Those who Served
Abbott . RAF Military Police A flying bomb which dropped out of the sky on June 19th 1944, at approx' 9.30pm. I was 14 at the time and used to sit on our coping with an old pair of opera glasses and a steel helmet, watching all the doodlebugs flying over. I watched this particular one passing right over where I was sitting and suddenly the motor stopped I raced indoors shouting to my Mum and Dad (on leave RAF police) to duck as I slammed the front door. The bomb hit the area behind a row of shops and a surface shelter, I was rather cut up by glass from the front door and smashed my right arm. Unfortunately my friend Roy Reid next door lost his Mum and baby brother, I believe there were 17 or more killed, my parents received some injuries from glass, etc. This all took place between 86 Gaskarth Road sw12 and Hazlebourne Road and the surrounding area of London. The first on the scene were The Salvation Army and the Boy Scouts. |
Geoffrey Abbott . Army 6th Btn. Lancashire Fusiliers My Father, Geoffrey Abbott joined the 6th Battalion Lancashrie Fusiliers, the same battalion his father Gilfred Abbott has served with during the Great War.
We would welcome any information on any known activities during the war.Any information on either my grandfather or my father would would be appreciated. Hoping for a response. |
John Kimble H. Abbott . RAF pilot 407 Sqd. My father served with 407 Squadron, his name is John Kimble H. Abbott and he was a bomber pilot. He has also written a book about the "Demon" squadron. The book is A Gathering of Demons.
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Elizabeth Sadler "Bessie" Adam . Land Army from Dalmarnock, Glasgow) Unfortunately my mother died in 2005 so too early to receive the badge that has been awarded to those who served in the Women's Land Army. I am currently tring to piece together information to include in her family history. I wonder if there are records that I could obtain that tells me of her time in the Land Army just as I was able to access the Naval Records for her brother. All I know is that when she married my father, a German Prisoner of War, they worked together on a farm in Kirkudbright. Their marriage certificate dated 31 Jan 1948 gives my father's address as The Cottage, East Glenarm Farm, Crocketford which I assume is where they worked but of course the war was over by this time so I am not sure and would be delighted if you could advise me of where I might find information. I will be delighted to share any information that I am able to find
Update:
Land Army records for those who served in England, Scotland and Wales are available to view on microfiche at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey. The microfilm you need to ask for is:
Series: MAF 421: Ministry of Food: Women's Land Army: Index to Service Records of the Second World War 1939-1948.
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Andrew Alexander Adams . Royal Navy HMS Drake A.A Adams was my grandfather, in the Royal Navy from 1936 to 1947. I am interested in finding information about a ship that he served on quite a number of times in his service, HMS Drake.
On the service record it has in brackets, after the ship name HMS Drake, a few different things for different times of service: for service in May 1941 it has M.L. 1048; for service from April to June 1944 it has LST(2) 425; for April to end of June 1945 it has T.F.36.
If anyone is able to help me with the smallest amount of information about this ship or about A.A. Adams it would be most appreciated, thank-you. |
James Adams . Royal Navy HMS Manchester Jim Adams joined the Royal Navy aged 16 in 1938, he served on HMS Tetcott and HMS Whitshed, HMS Manchester and HMS Spartan. He survived the sinking of both the Manchester which was torpedoed in 1942 and the Spartan in 1944.
The cruiser HMS Spartan off the coast of Italy providing support for the Anzio landings as part of Operation Shingle. While at anchor on the 29th of January 1944, Spartan was bombed at sunset by 18 enemy aircraft. A bomb blew a large hole in the upper deck, collapsing the mast and flooding the boiler room. The ship was set alight and keeled over to port. The crew abandoned ship and within just 10 minutes, the Spartan was on the seabed.
Five officers and 41 ratings lost their lives.
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James Forbes "Pongo" Adams . Army The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders The name James Stobie is so familiar!! My late father was James Forbes Adams of Nairn, was in the Cameron Highlanders (51st Highland Division). He was a drummer with Cameron Highlanders (Territorials) Pipe Band, and as he was 18, he got called up to take place of the 17 year old tip drummer.  James Forbes Adams at breakup of a Territorial camp near Fort George, just prior to hostilities.
