Event - Help needed with war centenary exhibition (Newark)

Volunteers are being sought from the Newark area to help with an ambitious project to mark the centenary of the first world war in 2014.

 

An exhibition will begin on August 4, 2014 — a century to the day Britain declared war on Germany — at Nottingham Castle and will continue until Remembrance Sunday that year.

A large amount of work is needed before the exhibition starts and people with an interest in the war are being asked to help.

The project is being led on a voluntary basis by Major John Cotterill, of the 2nd Battalion, The Mercian Regiment (Worcesters and Foresters).

 

He is a trustee of the Sherwood Foresters Museum.

He said the Trent To The Trenches exhibition would explain the impact the war had on Nottinghamshire.

The conflict claimed the lives of about 11,000 people from the county.

A launch day for volunteers takes place at Nottingham Castle at 10.30am on January 22, for which people need to register.

Major Cotterill said there were several components to the project, being jointly funded by Nottinghamshire county and Nottingham city councils.

A database will be compiled with the details of every person from Nottinghamshire who died in the war.

 

Large data screens will be displayed at the exhibition mapping casualties by parish so visitors can view those who died in their area. The database will be available online.

Major Cotterill said volunteers were needed to research names from war memorials and hoped someone could co-ordinate the work in Newark and Sherwood.

About 1,500 people from the district died in the war.

Another part of the project is to bring war memorials to life through volunteers giving talks at memorials about those commemorated and their links to the area.

These talks will be throughout 2014.

Tours will be organised of war memorials of particular significance, such as those that include noteworthy names.

Enthusiasts are needed to identify which memorials in Newark and Sherwood should be included, and help research and deliver their part of the tour.

The impact the war had on organisations such as sports teams, factories and businesses also needs to be researched.

Those with links to schools are asked to come forward to help organise the involvement of children, which is expected both in the school holidays and in term time.

During the exhibition experts will be on hand to help visitors research their family links to the war.

Antiques Roadshow-style events will enable people to bring along first world war-related items so they discover more about them.

The exhibition will take up the ground floor of Nottingham Castle. People with an interest in design are being invited to help with the layout.

Young people in particular are being encouraged to get involved and may be able to earn a qualification through their contribution.

Anyone interested should contact Major Cotterill on 0115 957 2010 or 07733458971, or email john.cotterill613@mod.uk or john.cotterill@btinternet.com

 

From: http://www.newarkadvertiser.co.uk/articles/news/Help-needed-with-war-centenary-exhibition

Article - Watching over their war heroes (Gainsborough/Ottawa. Can)

For more than 90 years, people in Gainsborough, England, have been faithfully watching over the graves of two Ottawa airmen killed there during the First World War.

But the decades have taken a toll on the stone monuments, so a local group is looking for descendants of the men to get their permission to restore the proud headstones marking the final resting places of Lieut. John Bernard "Don" Brophy and Lieut. James Arthur Menzies.

"They died a long way from home, so we think it's only right the local community looks after these headstones and makes sure they're kept in good repair," said Peter Bradshaw, a teacher and member of the Friends of the Gainsborough Cemetery Chapels.

The group has already restored the gravestones of a British and a South African airman, which were unveiled recently during a Remembrance Day service.

Bradshaw, 52, said there are six other gravestones the group would like to restore, at an estimated cost of about $4,800. A local charity has offered to cover half the cost and Bradshaw's group has already raised about $1,600, so they're getting close.

If he is able to locate descendants of Brophy or Menzies, they would be welcome to donate, but Bradshaw said that's not why he's trying to find them.

"The intention isn't to raise the money," he said. "The intention is to get permission from the families."

Masons have already inspected the gravestones belonging to the Canadians and say they need to be stabilized and moved slightly to stand on more solid ground.

Brophy and Menzies were stationed in Gainsborough, which is located about 60 kilometres east of Sheffield, to intercept Zeppelins flying across the North Sea from Germany.

It was dangerous work. The airmen flew in the dark of night and many lost their lives.

Brophy died during a flying accident on Christmas Eve 1916, while Menzies was killed the following year during an air raid. They were buried side-by-side in a small cemetery, on the ridge of a leafy slope.

Lieut. Brophy was born in 1893. An Irish Catholic, he grew up on Chapel Street and attended St. Patrick's School and the Ottawa Collegiate Institute (now known as Lisgar Collegiate). He was a gifted football player and apparently viewed the war as just another sport - only one with more violence and greater consequences.

