Snapper

You should be doing my day job, Pete. I suppose we could have a special suite built for Paris. Lend us one of your tents, Jack. She can sleep at the back of the stables.

I'm fifty in May and if I could learn any new skill that would make me happy it would be conflict archaeology. Keeping artefacts does not motivate me. My odd bits of shell cases are chaff. The thought of finding the remains of a person who could have a decent burial and be 'found' would make my heart sing. I really respect what you do and having the chance to listen to you is amazing. BTW lads, Andy Robertshaw is at Southend WFA on Monday night for another talk. MB

It was the bamboo scaffolding that worried me....:shocked: Watching the blokes swarm over tower blocks on that stuff in HK was very interesting.

Nice to have you here. Welcome to the Friendly Forum. Have fun. MB

It is well worth reading even though it is a work of fiction with many a tangent, as is Orwell's Homage To Catalonia. MB

Does the windmill have mice in and snap of Ronnie Hilton over the kitchen sink? Here's a view of the roof garden.....very Grand Designs...

Lovely, TB, Lovely.

NO. There's a lot better use for the money, whether you're into bridges, hospitals, aircraft carriers, new towns or wind farms. MB

Ask Grimmer John. His one lured us away from a big mess on the M3 the other day. She is Satbitch no longer.

What a shame the building didn't survive. But that's progress! Good call, Joris. Cheers mate.

Tell us more!

From the bottom. Horace Ratcliffe was a 33 year old Lance Corporal with the RAOC. The urn to the left of the grave says he died through an accident in Jersey on 23/11/1945. Perhaps he was clearing up German munitions? John Dabbs was a flight engineer with 149 Squadron which flew Stirlings with the Main Force. 149 was based at Lakenheath. Petty Officer Harold Dashworth Hemmings was the Canteen Manager on the Wanderer Class destroyer HMS Worcester. The urn left by his wife Clarissa states he was 'killed in action' on 11.12.1942. The U-Boat history website tells us that Worcester was in action against German shipping in the Channel on the 12th. She was built in 1919 and modified in 1939. She hit a mine in 1943 and was written off as a constructive total loss. However she was then converted into an accommodation ship as HMS Yeoman off Greenhithe, but was soon sold for scrap. Daniel Pickering served with 214 Field Coy, RE. William Washington was killed in a flying accident in 1942. He was with 2nd (Airborne)Bn South Staffs, so one assumes he was lost in a glider.

I've got some nice snaps of a wrecked trawler near Falmouth in 1980 and also the arson victim SS Old Caledonia paddle steamer pub on the Thames Embankment in 1979 or so. I used to be a photographer in those days...

ah, go on! I haven't flown in anything military, but have sat in the cockpit of the Southend Vulcan many moons ago. Great fun. I have happy memories of going in a Vickers Viscount to Jersey in 1970 - we came back on something else by BEA - type forgotten. Have also been in a DeHavilland Canada Otter flying over the Canadian Rockies. Superior adventure.

That would be really great. You will have a perpective on things that we will all be interested in. Best regards, MB

Bloody good stuff, Lee. I'll be there. James and I will camp. I have to sort the weekend out - but I cannot miss it, MUTT willing. M

Interesting. Welcome to the Friendly Forum, Tricky. All human life is here and we also have Catweazle.:-D It would be interesting to know more about what you're doing if allowed. Post us some snaps. All the best, MB

I meant to add that James Mountford of the Royal Berks served in the 10th Bn. This was my father's unit. They were a London TA battalion and part of the 56th London Division. My father served with them in Iraq quelling the Raschid Ali insurrection of 1941 as part of PAIFORCE. They went on to India where the old fella caught malaria and TB at Deolali. He spent the rest of the war in hospitals. The Battalion went to Anzio and was slaughtered there. So I assume that young Mr Mountford was a late war replacement for the Bn when it was reconstituted. My dad would have been 90 on May 13 this year. I will be having a beer for him. You're all invited.