 The dreaded telegram his aunty received when he was posted missing.
Dad did attempt escape twice, once in Holland on the long march to Germany, and I believe the other time was when he was at Stalag XXA (Fort 13). He ended up at Stalag XXB. It was hard to get him to talk about his experiences. As a child, I can vividly remember him waking up screaming as a result of the nightmares (right up until the early 60's). He once let his guard down and told me how one night he awoke thinking he was dyingas he was completely soaked in blood. Sadly it was the chap in the bunk above him who had taken his own life.
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Sub Lt. John William Raymond Adams . Royal Navy Reserve HMS Forfar from Southampton) (d.2nd Dec 1940) Adams was the musical director of a revue named "Get Sailing" which was held onboard HMS Forfar on Wednesday 19th of June 1940. The programme stated: "In the event of an air raid the Theatre wil be cleared in 30 seconds - NOT into the dressingroom as the artistes (French) are bashful. - Do not leave the ship unless you can reach your home in a few minutes. (What a hope) |
William Walter Adams . Army Cameronians from Leyton, London ) I was adopted as a young child and did,nt discover the knowledge of my real Father until mature years. I would be really grateful if perhaps there are any survivors of the war who served with my dad. All I know is that he was in Burma , was wounded and sent back to England and died later from complications. He did have a military funeral I think in the late forties or the beginning of 1950. We lived then I think in Ivy Gardens Leyton E10 |
Sgt. Donald Addy . RAF(VR) flight eng. 101 Sqd. from Hemsworth.) (d.31st Mar 1944) |
Cpl Fred W Adkins . US Army 13th Infantry Regiment from Salisbury, Maryland, USA) looking for information on a pow camp in which my father fred w adkins was held. my understanding is that it he was held in Stalag VI D. I have no idea where it is located. However I do know from his military records that he was held by german government during 1945.
Thank you very much
MELSON W. ADKINS |
Lt -Col. John F. Ahern . US Army 172nd Field Artillery Rgt. |
Sgt. Richard Eric Ainsworth . RAF(VR) flight eng. 433 Sqd. from England) (d.2nd Dec 1944) |
Assistant Steward James Aitken . Naval Auxiliary Personnel HMS Forfar from Helensburgh, Dunbartonshire, Scotland.) (d.2nd Dec 1940) Aitken was the Pipe Major in the band of HMS Forfar. |
Ernest Albiston . Army from Stockport, Cheshire, England) Ernest Albiston was on the HMS Lancastria when it was sunk, he survived. I have a booklet written by a soilder that survived the tradgedy. |
Patricia Mary Albrow . Land Army from 13 Mattison Rd, Harringay, London.) I was 17 yrs when called into the Land Army and had to go into the dairy division,
imagine this londoner seeing her first cow up front and personal and being told to milk it!
That was more scary than the air raids I had been through. We worked hard but it was good out in the country
and we ate better than most and our dress uniforms looked good. I often had to work the dung detail
along with some Italians pows, I was at the bottom of the hea, slinging it up to the pow at the top.
He liked opera, so he used to sing while we worked. The day the war ended, my boss came to the shed
and told me "Go pack your things and go home" He knewIi had just married a month befor. I am 81 yrs now,
living in the states. To all who are still here god bless. |
Lt Alexander . Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve HMS Forfar Lt Alexander was one of the survivors when the ship went down on the 2nd of December 1940 |
Signalman William Joseph Allden . Royal Navy HMS Forfar (d.2nd Dec 1940) |
Flight Lieutenant Ernest E Allen . RCAF Coastal Command 59 Squadron My father was RCAF on loan to the RAF. Before his Alzheimer's clicked in about 6 or 7 years ago he did a memoir of his wartime experiences which can be found here:
http://seawaymall.com/eallen/ There are some pictures that might be interesting to the Northcoates guys. I visited Northcoates with my mother maybe 20 years ago. |
Pte. Floyd Alton . Canadian Army Black Watch of Canada I'm working on a exhibition which highlights items in our museum, The Peterborough Centennial Museum & Archives. One
such collection is that of a POW from Peterborough Ontario Canada. His
name was Pte Floyd Alton who apparently served with the Black Watch on
July 25th 1944. He was taken prisoner shortly after. I'm trying to find any information on Stalag 4b and 4g.
