General Chat

11.11 who do all want to remember?

Herbert Henry Higgins 1914 age 21 great great grand uncle
Edward Waller 1917 age 19 great grand uncle
Sydney Evans 1942 age 23 great grand uncle HMS Fidelity torpedoed and sunk Dec 30th
John Leon La Walla 1943 age 46 great grand uncle rifle butt to the stomach
Thomas Stanley Jackson 1896~1969 great grandfather
Thomas MacFarlane Dale Russell 1902~1983 grandfather
William Lindsay Graham 1918~1978 grandfather
Neil Burr 1920~1993 great grandfather pow released 1947


Lest We Forget <3

My 3x Great Uncle Evan Nicholas, who having retired from the Merchant Navy, volunteered his services in WWI, aged 69.

While bringing back a cargo of Iron Ore from Beni-Saf, his ship THE TR THOMPSON was torpedoed by a German U-BOAT off Beachy Head on Good Friday 1918. Only 3 survived - Evan went down with the ship.

In September this year, a Kent based diving group called Swale Divers dedicated a dive in his memory and installed a plaque in his name on the wreck! <3

Mother's brother Fred Dowdy was on HMS Barham when it was sunk.

We don't know what happened to Harry Dowdy. He was serving on HMS Scorpion on the Yangtze before WW2 and looking forward to leaving the navy in 1939 after 20 years service. There was news of him being in the hospital in Singapore when it fell but we don't know.

Fred's cousin Bill Lush died in the trenches, I can't recall the detail at the moment .

His brother, Fred does appear on the war memorial but he actually died in 1920 and not as a result of war. He was a Royal Marine aboard HMS Renown when the man who became the Duke of Windsor sailed in it to Barbados on a royal tour. There was a loose railing and Fred fell through it and disappeared, probably into a shark.

Fred's cousin Bill Green was aboard the greatly overloaded Lancastria at Dunkirk when the German pilot dropped a bomb down the funnel.

The husband of my mother's sister, John Channel, a navy regular, had spent the entire war on land. He had a wife and three children. After the was, Fred, who was unmarried at that time, was de-mobbed and came home from being a stoker on HMS Volage. John took his place and the Volage was minesweeping in the Corfu Channel post hostilities when it hit a mine that blew a hole in the bow. The stokers went to repair the bow when it hit another which blew the bow off, killing John.

As hostilities had ceased, his wife was not entitled to a War Widows Pension. She was left to bring up her own two children and the one they had adopted from another unmarried sister with no support. She deserves remembrance as much as he does.

George Coe, 31, killed in action on 7th November 1914 during the first battle of Ypres. He was in the 2nd Battalion Highland. He was killed in hand to hand fighting when his platoon were caught in a surprise early morning attack through the mist. His entire platoon was killed.

I have found an official version of the attack on the 'Long Long Trail'

He was unmarried.

My great uncle, Edwin Prior - died of shock, due to injuries, leaving behind a pregnant wife, Barb.
Their baby (a girl) was stillborn. Barb died 3 years later, of TB.

My Great, great grandfather, Louis Baggott. Killed, aged 96, in his grocery shop in Aldeburgh by German bombers dropping their bombs prior to fleeing.

Lt. Commander Francis Nicholas. Came out of retirement to help in WWII. Killed when the trawler he was on was bombed, as he tried to get French Resistance personnel out of France.

Sharron, I agree with you about John's widow.

Edit: The father of my gran's best friend Elsie. His pub 'The Green Man' in St, Mary's Street, Southampton, was bombed whilst he and his son were in it.
They managed to escape to the Book Depository opposite, and sheltered there until the bombing ended, but Elsie's father could no longer live in Southampton, with all the bombing, so went to live with another son, in Totton.
...and people like him were castigated, for not 'standing their ground'....

My great Uncle Cpl. Alec John Kill, killed in action age 25 on 22nd November 1915 in Mesopotamia (present day Iraq).

Never forgotten.

Kath. x

Remembering all my relatives killed in two world wars and other conflicts but this year remebering those of modern conflicts.

RIP James - injured in an explosion in Afganistan and was unable to cope with the brain damage and depression aged 26

We will remember

All the young men who were tied up,blindfolded and executed for showing fear and have been always forgotten.

May you have rested in peace and your families have never labled you a coward.

My Great Uncle Harold William Arnold. He was in the Machine Gun Corp and in June 1917 the bunker he was in took a direct hit from an armour piercing shell; he and four of his colleagues were killed instantly. A few days earlier he had celebrated his 22nd birthday..

Rest in Peace <3

my uncle and cousin amongst others in tfamily

Herbert Patchett born 1900
Husband of Nellie Patchett, of Bramley, Leeds, Yorkshire. His son, Arthur Felsted Patchett, also died on service. Herbert Last name Patchett Birth year 1900 Age 40 Death year1940
at sea off St Nazaire - Herbert Patchett Age 40 Birth Date abt 1900 Death Date 17 Jun 1940 Cemetery The Dunkirk Memorial Burial Country France

Arthur Felsted Last name Patchett Birth year 1924 Age 21 Death year 1945 Death date 27 Feb 1945 Number 3067026 Rank Lance Corporal Unit 1st Bn. Regiment Highland Light Infantry (City Of Glasgow Regiment) Grave reference 10. C. 11. Berlin
Charlottenburg, Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, Berlin, Germany

my 2nd cousin 2 x removed
Basil Terence Macey Fulton
1919–1940
Birth DEC 1919 • West Ham, Essex
Death 21ST NOVEMBER 1940 • North Sea
1940; LÜTZKENDORF: The squadron detailed 5 aircraft to attack the oil refinery at Lützkendorf. The Ball (X3054) and Bowden (P1176) crews both made attacks on the primary, the latter crew landing back at North Coates1940; LÜTZKENDORF: The squadron detailed 5 aircraft to attack the oil refinery at Lützkendor

Thank you and RIP <3

I feel that we should also spare a thought for the bowmen at Agincourt and those who fought in every conflict for our country.

Thinking of all who have served in Arm Forces & they are living with disability trying to get back their lives with loved ones may they find peace & love & know we are all grateful for risking their lives to keep us safe God Bless .RIP all who gave their lives in Conflicts <3 Barbara