Quite correct. Good man. At Peronne Road, Grimmer, my family and I carefully skirted round a visibly emotional man who was in a state. Eventually I asked his wife who they had come to see and she led us to the grave of his grandfather. By this time he had got in the car by himself. The poor bloke was so emotional. We sent them off with our best wishes. Pilgrimages can be very powerful things. If you log on to the cwgc website (www.cwgc.org) and look your chaps up you can find the cemetery and see all the other interesting people there. It's anorakish and a form of collecting, like stamps and engine numbers in way; but it helps you prepare. I do it unashamedly. Thanks a bunch for introducing these folks to us. Much appreciated. MB

Agreed. Welcome aboard the Friendly Forum. Lots to enjoy here plus a lot of stuff about Paris Hilton. Baffling, but nice in a scary way. MB

Good stuff Mark. Richard Lines was a flight engineer with 102 Squadron when he died on 12.12.1942. He came from Wolstanton.102 were based at Pocklington and flew MkII Halifaxes. They would have just about got used to them when he died. Warrant Officer Edward Frank Edwards came from Cobridge. No squadron details were added to his record. Robert Ashworth Dix of the North Staffs was from Burslem. Alfred Barratt from the 9th King's Own Royal Regiment remains a mystery. This means his parents or NOK didn't fill in any details on the registration card they would have been sent. William James Glynn came from Abbey Hutton. He served with the 10th Royal Scots. Samuel George Ball came from Blurton and is buried in his local churchyard.

Chevpol: The first snap you posted of the double grave of 22 year old James Mountford of the 10th Bn Royal Berkshire Regiment and 20 year old Norman Rogers of the 8th Bn Parachute Regiment is a good start. They were both local men. Rogers came from Cobridge and Mountford was from Burslem. The difference in dates is stark. Rogers died in 1943 while Mountford died in October 1945. I can't account for this but perhaps the graves people had difficulties identifying them when they sorted permanent markers.

Sheffield Memorial Park is a piece of woodland near Serre on the Somme. It is a pretty place in the summer and surrounded by three battlefield cemeteries. On the 1st July, 1916 some of the best known northern Pals battalions passed through the spot on their way to oblivion and the wood now recalls many of these units and their origins in Barnsley, Sheffield, Accrington and Chorley to name but a few. A small metal plaque cut into a tree is a memorial to 'Y' Chorley company of the 11th Bn East Lancashire Regiment. The statistics for this battalion are do not make for happy reading. The battalion had 'W' and 'X' Companies from the Accrington area, 'Y' from Chorley and 'Z' from Burnley, which was in reserve. Of 720 all ranks who attacked at 0720 hrs on that terrible morning, 235 were killed within twenty minutes with 350 wounded. 17 of these died of wounds at later dates. 'Y' Company itself started with 175 ranks and lost 31 killed and 59 wounded of whom 3 died of wounds. 21 have no known grave. Some men from the battalion made it as far as Serre. Their bodies were discovered in February 1917. The town of Chorley has been in the process of raising funds for a war memorial to these men. It is stunning to think it did not have one. (MB note to Tony B: I used figures to save time and space!).

Sad to report that Bill Stone, one of the last British survivors of the Great War, has died aged 108. He had a very bad cold and could not get over it. It is nice to report that his family were with him when he passed away. Bill took part in the 90th Anniversary commemorations of the end of the war at the Cenotaph in November. God bless him. MB

Not morbid. I think Grimmer John does a lot of it when he can. He is the Nobby's Nuts at all matters Geneaological. I use the internet as far as I can take it - which usually ends with the CWGC site. The Czech pilot was a gift because there was so much on him, whereas Ken Farnes, who was a cricket star before WW2 did not have a great deal about him on the web. Although I will be honest and say I did not overdo the references for fear of people getting bored. Looks like I underestimated the interest. I will continue to post them because it matters to me. I do this at the expense of my MV pix and I have yet to spend any time scanning old material I know it would be nice to share...and there is the small matter of a certain book. M