He was one of only two known Canadian airmen to keep a diary during the war, and the only to deal with fighting on the Western Front.

Brophy's father was a civil engineer who worked for the Department of the Interior. He was a widower and had two daughters, Rita and Fawnie.

Menzies was born in 1896 to parents Peter and Isabella. The family lived on Waverly Street and Bradshaw said his name appears on the war memorial at Knox Presbyterian Church on Elgin Street.

His two brothers also served in the war and attended his funeral, according to a local newspaper report from the time. One of the brothers, Albert Percy Menzies, was a Presbyterian clergyman.

Brophy's headstone is a large tablet with a pointed top, engraved with a small branch and leaves.

Menzies' gravestone, which in pictures appears to be leaning to one side, features a large stone cross and the inscription: "If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me."

A third Canadian airman was also buried in the Gainsborough cemetery. Bradshaw said he tracked down Private Carey Pinnock's niece in Toronto, who sent photos of her uncle and a donation to the restoration project.

Three months before his own death, Menzies was injured in the crash that killed Pinnock.

Bradshaw, who teaches history at the Trent Valley Academy in Gainsborough, got involved with the cemetery group about a decade ago after taking groups of students to war cemeteries and battlefields in Belgium and France.

Gainsborough residents have long recognized the great sacrifices made by men like Brophy and Menzies. Many people in the town attended the military funerals for the two men and have kept watch over their graves all these years, he added.

"It's too far for the families to keep an eye on the headstones and make sure they're kept in good order, so we think it's only right that the local people get involved."

Think you are or someone you know is related to Lieut. Brophy or Lieut. Menzies? Let us know. Email mpearson@ottawacitizen.com

READ Lieut. Brophy's First World War diary at http: //www.cmp-cpm.forces.gc.ca/ dhh-dhp/his/docs/Pebbles.pdf

From http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/Watching+over+their+heroes/5776154/story.html

News - Lightning Scrapped (A1 Balderton)

A Newark area landmark — the Lightning aircraft next to the A1 — has been broken up for scrap.

The rare F.2A Lightning, XN728, had been at the side of the A1 near Balderton since the early 1980s.

It was based operationally at RAF Gutersloh, Germany.

During its early days at Twitch Farm, off Hollowdyke Lane, Newark Air Museum made several attempts to acquire what was then a relatively complete airframe, including the engine and canopy, to restore and exhibit.

Over the years it deteriorated and was vandalised, parts were stolen and it was heavily daubed in graffiti.

However, it also achieved iconic status, not just as a landmark for Newark seen by motorists on the A1 — it appeared in a music video and on T-shirts by designer Paul Smith.

A trustee at Newark Air Museum, Mr Howard Heeley, said: “Realistically it has been beyond saving for many years, and Newark Air Museum ceased its interest in possibly acquiring it many years ago.

“It became quite the icon and was popular on aviation forums.”

A dog walker saw the Lightning early on Friday but said it was gone by lunchtime.

“Millions of people must have driven past over the years and now no one will see it again,” he said.

“I am very upset that it has gone as I am sure many other people will be too. It was a local landmark.”

The Lightning’s wings and tail were broken off the fuselage and the parts were taken to Briggs Metals on Great North Road, Newark.

Briggs Metals said it had been offered the Lightning for its scrap value.

It was believed to be the first aircraft in its yard.

A spokesman said everything that could have been stripped from it had already been done so by thieves.

The aircraft would be crushed and sold to be melted and recycled.

In November last year the owner of Twitch Farm failed in a High Court battle for the right to go on using the site as a scrapyard for the dismantling of vehicles and sale of spare parts. The site must now be cleared.

Nottinghamshire County Council twice refused his applications for a certificate of lawful use and, in December 2007, issued two enforcement notices alleging a breach of planning control and unlawful change of use of the land.

A Government planning inspector dismissed an appeal against the enforcement notices and the High Court backed that decision.

From: http://www.newarkadvertiser.co.uk/articles/news/Lightning-scrapped

Article - The time Donny was bombed - but not beaten (Doncaster)

The Free Press recently printed a letter from a lady telling of the casualties suffered in Balby caused by bombing during World War II.

