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Those known to have served with 2nd Battalion, Royal Northumberland Fusiliers during the Second World War 1939-1945. - Addinall MM. Thomas William. L/Sgt.
- Cone George. Sgt.
- Fay John Joseph. L/Sgt. (d.13th Sep 1943)
- Fay John Joseph. L/Sgt. (d.13th Sep 1943)
- Gavaghan Michael. CSM.
- Hurst Terence. Fus.
- Hutchinson John. Cpl.
- Johnson Leslie. Capt. (d.31st May 1940)
- Mudie Peter. Cpt.
- Randall MID. Richard John. Lt.
- Skeats Joseph Charles. Pte.
- Walker Joseph Arthur. Fuslr. (d.5th January 1944)
- Wilson George Henry. A/Cpl.
The names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed,
please
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Records of 2nd Battalion, Royal Northumberland Fusiliers from other sources.
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Want to know more about 2nd Battalion, Royal Northumberland Fusiliers? There are:1381 items tagged 2nd Battalion, Royal Northumberland Fusiliers available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War. |
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L/Sgt. Thomas William Addinall MM. 2nd Btn. Northumberland Fusiliers Thomas Addinall joined the Army at 16, lying about his age. He went in to register and they told him he was too young, and to come back when he was 18.
He went for lunch and came back and registered saying he was 18. He served with the 2nd Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers in WW2.
He received his Military Medal for Bravery for his duties in Coriano, Italy, 15th of September 1944.
Growing up, he rarely talked about the war. It wasn't until he was in his very senior years that he started to share, mainly with his grandchildren.
Thomas passed away at age 93 in February 2018.
One of my favorite pictures is of him with his son in law, grandson and great grandson, 4 generations of Armed Service, the other 3 serving with the Canadian Armed Forces.
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CSM. Michael Gavaghan 2nd Btn. Royal Northumberland Fusiliers My grandfather joined the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, Territorial Army in 1924 at the age of 17. At the outbreak of WW2, he was a Company Sergeant Major. On 1st September 1939, he and my grandmother were walking home from church with three of my uncles, and my infant father in my grandfather's arms, having just been baptised. A large black police car with bells ringing pulled alongside the group. The police spoke to my grandfather, who then passed over the baby to my grandmother, kissed her, and left in the car. He was never seen again by the family for over two years. Once gone, he was transferred to the 2nd Battalion, Royal Northumberland Fusiliers.
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Pte. Joseph Charles Skeats 2nd Btn, D Coy Royal Northumberland Fusiliers My dad, Joseph Skeats, enlisted for WW2 on 16th of May 1940 at East Ham Town Hall at the age of 25. He was allocated to the Essex Regiment and trained at Colchester and then posted to the 10th Middlesex in 1941 and the to the 2nd Battalion, Royal Northumberland Fusiliers on 7th of June 1943.
On 27th of June 1943 he embarked for North Africa and was there from June 1943 until September 1943, then in Italy from September 1943 to December 1944, then in Greece from December 1944 until December 1945.
He was transferred to the Army Reserve on 12th of May 1946.
I wasn't born until 1953, but I have just recently learnt that he suffered with what is now called PTSD. I don't ever remember my dad talking of the war, he just mentioned the countries that he had been in and how hot it was! But never, ever talked of any battles or fighting.
He sadly died in 1971.
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A/Cpl. George Henry "Tug" Wilson 2nd Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers Tug Wilson, from Ripon, Yorkshire, enlisted for 12 years regular service with the colours on 26th of November 1925 having previously served for 2 years with 4th Battalion, The Green Howards.
He re-enlisted for four years on 11th of September 1937. He was with the BEF in France having embarked on 12th of September 1939 and was captured near Dunkirk in May 1940 whilst serving with the 2nd Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers. He was then force marched across Europe to Stalag XXlB at Warthelager, Poland where he remained until liberated in 1945.
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Capt. Leslie Johnson 2nd Btn. Royal Northumberland Fusiliers (d.31st May 1940) Leslie Johnson lived in and around Ashington and was engaged to Florence Nelless the daughter of a well-known family of farmers who all worked the land around Morpeth, Ashington, Whitley Bay in the pre-war years.
He had been previously married and had a daughter from that marriage, sadly his wife died (details unknown) leaving him with a little girl. He became engaged to Florence Nelless before being called up and sent to France and Belgium with the B.E.F.
