Early on the Sunday morning I went to a Royal Navy service at the Memorial in Southsea remembering the 25,000 sailors killed during World War One and World War Two, who were buried at sea and had no known grave. My Taid (maternal Welsh Grandfathe…Read more…
Frost bite in Gallipoli
Last week I was in Malta on holiday with Gill staying in a rented house in Pieta, a suburb of the capital Valletta. I will post another time on what a truly wonderful place Malta is to visit.
By coincidence, just across the road from where…Read more…
VE Day: Sgt Frederick Matthews and Sgt John Gray
Both of my Grandfathers served in the Second World War. My maternal Grandfather (“Taid” in Welsh) was a sergeant in the RAF See his discharge papers above. He had also managed to live through the carnage of Gallipoli and the Western Front in the First …Read more…
100th anniversary of my Grandfather arriving at Gallipoli
According to this history of the “Hawke Battalion” Royal Naval Divison (RDN) by Douglas Jerrold, my Grandfather ( Taid in Welsh) Sub-lieutenant, Frederick Matthews, first joined them on active service a 100 years ago yesterday on 18 July 1915.
The Ba…Read more…
Midshipman George L. Drewry VC RNR
Yesterday morning I attended a Commemorative Stone Ceremony at the Cenotaph in Central Park, East Ham, Newham, London.
It was to mark the unveiling of the first of 5 paving stones to be placed at the Cenotaph to remember the heroism of …Read more…
The band played waltzing matilda
Today is the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War Gallipoli campaign. The 8 month conflict was one of the most vicious of that war.
This song was written by Eric Bogle in 1971 and was today described by a good friend of mine…Read more…
A day with G Company 7 Rifles on Salisbury Plain
On Saturday I spent the day with 7 other Newham Councillors as the guests of G Company 7th Rifles Regiment, while they were training on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire.
G Company is our local British Army reservist unit in Newham, based at Cedar barracks i…Read more…