My father joined the Royal Navy. I do not know the exact date. He reached 18 in September 1941. I still have his Admiralty issue hairbrush, stamped 1942. I know that he was at home for his brother’s burial in June 1942. However, that might have been on compassionate leave. Following on the train of…
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A father’s dilemma (3)
Patrick’s eldest son, William, enlisted in July 1940, a month before his 20th birthday. This was just after the evacuation of the Army from Dunkirk, and in the early stages of the Battle of Britain. He joined the Royal Air Force. Furthermore, he volunteered for aircrew duties. (All aircrew were volunteers.) The Military Training Act…
A father’s dilemma (2)
In the Great War, Patrick spent long enough at the front line (just over two years in three separate spells, from August 1914 to May 1918) to have formed definite opinions about which branch of the army should be avoided to maximise chances of survival. When he was conscripted back in to the Army in…
1938: A father’s dilemma
The Great War was sometimes called “the war that will end wars”. The phrase was first used by HG Wells in an article that appeared in the Times (of London) in August 1914. Variations of the original version have been used by many writers and commentators over the years. By 1938, it was clear that…
Where it happened
Whilst writing ‘Tangible reminders’, I realised that I have not covered the story of the final flight of Wellington Z1410 in any detail. (See ‘VE Day – Patrick’s perspective’ for a brief summary.) On 29th May 1942, as a demonstration of its growing strength, RAF Bomber Command launched the first of the ‘Thousand Bomber Raids’.…
Waltham or Grimsby
I covered the journeys of Patrick’s son-in-law Les Dunn in “More heartbreak for Patrick”. The journeys of Patrick’s son William, known as Bill, have some similarities and almost as many differences. Bill enlisted on 19th July 1940. His entire time in the RAF was spent in England, apart from one month spent at a Gunnery…
Tangible reminders
The human memory is both wonderful and fragile. We can recall distant events in remarkable detail. We can also forget where we put the house keys the day before. A tangible reminder of an event or a person can be a powerful aid to memory. When family history research reveals a connection to RAF service…
Time in the Reserves
As a Section B reserve, Patrick received a retainer of 3 shillings and 6 pence (3s 6d) per week. This is roughly equivalent to £25 in today’s terms. He could only be called upon in the event of a general mobilisation. He was required to attend an annual training camp of three to four weeks.…
Shells
Some, perhaps most, of the statistics in WW1 are difficult to comprehend. With the wisdom of hindsight, it is easy to say that things should have been done differently. Of course they should. In the words of the Spanish American philosopher George Santayana, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. Politicians…
We will remember them
I recently visited the International Bomber Command Centre in Lincoln. The site is spectacular, being on a hill with a clear view across to Lincoln Cathedral. Surrounding the Memorial Spire, there are 271 panels containing the names of all the Bomber Command casualties from the Second World War (pictured below). That is nearly 58,000…