In the retreat through the Belgium corridor his unit was called upon to carry out a rearguard action and he lost his life along with his men on or around Veurne, Belgium on 31st of May 1940. He and his men are buried in Veurne Cemetery.
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Fuslr. Joseph Arthur Walker 2nd Btn. Royal Northumberland Fusiliers (d.5th January 1944) My uncle, Joseph Arthur Walker, lost his life in the Second World War age 22. He died in the Battle for Cassino which saw some of the fiercest fighting of the Italian campaign.
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L/Sgt. John Joseph Fay 2nd Btn. Royal Northumberland Fusiliers (d.13th Sep 1943) Lance Sergeant John Joseph Fay was born in 1917 in Liverpool, the son of William and Margaret Fay and brother to Bernard, Joseph, James and Patrick. He was posted to Italy in the Allied push of 1943 at Salerno with the 2nd Battalion Royal Northumberland Fusiliers on the 3rd September.
He paid the ultimate price on 13th September and is buried in the Allied War Graves Cemetery in Salerno Grave. The family legend says that he was killed by being decapitated whilst in action. He was survived by brothers Patrick and Bernard who also fought across Europe and who both lived out their lives back in the UK, passing in their sleep many years later.
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Cpl. John Hutchinson 2nd Btn. Northumberland Fusiliers John Hutchinson is my grandfather's brother and he was born in Throckley, Northumberland in 1913. He worked in the mines from leaving school about 1928 then joined the 2nd Bn Northumberland Fusiliers about 1932 aged 18years old. He did 16 weeks training at Fenham Barracks in Newcastle and was allowed home every weekend. He claims his Drill Sargeant from Walbottle and Corporal Cook from Throckley gave him bus fare home in exchange to drop letters off at home for them. His other Drill Sargeants were "Paddy" Cogan (Irish) and Martin (Monty) Bartlett from Hull. The P.E. Instructor was Mick Muldoon. Three of the most sadistic men he had the pleasure of enduring. Others he mentions there were L/Cpl David Allen from Cork and Cook Sgt Taffy Evans from Tonypandy Wales. After basic training he was posted to Fulford Barracks in York. Here the Battlion changed from a rifle battalion to a Machine Gun Battalion. They trained on the .303 Vickers water cooled machine gun in 4 man squads. No.1 carried the gun, No.2 the tripod. No.3 the ammunition and water can and No.4 more ammo boxes. He palled up with another Geordie, Taffy Watson who was the Battalion Butcher. Only 5'5" he fought Fly-Bantam Weight. They spent weeknights in the NAAFI and weekends in the White Swan (Mucky Duck) and a cafe called Jocks run by a scotsman who had left the Fusiliers and stayed in York. They went on Manouvres in Rippon and the Dales and were camped in tents in Rippon in June and woke up to snow. At this time they were horse transport. The MG was in a cart with one of the crew riding the lead horse. Sgt Bell was the Platoon sgt and also ran the company football team who were very successful againt the Yorks & Lancs and the West Yorks regiments. He got his 1st stripe and became Batman to Lt Dudley Smith. Lt Smith came from a landed family in Hessle and L/Cpl Hutchinson would go to shoots on the estatenbabout once a month and sometimes attended the hunts. He was later (1935)transferred to Borden Camp in Hampshire where Lt Smith and his wife Penelope (nee Hill)rented a large house outside the Barracks. Here they became a Motorised Battalion with 15cwt trucks with MG mountings and a 30cwt truck for rations and gear. They were backed up with 2 Tracked Bren Carriers. In 1935 L/Cpl Hutchinson was selected with 49 other soldiers to represent the Company at the Coronation of King George V at Westminster. They were camped in Kensington Gardens. He went off to train for 10 weeks on the new vehicles Driving and Maintenance with the Army Service Corps. In 1936 he had been recommended as Batman to Lt Maurice Lynch a French-Canadian Surgeon in the Medical Corps. They travelled together on the SS Dillwara on its maiden voyage from Southampton to Haifa. They were attached to Company HQ and billeted in a school in Beit-Jalla north of Haifa with a Rabbi and his family. All the post was censored but one of his friends wrote home "Dear Mum, I cant tell you where I am though Im in the land where Christ was born, wishing to Christ I was in the land where I was born".
The return trip home was 1st Class on the good ship Athenia where they landed in early 1937 and parted from the good Doctor. For this campaign he recieves the Medal No.2 Blake Capp Palestine.