It became apparent to me that, following conversation with a number of local people, many residents weren’t aware that Doncaster and the immediate area around the town had been involved so closely with the conflict.

Aerial activity began as early as 1940 when German planes dropped, not bombs, but leaflets which landed all over Bessacarr which printed a speech by their leader basically saying that if Britain didn’t surrender peacefully they would be invaded, Herr Hitler certainly had a way with words, but Doncastrians, and indeed other towns who experienced siimilar events, took it in their stride and ignored the warning.

But then on the 12/13 December 1940 during a heavy raid on Sheffield a lone bomber, for whatever reason, jettisoned its bombs which landed on Wilby Farm, now the site of Rose Hill Crematorium.

This was followed a week later with a stick of bombs falling on Eden Grove Sports ground, near Hexthorpe

It was the beginning of a spate of attacks in the area which were, thankfully, relatively light. However, this situation changed on the night of May 8/9 1941 when large canisters of explosives hanging from parachutes - a device called an aerial mine - descended on Balby.

Weston Road and Loversall Hospital took the brunt of the subsequent blasts which resulted in 16 people killed and 73 injured, 31 seriously. Buildings suffered too with 13 houses destroyed and 19 had to be demolished, over four hundred were damaged altogether.

Bessacarr’s St Wilfrid Road area received hits which killed two people and injured five. Five houses were destroyed and 152 damaged on this occasion. It was the worst local bombing sequence so far but not the last as on September 1 1942 two 500 pound bombs were dropped on the town centre, one in Station Road and one in nearby West Street. Two people died in these attacks, including rather poignantly a soldier home on leave who was standing smoking a cigarette near to the Grand Theatre, which amazingly escaped serious damage. The same could not be said for the premises of W.E. Clark & Company just across the road, which at the time had expanded to selling motorcycles and cars after moving up from bicycles and penny farthings at their original premises at Bennetthorpe in 1880.

Throughout the Second World War 20 people were killed and 80 injured by bombs in Doncaster, 38 houses were destroyed and 900 damaged.

Perhaps compared to the total devastation suffered by some of our major cities it could be said that Doncaster came off lightly, but to the families directly involved and especially those who lost loved ones it was certainly no less a tragedy.

All this unwanted attention from the Luftwaffe certainly didn’t weaken ,but instead strengthened, residents’ resolve and in one ‘Spitfire Week’ just one group raised funds to buy an aircraft which served with the Canadian Air Force before its fighting career ended when it crashed into the English Channel during a patrol in 1941.

From: http://www.doncasterfreepress.co.uk/community/nostalgia/the_time_donny_was_bombed_but_not_beaten_1_3144850

News - Memorial service for bomber raid victims (Balby/Bessacarr,Doncaster)

A MEMORIAL service will be held in May to commemorate people who were killed in Doncaster’s worst air raid.

It is a victory for Cantley pensioner Margery White, who lost two relatives when a German parachute mine fell on Balby 70 years ago.

Mrs White, aged 78, has been campaigning for some form of commemoration of the event and was hoping Mayor Peter Davies would lend a sympathetic ear, after visiting the graves of those who were killed, last autumn.

The memorial service in the chapel at Rose Hill Cemetery at 11am on Monday May 9 was announced at this week’s Doncaster Council meeting.

A total of 16 people were killed when the mine exploded just after midnight on the same date in 1941.

Mrs White, of Chantry Close, Cantley, raised the matter during questions from the public at the council meeting.

Her two teenage uncles – Arthur and Alfred Nortrop – were among those killed.

A total of 73 other people were injured, including Mrs White’s grandparents. The bodies are buried in Rose Hill and Mayor Peter Davies offered his sympathy for her loss.

“I was eight years old at the time and I was a pupil at Woodfield Junior School which was damaged by the bomb blast, hence my interest in the matter.

She said: “I realise Doncaster Council is going through a difficult period financially but this anniversary could be deemed to be sufficiently significant to merit special treatment.”

Thirteen houses were blown up and more than 400 other houses were damaged by the blast – 19 of them had to be demolished.

The parachute mine landed only 38 minutes after other bombs landed in the Ellers Avenue area of Bessacarr, killing two people and injuring five more.

The dead were buried together in a row at Rose Hill Cemetery.

It was the worst single loss of life in Doncaster during the Second World War, although there were other raids aimed at the Plant Works and neighbouring Sheffield had suffered much higher casualties in late 1940.