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C.P.O. A. E. Anderson . Royal Navy HMS Forfar CPO Anderson was amongst the survivors when HMS Forfar was lost. |
Gladys Mabel Anderson . Royal Ordnance Depot Wellington, Shropshire I am just trying to trace anyone who may have known my mother; Gladys Mabel Anderson who worked in the royal audinance depot during ww2 in wellington shropshire. After losing her in my teenage years i am now trying to pieace her life together with my daughter and as of yet not having much luck. I would say my mother was 4ft with brown hair. |
Ldg Stoker John Norman Angus . Royal Navy HMS Manchester from Cosham, Hampshire. England.) (d.23rd Jul 1941) John was 36 years old wehn he was killed. Manchester was an escort in Operation ‘Substance’ a Convoy from Gibraltar, when it was hit by torpedoes fired by the Italian E-boats Nos. 16 and 22. An oil fuel tank was hit, the adjacent compartments flooded and her engines were damaged, she returned to Gibraltar for repairs.
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Capt. Richard Wallace Annand VC.. Army 2nd Btn. Durham Light Infantry from South Shields, Co Durham, England) Richard Annand was the first soldier of the Second World War to be awarded the Victoria Cross, in Belgium in May 1940.
His obituary was published in the Times in December 2004:-
The Action in which Dick Annand fought on May 15, 1940, was the first to result in the award of the Victoria Cross to a soldier in the Second World War. As a second lieutenant with no previous operational experience he displayed resolution and personal courage of the highest order. When the battle was over, his first thought was to get his wounded batman to safety.
Belgian neutrality in the early months of the war left the British Expeditionary Force and the French Army with an open flank from the northern end of the Maginot Line to the Channel coast. But, forewarned of a German attack through the Low Countries by a Wehrmacht plan which had fallen into Belgian hands and been handed over to the French, the Allied armies were ready to cross the frontier and occupy a defensive line along the River Dyle, east of Brussels, as soon as Belgian neutrality was breached. Germany launched her attack on May 10, 1940.
Annand was a platoon commander with 2nd Battalion The Durham Light Infantry in the 2nd Division sent to man positions on the Dyle, near the village of La Tombe. The ground on the west bank could hardly have been less suitable; trees and undergrowth made observation of the approaches to the opposite bank difficult and, to the rear, open ground rose steeply to the village. Annand was with D Company covering the road bridge over the Dyle, across which another company of the Durhams had been forced to withdraw before the advancing German Army on the afternoon of May 14, when the bridge was blown.
At 11.00 the next day the enemy launched a violent attack to cover the move of a bridging party into the sunken riverbed. Annand led a group of men from his platoon in a counterattack and, when their small-arms ammunition was exhausted, went forward alone to throw grenades from the edge of the ruined bridge on to the enemy bridging party working below, inflicting some 20 casualties. The enemy was thus prevented from crossing the river in continued fighting, but the situation remained grave, and the company commander had been badly wounded. During the evening of the same day, the enemy launched another attack under cover of intense mortar and machinegun fire. Annand again went forward armed with all the grenades he could carry and attacked the German troops attempting to repair the bridge.
Reporting on the action afterwards, the company sergeant-major said: “They came with a vengeance and were socked with a vengeance. They seemed determined to get that bridge but Jerry could not move old D Company. For two hours it was hell let loose, then they gave up and withdrew.”
But elsewhere the Allied line had broken and at 23.00 the Durhams’ commanding officer gave the order to withdraw as part of the general move back to the line of the River Scheldt. As Annand led the survivors of his platoon away from the bridge in the early hours of May 16, he discovered that his batman, Private Joseph Hunter, from Sunderland, had been wounded in the head and legs and was unable to walk.
