Interview with Sian Bradshaw by Vicky Macdonald

Description

Short interview conducted by Vicky MaCdonald during the ‘Longest Yarn’ with visitors that shared personal memories and family stories in reaction to the exhibition. The Longest Yarn exhibition was a month-long tribute to the War Effort behind the D-Day Landings of 1944 - displaying a 3D tapestry depicting D-Day in 80 panels – was held at the Holy Trinity Church, Llandudno (October 2–27, 2024).

Sian Bradshaw recounts her father Thomas Bradshaw’s WWII service in the RAF, where he trained in Australia and flew missions in the Far East. A memorable experience was being warmly welcomed as a hero on a Pacific island, but he later faced the grim duty of transporting soldiers’ bodies back home. After the war, he became a civil servant. Sian’s mother also endured hardship, surviving a bombing in a Liverpool church cellar, which left her with a lifelong fear of water. Later, she was evacuated to Holywell, Wales, to escape bombings, separated from family for safety.