Hitler’s Vengeance – the V1 Written by Pam Preedy. Question: What is the connection between a wartime event on the outskirts of Downe village and the Apollo moon landings in 1969? By 1943 the tide of war was turning and Germany was on the defensive. On 6th June 1944 the Allies launched their much prepared, but secret, D-Day landings on Normandy beaches. A week later, on the 13th June Germany began sending over the V1 ‘Doodlebugs’ from Northern France. The vergeltungswaffen or vengeance weapon was intended to frighten England into…
Tag: WW2
Sergeant Thomas Beattie
Thomas Beattie Sergeant Thomas Beattie served with the RAF voluntary reserve as an observer during world War 2. He was killed on the 10th December 1942 and is buried at Beckenham crematorium and cemetery. Source:CWGC entryService Number: 1386746 Photo credit:Taken by Simone Harris, March 2023
A short history of Knitting
A History on Knitting Written by Pam Preedy. Oh, how I Longed for a machine-knitted jumper when I was young! Most of my knitted garments were produced by my mother, or more likely my grandmother. They always had some knitting on the go. It is not surprising that I learned to knit when I was young. Knitting saved money in that post-wat era. The Origins of Knitting So, when and where did knitting originate? Since knitted work is fragile and can readily decompose, it is not easily pinpointed in time…
Molly Sherwell
Molly Sherwell Private Molly Sherwell served with the Auxiliary Territorial Service during World War II. She died on the 28th June 1944 and is buried at Beckenham Crematorium and Cemetery in Southeast London. If you have any details that we can add about this soldier, then please get in touch. Source: Bromley & District Times, 3rd June 1921 (page 9) CMGC entry – Service Number: W/99812 Photo credit: Simone Harris, 17th March 2023
Jack Townley Dunmore
Jack Townley Dunmore Flight Sergeant Jack Townley Dunmore served with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. He was the son of Frederick Townley Dunmore and Edith Dunmore, and husband of Gladys Muriel Dunmore, of Englefield Green, Egham, Surrey. Died 17 May 1941, aged 24 years old. He is commemorated at the Annunciation churchyard in Chislehurst, Kent. Source: CWGC entry – Service Number: 741448 Photo credit: Simone Harris, 28th November 2022
Gilbert Frank Coffin
Gilbert Frank Coffin Gilbert Coffin was a 1st Air Mechanic with the Royal Air Force, and served during World War 1. He was the fourth son of William Coffin of Chislehurst. His brother (the 3rd son) was killed in France on 4th October, 1917. His two other brothers were also serving during the war. Prior to the battle, he served in the City Police Force. He enlisted in the Royal Naval Air Service in 1915, and was soon on active service around the Belgian coast. He spent nearly 2 years…
James Urquhart
James Urquhart Corporal James Urquhart, the husband of Hettie Urquhart of Chislehurst, served with the Royal Air Force during World War two. He died on the 22nd August 1942, aged 42. He is buried at The Annunciation Church in Chislehurst Source: CWGC entry – Service Number: 357294 Photo credit: Simone Harris, 28th November 2022
Frank Leonard Rollison
Frank Leonard Rollison Frank Leonard Rollison of Albany Road, Chislehurst was the son of Mrs RE Rollison and the youngest of five sons. He attended the Wesleyan School. He was a keen golfer and a green-keeper of Chislehurst Golf Club, as well as a member of Chislehurst Old Boy’s Football Club and the Chislehurst Artisans’ Golf Club. He had volunteered before the outbreak of war in 1939. He served with the Royal Air Force and worked on the balloon barrage until he was invalided out of the Service a year…
An Airman’s Life in India, WW2
An Airman’s Life in India Written by Pam Preedy. A Land of Jackals, Snakes and Mosquitoes Some of the “Life” which our boys are seeing on active service is described in a letter which A/C1 Gilbert Attwood has written from a wireless unit in India to his mother in Lincoln Road, Sidcup. He says:- “I am very well and have just returned from a five day trip to a location right out in the jungle, where I carried out practice out practice duties under surroundings which will in future be,…
Staff-Sergeant J.W. Filby
Staff-Sergeant J.W. Filby News has been received that Staff-Sergeant J. W. Filby, eldest son of Mr and Mrs J. Filby, 11 Turpington Lane, Bromley Common is among the missing in Singapore. A native of Bromley, he was educated at the Church School, Bromley Common, afterwards going to the Beckenham Trade School. He joined the East Surrey Regiment in April, 1933, and went to the Far East in 1938, going first to Singapore and then to Shanghai with the British troops, he returned to Singapore, and later went to Malaya. The…