A small charity for a legendary moment in history
In 2025 and 2026 I have been working alongside Digitisation.IO and Genus, providing archive administration services for the St. Nazaire Raid Memorial Trust. Celebrating and commemorating Operation Chariot, the World War II raid on St. Nazaire, The Operation Chariot Memorial Project (OCMP) is led by the St Nazaire Raid Memorial Trust, a charity established in May 2024. Supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund with funding thanks to National Lottery players, the project is ensuring the history, legacy, lessons learned, and the memories and artifacts as well as the names and deeds of those who sacrificed so much are captured for the benefit of future generations and preserved for posterity.
Archive administration started with a site survey of the records
Arrangement and description work comes before digitisation
One of the most important workstreams was the digitising of the archives relating to the Raid. The contract was won by Digitisation.io after a competitive tendering process. From the outset Geoff Laycock and Martin Devereux of Digitisation.io, along with their colleagues from Genus, showed their enthusiasm for the project and their willingness to go the extra mile to see it completed. They were always collaborative and helpful with very much a ‘can do’ approach. The Trust had significantly underestimated the volume of papers to be digitised, but Digitisation.io didn’t see this a problem. Rather it was a challenge they relished to see if they could still bring the project in on budget which they did. All round, a satisfying experience.
Steve Pryde
Project Lead – Operation Chariot Memorial Project
Trustee – St Nazaire Raid Memorial Trust