Late in 1937 he is posted to Abbrasia Barracks in Egypt to support the 1st Btn with about 150 others. They were the 1st motorised vehicles to travel on the Great Western Desert Road past the Sphinx and Pyramids. His commander was Captain Jackman who later won the VC.
The vehicles required a lot of maintenance due to the sand blocking the carbs. They were sent to the Egyptian-Lybian border and Italian troops had infiltrated into Egypt and made a push towards Alexandria and Cairo. The Btn was placed with the ANZAC force under Gen Archibald Wavel. This combined force was known as "Wavels 30,000". They went up against 150,000 Italian troops. This group consisted of artillery, Long Range Desert Group, Australian and Kiwi forces. He was at Haffaya Pass nicknamed "Hellfire Pass". The only route to the plateau to Libya. The Italians suffered heavy losses and surrendered in their thousands to a handful of Allied troops. Some Italians made it to Bardia Garrison and held out for a while but were no match for the desert rats. After Bardia he went to Derna then Tobruk. He describes hundreds of Italian POWS being escorted by 3 or 4 allied soldiers. They were glad to be out of the war. He escorted a an Italian POW General Bergorzili of the Alpine Corps after his plane was shot down trying to leave the airfield at Tripoli. Soon after he became Corporal Hutchinson responsible for the Vickers, 2 trucks and 4 gun crew. His crew were Jimmy Bell, gunner from Nth Shields, Tripod was Willie Armstrong from Sth Shields, No3 was Joe Smith from Heaton and No4 Tommy Bell from Gateshead.
Their next encounter was against the Panzers of Erwin Rommel. The Afrika Korps gave then a run for their money until they reached the Salt Flats that held them up. The 7th Armoured Division got little sleep. They made their way back to Tobruk where they held out for 9 months under the Australian General Moreshead. He recalls the Easter weekend of 1941 as particularly heavy bombardment from Stukas.
The Northumberlad Fusiliers had been in Egypt so long the other regiments had nicknamed them King Farouks Bodyguard and Queen Feridas Own. The Btn then joined Aukinlecks forces outside Tobruk and the Germans threw everything at them. Whilst defending the airfield west of Tobruk the Germans broke through their lines and Cpl Hutchinson was knocked out waking up to German Panzer Lieutanant saying in perfect English "Your war is over Georgie lad" Lt Hans Seckel was the Grandson of Joe Seckel who was a respected gentleman from Scotswood Road near Scotswood Bridge who owned a pork butchers shop. Hans had spent a lot of time in Newcastle and had attended Newcastle Technical School but returned to Bavaria when old Joe died. He was conscripted when Germany invaded Poland. Security around the POW's was lax and he was able to escape met up with some Australians who guided them through the minefields back to Allied lines. Only to be captured a 2nd time.
As a POW he was shipped to Brindisi. From here to Bari, Capua, Mazarata, Benebanto and Gravino where he was seriously ill with jaundice. After 12 months in Italy the Germans moved them through Genoa, Turin, Milan, Lombardy, through the Brenner Pass into Austria. Then to Linz in Czechoslvakia to Prague and on to Dresden then Liepzig on to East Prussia, Stalag 7B Lamsdorf. At the end of 1944 with Russian Forces moving ever closer they were moved again ending up in Memingen in Bavaria for about 4 months before being liberated by American forces. Within days they were trained to Lille then flown home and billeted at an army camp in Aylesbury. Cpl Hutchinson was posted to the REME Depot at Siddles Road, Derby on guard duty. After 13 years service he was discharged and went back into the mines but struggled to find work and became a £10 pom.
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Fus. Terence "Sonny" Hurst 2nd Battalion Royal Northumberland Fusiliers My grandfather, Terence Hurst, was a fusilier in the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, 2nd battalion. My grandfather wasn't with the Battalion at Dunkirk. I believe he joined them as they went to Tunisia in July 1943. He then went to Italy in 1944, then on to Greece in 1945. My grandfather is now deceased but was a great man who always talked of his time with the Battalion with pride. While in Italy in Capri, he told a story of Gracie Fields putting on a performance for them. She asked if any soldiers were from Rochdale, my Grandad spoke up, and Gracie claimed all men from Littleborough (near Rochdale) were as good looking as my Grandad, this was his favourite tale to tell anyone(can't imagine why?).
It would be great to hear from anybody who knew my Grandad, or even just any details about the 2nd Battalion, as I am trying to write down all details to pass on to my children. Thank you for taking the time to read this.
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