A short documentary film follows two young adult Latter-day Saints from the United Kingdom as they discover their great-grandparents’ stories during World War II — their great-grandfather, an enlisted soldier who ended up as a prisoner of war, and their great-grandmother, who served as a full-time missionary during the war.
“Faith in Every Footstep” recently premiered in conjunction with the U.K.’s Remembrance Day and Remembrance Sunday — the former on Nov. 11 and previously known as Armistice Day since the end of World War I, and the latter annually on the second Sunday in November, which this year fell on Nov. 8. Both days honor the service and sacrifice of the armed forces, veterans and their families.
To commemorate Remembrance Sunday, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released the 33-minute film — a story of faith and sacrifice that looks back at World War II through one family’s story. The film and its background are featured on the Church’s United Kingdom Newsroom.
“Faith in Every Footstep” follows siblings Madison and Harrison Willmott as they are helped in tracing the lives of their late great-grandparents Arthur Willmott, a third-generation Latter-day Saint, and Winifred “Winnie” Moore Willmott, a convert who began her full-time mission in the middle of World War II.
The younger Willmotts are shown learning details of their great-grandparents’ stories of hope and courage, including Arthur Willmott’s giving up his military wages while a prisoner to support Winnie Moore’s missionary service and Sister Moore unexpectedly receiving much-needed food from a neighbor willing to share war-rationed food.
“Most of us inherit more than we realize,” Madison Willmott said. “The faith of people we’ve never met, choices made under immense pressure we can barely imagine [and] a divine promise fulfilled following years of silence.”
Not only did the two younger Willmotts learn more details, they experienced them as they traveled to key sites in the lives of their great-grandparents in England and France.
“There’s a difference,” Madison Willmott said, “between knowing your family’s story and feeling like you’re in it.”
She added: “The deeper we looked into our heritage, the more we wanted to know about those who went before us, and before long we realized this wasn’t just their story anymore — it had become part of ours.”
Besides learning through letters, locations, photographs and voice recordings, Madison and Harrison Willmott made visits to their great-grandparents’ family home, the promenade in Weston-super-Mare, England, and the graveyards of Northern France.
The two also learned that 2026 is the 175th anniversary of the first Willmott family member joining The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in London. But rather than join many early members choosing to emigrate to the United States, the Willmotts opted to stay and help build the Church in England.
Madison and Harrison Willmott also visited the London England Temple near the end of the film. There, Arthur and Winnie Willmott were sealed together with their son Geoffrey in 1958, the year the Church’s first temple began operations in the United Kingdom. They had married in 1945 in London, England.
“Hearing about the challenges Arthur and Winnie endured has changed the way I think about sacrifice and about my own faith,” Madison Willmott said. “There’s so much that could have and probably did go wrong, but they still chose discipleship.”
The film is based on and builds upon early accounts of the family’s history, written by Church historian James Perry, who accompanies the Willmott siblings on their visit and shares historical memories and items with them during the film.
“Arthur and Winnie’s faith in Jesus Christ carried them through years of separation and fear,” Perry said. “‘Faith in Every Footstep’ testifies that heavenly promises are more powerful than war and reminds us that when we actively choose faith, it has a very real impact on our families for generations to come.”
Added Madison Willmott: “Arthur and Winnie are often thought of as war heroes in our family, but the more I learn about them, the more I realize their story wasn’t about the conflict at all.
“It was about building a covenant faith strong enough to endure conflict, sacrifice and uncertainty.”
Watch “Faith in Every Footstep” on YouTube here.