Mrs White is also hoping schools in the area will become involved in a commemoration project.

The Mayor said he wanted to acknowledge the sacrifice made in conflicts in recent history and offered his sympathy to the families who suffered loss in 1941.

He said the service on May 9 will be open to all and he hoped to attend the event. The Vicar of Doncaster Rev Canon Dr Paul Shackerley will officiate.

Mr Davies said he hoped Mrs White would find the service a sufficient tribute to those who were killed and she thanked him for his response.

The mayor visited the graves last October for the Poppy Appeal.

From: http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/local/barnsley/memorial_service_for_bomber_raid_victims_1_3122831

News - Memorial service for 70th anniversary of factory bombs (Newark)

A MEMORIAL service is to take place to mark the 70th anniversary of the bombing of a Newark factory during the Second World War.

A total of 41 people died when the Ransome and Marles factory was targeted by two German planes on Friday, March 7, 1941.

The factory made components for all three Armed Forces during the war.

The Friends of Newark Cemetery group is set to host a remembrance service on Saturday, March 5, in memory of those who died.

A two-minute silence will also take place outside Newark Town Hall at 11am.

This will be followed by the reading of the names of the 41 people killed and the tolling of the HMS Newark bell.

Children from class six at Holy Trinity Catholic Primary and Nursery School in Newark will also visit the cemetery on Monday, March 7, to lead a roll call of the 41 names and see graves of 30 of the people buried there.

The Friends of Newark Cemetery are also set to unveil a permanent memorial to the bombing victims at Newark Town Hall next month.

The permanent memorial will feature a large chrome-plated bearing – of the type still made at the factory today – and an item of memorabilia salvaged from the bombing.

From: http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/news/Memorial-service-70th-anniversary-factory-bombs/article-3245483-detail/article.html

New site for Sheffield Blitz Memorial

COUNCILLORS responded to a plea by a man who survived the Sheffield Blitz during World War Two by voting for a memorial to victims of the 1940 bombings to be moved or replaced with one in a more prominent position.  Patrick Strafford, aged 85, who was 15 in the blitz and later served in the Normandy Landings aged 19, when he was shot twice, challenged members of Sheffield Council to make the move to honour the 2,000 people killed or injured in the Luftwaffe raids on the city.

He told a hushed Sheffield Council chamber how he managed to make it home from the city centre as enemy planes were overhead - only for a delayed reaction bomb to go off damaging his home after the all-clear had been given and he had gone to bed.

"The ceiling came in," he recalled to councillors.

Mr Strafford said: "A memorial for the civillians killed or injured in the Sheffield Blitz should be prominent - its should be in a central area where people can see it, so that what people went through at the time is not forgotten."

A motion had been put forward to the council meeting yesterday afternoon by Labour Coun Pat Midgley, who represents Manor Castle, that the current memorial at Devonshire Green should be replaced with one in a place that is "more visible and prominent".

Her proposal had cross-party support. Replying to Mr Strafford, Lib Dem leader, Coun Paul Scriven, said: "We do have a memorial but it isn't in as prominent a position as it should be, not just to remind us of the terrible turmoil the city went through but to remind ourselves of the steely determination of so many like you.

"Many people suffered great loss but your example is living testament to the people who were real heroes and were absolutely determined not to be broken."

 

From: http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/New-site-for-Blitz-memorial.6680692.jp

Should Sheffield have a monument to Blitz victims?

A NEW memorial to the victims of the Sheffield Blitz could be created under plans proposed by a city councillor.

Coun Pat Midgley, Labour member for Manor Castle, said: "This city endured two nights of intense bombing from air raids between December 12 and 15, 1940, killing and injuring over 2,000 local people and making 40,000 Sheffielders homeless."

She is proposing that fellow members of the authority "recognise the current memorial to the Sheffield blitz at Devonshire Green" but "resolve to consider creating a more visible and prominent memorial to commemorate not only those who lost their lives but also Sheffield's defiance in the face of such devastation."

Councillors will vote on whether to approve her motion at their full meeting at the Town Hall on Wednesday.

From: http://www.thestar.co.uk/headlines/Should-Sheffield-have-a-monument.6675614.jp

In my own opinion it should, I used to work on “The Moor” and always thought it had just been redeveloped rather than obliterated by German bombs.