materials for publication, said:
“The Watson Collection offers an unusually complete picture of wartime life, both overseas and at home. It is incredibly rich, honest, moving, and full of material that will be of interest to anyone interested in the human side of the war.”
The digitisation of the Watson Collection was funded by Andrew Watson, the couple’s son, who generously made the materials available for public access through the Their Finest Hour Online Archive.
The collection is available to explore on theirfinesthour.org. Their Finest Hour was a digital humanities project based at the Faculty of English at the University of Oxford. Funded by a generous grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF), it aims to capture and digitally preserve the stories and material heritage from the Second World War, by reaching out to families and communities across the UK.
Credit for images: The Watson Collection, Their Finest Hour, University of Oxford
https://portal.sds.ox.ac.uk/articles/online_resource/Frank_Watson_s_War/29657108
