Wartime in Musselburgh 1939 - 1945

This was the 12th Musselburgh Museum Committee exhibition since we were founded. As 2005 was the 60th anniversary of Victory in Europe we decided to show the younger generation what life was like in Musselburgh when their grandparents were their age.

We decided to link the 60th anniversary with some of the remarkable film taken during the war years by Alex Lowe which has been held by Scottish Screen (the national film archive). The Museum Committee jointly with Scottish Screen were awarded a grant from the Big Lottery Home Front Recall Fund to digitise the film and put sequences showing the town during the war onto a DVD. This production, with voice-overs from local people telling their wartime stories, was premiered at the opening of the exhibition in Musselburgh old Town Hall on Monday 20th June 2005. Copies were available for sale and complimentary copies were also be given to all local schools and Musselburgh Library.