LAC Laurence Murdock, RAFVR

 Photographs:

(Top): Headstone of Laurence Murdock and his parents
[LAC Murdock died 22 April 1946]
(Bottom): Memorial vase for Larry from his pals

 [Whitehaven Cemetery, Cumbria]
For additional information click on 'Comments' below.

Josephine Hoogstede 1921-2012

It is with great sadness that I inform you that our Josephine passed away yesterday, 29 January. Older members will remember that this brave and lovely lady made many contributions to the BBC WW2 People's War archive under her nom de plume Odyssey, all of which can be found here


Listening to the forbidden BBC in Holland in 1942.

Holocaust Memorial Day

The BBC broadcast this on January 27.

The founder of the Holocaust Survivors' Centre in London, Judith Hassan OBE, spent her whole life, or almost, working with survivors. I am honored to have been able to meet her, and her family, when she was only starting it. Her work is wonderful, and so are the people interviewed in that program.

For more information about this, check here. It is the only place of this kind in Britain, and I wish we had one in France, where psychological support of survivors and their descendants started much later. Food and shelter, and even a job and a family weren't quite enough to soothe them, contrary to what was believed in the fifties.

Wartime Heroes & Heroines of Cleator Moor

Photographs:
(Top): Front cover of the Cleator Moor 'Roll of Honour'
(Bottom): Dedication of the 'Roll of Honour' 

Remembering 'The Fallen' of Cleator Moor, Cumbria.

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'The Windermere Boys'

Grasmere near Windermere in central Lakeland.
The green and pleasant land that is the English Lakeland

'The Windermere Boys' were young Jewish survivors of the Holocaust of WW2. After the end of the war they came from the horrors of the death camps to this green and pleasant land. There was a life worth living after all. 

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Abbot W.D. Hurley, Douai Abbey (1857 - 1940)

Photographs (Top to bottom):
1. War memorial and church 
St Joseph's Frizington Cumbria
2. St Mary's R,C, Church, Cleator (c.1900) 
The WW1 war memorial was dedicated by Abbot Hurley
3. Calvary & burial vault, St Mary's, Cleator (c. 1945)
Abbot Hurley was buried here on 31.12.1940
4. Calvary & burial vault, St Mary's, Cleator (2012)

Photographs 2 & 3 courtesy of:
The Talbot Library, UCLAN, Preston, Lancashire

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Died in an Italian General Hospital

Photographs: 

1. Driver Walter McCartney, RASC 

Died of illness at Milan General Hospital, Italy 
[Photograph courtesy of 'The Whitehaven News']

2. Driver Walter McCartney's Headstone 

Milan War Cemetery, Italy (Grave VI. A. 1)
[Photograph courtesy of Martin from Canada (WW2 Talk)

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Wartime events at St Mary's Parish, Cleator

 

 Photographs (Top to bottom):

[Relating to St Mary's R.C. Parish, Cleator, Cumberland]

1. Bust of Dean Father Cuthbert Clayton, O.S.B.

Parish Priest, St Mary's, Cleator during WW1 & WW2

 2. (L-R): Dean F.C. Clayton, Abbot I.S. Mooney , Father F.K. McCann

Outside St Mary's R.C. Church, Cleator, 26 June 1948

3. View of Dent Fell, Cleator 
View from site of former St Mary's School
4. The Benedictine clergy vault, St Mary's Churchyard
Abbot Hurley and Fathers Clayton, McCann & Aspinwall 
Abbot Hurley was interred on 31 December 1940


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"To the Men of Muncaster"

Photographs (Top to bottom):

1. Ordinary Telegraphist Gilbert Todd, R.N.
First Muncaster casualty of WW2 (HMS Royal Oak)
[Photograph courtesy of 'The Whitehaven News']

2. Muncaster War Memorial, Ravenglass, Cumbria
Dedication: "To the Men of Muncaster"

3. (Detail): Names of 'The Fallen' of WW1

4. (Detail): Names of 'The Fallen' of WW2

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"In our hearts he will live forever"

Stoker W.J. Carruthers, R.N. (HMS Fidelity)

Photographs (Top to bottom):

1. Stoker William James Carruthers, R.N.
Presumed drowned 01.01.1943
Lost on HMS Fidelity

2. Cleator & Trumpet Terrace War Memorial, Cumbria
[Home village of Stoker W.J. Carruthers]

3. Detail: WW2 casualties of Cleator (1939 - 1945)
[Stoker W.J. Carruthers is the 3rd name listed]

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The Fallen Heroes of Threlkeld, Cumbria

Photographs (Top to bottom):

1. Threlkeld War Memorial, Cumbria
2. Memorial Tablet (detail) of the War Memorial
3. Headstone of WW2 casualty Gunner A. Tangye, R.A.
4. Headstone of WW1 casualty Gunner T.A. Watson, R.A.