Despite his own wounds sustained in the day’s fighting, he found a wheelbarrow, lifted Hunter into it and wheeled him to the rear until their way was barred by a fallen tree. Leaving Hunter in an empty trench he set out to find help but collapsed from exhaustion and loss of blood shortly after finding his company HQ position abandoned.
Hunter was captured by the advancing Germans and sent to a Dutch hospital, but he died of his wounds a month later. The award of the Victoria Cross to Second Lieutenant Annand was gazetted on August 23, 1940. This followed the announcement of the same award to another officer and a Guardsman, but for actions later in the withdrawal of the BEF to Dunkirk.
Richard “Dickie” Wallace Annand was born in South Shields in 1914, the son of Lieutenant-Commander Wallace Moir Annand, who was killed with the Collingwood Battalion of the Royal Naval Division at Gallipoli in June 1915. He was educated at Pocklington School in the East Riding of Yorkshire. He joined the National Provincial Bank in 1933 and became a midshipman in the Tyne Division of the RNVR in the same year.
He applied for a commission in the Royal Navy but was told he was over the age limit for application, so he joined the Army. After a period with the Supplementary Reserve he joined the 2nd Durham Light Infantry.
Although he recovered from wounds received at La Tombe, he was severely deafened in the action and was never again fit for active service. He was invalided out of the army in 1948 and thereafter devoted his life to helping the disabled, taking particular interest in the welfare of the deaf.
He was personnel officer of the Finchdale Abbey Training Centre for the Disabled near Durham until his retirement at the age of 65. The Borough of South Shields had made him an honorary freeman in 1940, and he was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for Co Durham in 1956. He was president of the Durham branch of the Light Infantry Club until 1998.
He married Shirley Sefton Brittain Osborne in November 1940 and had cause to rescue her from drowning almost 40 years later, in 1979. The couple had attended dinner aboard the frigate HMS Bacchante anchored in the Tyne as guests of her captain. Turning from the foot of the gang plank on leaving to admire the ship, Mrs Annand fell off the quayside into the river. Without hesitation, Captain Annand plunged in and supported her until both were hauled to safety by the ship’s crew. Neither was much the worse for the incident, although Mrs Annand said her fur coat would never be quite the same.
His wife survives him. There were no children. His death leaves only 13 surviving VC holders.
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Lt. Robert A. Antrobus . Royal Naval Reserve HMS Forfar from Watford, Hertfordshire) (d.2nd Dec 1940) My father had written below this photo:
another grand old seadog although a bit of a "rough diamond" and possessed a natural sailors tendancy to "spin a line". He served his time in sail and was serving on the "Montrose" (The Forfar before she was commandeered) at the outbreak of the war. He was famous for his devotion to his budgerigars whom whom he was continually exhorting to "Lay egg, you" and for his perculiar but ctachy expressions e.g. "Ger sailing"
I know nothing of how he died, although suspect he stayed with the Captain. He was 46 years old and the husband of Kate Margaret Antrobus, of Watford, Hertfordshire. |
F/O Thomas Archibald . RAAF pilot 77 Sqd. (d.13th May 1943) The the 13th of May 1943 at 06:20 on return to Elvington Halifax KN-K (JB 865) crashed at Bishop Wilton killing the Pilot F/O Archibald and the Air Bomber Sgt Scully. The remainder of the crew, Sgt C.Hewitson, Sgt J.Gerry, Sgt G.Marlow, Sgt F.K.Smith and Sgt J.Currie, had only minor injuries.
This aircraft crashed in a field at High Belthorpe farm. I was almost 14 years of age at the time and helped my mother to take care of the surviving members of the crew. F/O Archibald is buried in Barmby-on- the-Moor at St Catherine's Churchyard, he was 32 years old, the son of John and Janet Archibald and husband of Perla Doris Archibald.
Sgt Scully was taken to his home town.
My mother received a letter of thanks from the Commanding Officer of No. 77 Squadron which my brother gave to the Museum at Elvington. There was also a later letter in which he said that the survivors were all flying again, and I would like to know if they survived the rest of the war.