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Lt. Stanley T. Park: "A cheerful spirit"

(Above): Badge of the Border Regiment
Lt. S.T. Park served with the Border Regiment
(1937 - 1945)

Lieutenant Stanley Thompson Park served in the Border Regiment immediately before and during WW2. He served in France with the 5th Battalion in 1940 and was seriously wounded on the Dunkirk beaches in June 1940 during the evacuation of the B.E.F.

Lieutenant Park died on 3 June 1947 - the 7th anniversary of being evacuated from France. His wartime service was from 3 September 1939 until 30 June 1945.

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"Peace - Forever in our thoughts"

Photographs:
(Top): Commemoration of George Acton & Billy Acton
WW2 Whitehaven 'Book of Remembrance'.

(Bottom): Acton family headstone (Parents & 2 sons),
Whitehaven Cemetery, Cumbria [Grave Ref. 5/J/44]
John, Evelyn, George and William Henry Acton

Brothers George Acton and William Henry ('Billy') Acton were lost at sea on 2 November 1942. On that day, their vessel, the SS 'Empire Leopard', was sunk by a German U-Boat.

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Lost on operations to Stavanger (April 1940)

Photographs:
Commemorating Corporal James Doran, RAF
[Died 14.04.1940]

(Top): James Doran remembered by his hometown
[The WW2 Whitehaven 'Book of Remembrance'

(Bottom): Cpl james Doran & family headstone
Whitehaven Cemetery, Cumbria

Corporal James Doran from Whitehaven Cumberland (now Cumbria) served in the RAF from 1935 until he lost his life in April 1940. Corporal Doran was reported missing in action and subsequently presumed killed in action while on operational duties to Stavanger, Norway. At the time of his death, Corporal Doran was 22 years old.

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Season's Greetings to all

L’heure passe, l’amitié reste

« L’heure passe, l’amitié reste ».
“The hours pass, friendship remains”
(Sundial motto, Hope Park, Keswick)

The sundial seen in a snow-covered Hope Park, Keswick, Cumbria has a timeless French motto: « L’heure passe, l’amitié reste ». This can be translated into English as: "The hours pass, friendship remains".

Particularly in the bleak midwinter of December and January this is a greeting Keswickians often pass on to family and friends the world over.
==============================

A time of 'happy hunting' for U-Boats

A German U-Boat surfacing
[Courtesy of Mr Jeff Wilson, WW1 & WW2 researcher]

The year 1942 was a time of 'happy hunting' for the German U-Boats in the North Atlantic. In one month alone - November 1942 - Allied losses were the greatest of the whole war: 117 ships by U-Boats alone with further losses from other causes. According to the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill this period was was "The U-Boat Paradise".

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A Father and Son of the Sea

Photographs (Top to Bottom):

1. Old 'Sea salts', Whitehaven harbour (c.1931)
(Believed to include members of the Cradduck family)
[Courtesy of The Beacon Museum, Whitehaven]

2. Tom Cradduck, SS Empire Leopard
Lost at sea due to enemy action (02.11.1942)
[Courtesy of 'The Whitehaven News']

3. Ronnie Cradduck, SS Empire March (Barrow)
Died of illness, Madras, India (21.11.1942)
[Courtesy of 'The Whitehaven News']

4. Sailing ships in Whitehaven harbour
[Home port for Tom and Ronnie Cradduck]

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Able Seaman William S. Truett, M.N.

(Top): Able Seaman (Gunner) William Scott Truett
SS 'Empire Leopard', Merchant Navy
[Lost at sea by enemy action, 02.11.1942, aged 22]
[Courtesy of 'The Whitehaven News']

(Bottom): Truett family headstone (Whitehaven)
[Commemorating William S. ('Biff') Truett & family]

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Pte. Harold McMean, Royal Warwicks Regt.

(Top): Private Harold McMean, Royal Warwicks. Regt.
[Courtesy of Mrs Maud Smith, Great Niece]

(Bottom): Headstone of Private Harold McMean,
Royal Warwickshire Regiment, Service No. 3602481
(Died in service, 9 March 1945)
Whitehaven Cemetery (Grave Ref. 5/O/382)

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