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Cmdr Reginald George Arnot . Royal Navy HMS Forfar
This letter and list of survivors was sent to Sub Lt Broadhurst by Cmdr Arnot on the 11th of December 1940.
A further 13 surviviors were located in a lifeboat some days after this letter was sent.
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P/O Joseph William Ash . RCAF air gunner. 433 Sqd. from Val D'Or, Province of Quebec, Canada.) (d.2nd Dec 1944) |
Ldg Wren Joan Margaret Ashburner . Womens Royal Naval Service HMS Merlin from Hayes, Bromley, Kent.) (d.9th Jun 1944) |
Assistant Engineer Harold Ashcroft . Naval Auxiliary Personnel HMS Forfar (d.2nd Dec 1940) |
Lieutenant William Ashcroft . Royal Naval Reserve HMS Forfar (d.2nd Dec 1940) |
Midshpmn. Morris C. Ashdown . Royal Naval Reserve HMS Forfar Mid. Ashdown was amongst the survivors of the sinking of HMS Forfar. |
P.O. Edward William Ashlee . Royal Navy HMS Forfar from Teddington, Middlesex) (d.2nd Dec 1940) |
Eileen Ashton . Australian Land Army My Mother served in the Land Army in Australia from 1942 to 1944. Some of the places she worked at were Epping, Gunnedah Wilberforce and Griffith in New South Wales. |
Sub Lt. Eng. Askin . Royal Naval Reserve HMS Forfar Sub Lt Askin was one of the survivors when the ship went down on the 2nd of December 1940 |
Maud Atchison . Land Army Does any one have any information on or photos of my Grandmother, Maude Atchison who served with the womens land army in Glasgow such as Galston or New Mill farms in Ayrshire, as she has lost all her photos and letters. |
Ordinary Signalman C. Atlee . Royal Navy HMS Forfar Signalman C. Atlee was one of those who survived the sinking of HMS Forfar. |
Joyce Audoire . Land Army from Sheffield) My mother served in the Land Army at Lakenheath, her best friend was Hilda Ward. She has fond memories of the shire horses calling them 'gentle giants'. A man called Victor who lived in the village of Lakenheath very kindly gave my mum a pair of gloves as the cold caused severe pain (hot aches) in her hands. Should anyone remember Lakenheath please contact me |
Flt. Sgt. Auer . Royal Air Force special operator 101 Sqd. |
Sergeant Derrick Austin . RAF Volunteer Reserve w/op 50 Squadron from Southport, Lancashire) (d.8th Jul, 1944) This young man, aged most likely 20 years old, crashed on the night of August 7, 1944 with 5 of the crew. The pilot, Alan Laidlaw from Winnipeg, Manitoba was ejected from their Lancaster plane. Derrick Austin is buried in France, a small village called Meslin Mauger, near Roen. Their plane was one of 31 planes shot down by the German on that night. 208 Lancaster were sent, 13 mosquitoes were sent to bomb at St. Lue d'Esserent the V-1 flying bomb storage depot. This fourth attack was part of the Operation Crossbow. It was a great victor.
Danielle Lawrence for Alain Laidlaw now 86years old.
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Private David George Avis . Army Royal West Kent Regiment from Herne Pound, Mereworth, Kent) My father, pte David George Avis, no.6347487 of the West Kent Regiment, was wounded at Doullens on 14.5.1940, picked up by the Germans and transported to Cambrai Hospital, then to Aachen. From there he went by train via Bocholt to Thorn over 4 days, 70 men to a cattle truck. He spoke very little about his time as an inmate of Stalag XXA but I do know that they started their 'death march' on 15.1.1945 from Graudenz. They were liberated by the Americans in a small town outside Hanover after walking 850 miles. He was flown home by the RAF on 20.4.1945 to High Wycombe,rekitted,paid and arrived home at Herne Pound, Mereworth, Kent on 21.4.1945. He was recalled after 6 weeks to Wotten Underwood Barracks.
Unfortunately I have only found all this information after he died in 2006 when going through his effects. |
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