Day 69...

Today’s long walk - to the former RAF Hunsdon,  somewhere we have been promising to visit for a long while, nice to finally get round to it. Out to join up with where we headed for home last week, followed by a walk up the other side of the valley to pretty much the highest point in the area - you can see why they chose it for an RAF airfield! A beautiful memorial to those based their who lost their lives during the war, and we were glad to finally get to pay our respects there.

This week will be about working on rebuilding some habits I think. So to start with - a list of 5 things  to aim for:
- Better sleep habits
- A trip out just for me
- a couple more runs
- Stretching!
- Getting back to setting out the next days clothes the night before

Starting tomorrow with a trip with the camera - Lakenheath USAF base, where they have been conducting regular flying. I’m really missing my aviation photography at the moment - I’m obviously way too far from Scampton to go there, even a Coningsby trip would be too far at the moment, but Lakenheath is under an hour away and is somewhere I wanted to get to more often anyway so this is the perfect excuse.

Robyn

Remembrance...

On Thursday we celebrated my Great Aunt's 90th birthday. Mum, Dad and I, and the cousins arrived en masse with presents, cards, balloons and flowers and made sure she had a lovely afternoon! So why am I mentioning this in a post about remembrance?  Well you see Auntie D grew up without her Father in her life beyond the age of 3. He died in 1932, aged just 39. Her siblings - my Nan and my Great Uncle Ken were 12 and 7 respectively and were both very badly affected by his death - I remember Nan continuing to miss his presence throughout most of her life. My Grandma lived for another 47 years without him by her side and I have no doubt that not a day passed when she didn't think of him, miss him, and wish that things could have been different. My Mum grew up with the family speaking of a "Grandad" who she never knew.

John Henry Stanley - known as Jack - died as a result of being caught in a gas attack during World War 1. He returned home having been awarded the Military Cross for his actions at the Battle of Havrincourt, but was never fit enough to return to his previous occupation as a wood working machinist. In spite of the fact that he died a full 40 years before I was born I'm tremendously proud of my Great Grandad - the whole family are.

We're very good at remembering those who lost their lives fighting for our freedom - and indeed quite rightly so. They are not the only ones who made the ultimate sacrifice, and paid the ultimate price, however. Those who returned home but died later; those with missing limbs, lost sight or hearing, damaged lungs, lingering psychological effects or any other life changing impairments; the families who had to come to terms with someone returning who was very different to the man who went away; the children like Auntie D who never really knew their Father - on this Remembrance day please take a moment to think of them, too.

Lest we forget...

Robyn

Remembrance...

The Royal Air force social media accounts are currently focusing heavily on Remembrance Sunday as you might expect - asking "who are you remembering" - from families thinking of loved ones serving, to friends remembering those who fell alongside them, there's been a great wide range of examples given and hopefully it will encourage children who perhaps feel that as their parents and grand parents are too young too have fought in either world war it's not relevant to them, to think again.  For me, I take it as a time to think of family members who served in those hopefully never to be repeated conflicts, and to think of and give thanks for friends serving currently and the sacrifices their families make. Currently I have one friend over in the USA where he's already been for several months - he'll be home briefly for Christmas and then away again. Another who has spent a lot of time away from his family in the past year or so (including the three months running up to his own wedding!) and another living away from his Mrs & kids all week and travelling home every weekend - it is incredibly hard on the families, and all so often that gets forgotten. Generally speaking the partners are just so stoic about it too - no weeping and wailing, no making their other half feel guilty, they just get on and mark off the days until their loved one gets home again.

In the town I live in there has been a small exhibition travelling around the area focused on telling us about 5 men from the town who lost their lives in WW1. I caught up with it in the shopping centre on Tuesday, and also had a brief chat with one of the gents from the British Legion who was manning the stand and engaging with people about the exhibition. I was genuinely shocked when he said that they had contacted all the local schools to suggest taking the exhibition in and giving a talk about it to the pupils, and had absolutely NO response. What better way for children to get a real feeling for the history around the two world wars than to hear the stories of those who went to fight from the town they're living in, and in some cases paid the ultimate price? I'm honestly perplexed as to why there was no interest in this - are children not being taught about these events? Or are the opinions of those that would have it that the wearing of the poppy in some way glorifies was beginning to hold more sway?

Whether or not you buy a poppy this year, or attend a service, please take a few moments to remember those who went, and never returned, and those who are still going...

“When you go Home, tell them of us and say,
 For your Tomorrow, we gave our Today”

John Maxwell Edmunds
1916

Robyn

Today...

Today is not for commercialism, or commercialisation.
It is not for dwelling on the present, but for thinking about the past.
Today is not for promotion, or indeed self-promotion.
Today is not for glitz, or bling.
It matters not how shiny or fancy or shiny your poppy, but just that you wear one.
Today is not about noise, and bustle.
It is about quiet reflection, and pausing to remember.
It is unimportant where that reflection & remembrance happens,
What matters is simply that you DO remember.
Today is not about you, but about them.

For those who gave their today, that we may have ours.
For those who never returned home.
For those who returned, but not as the person their loved ones knew previously.
For all those who served, and those who continue to serve.
For those missing family members and friends today, as a result of that service.


Thank you.

RAF Museum - London

In the interests of wanting to do something "appropriate" on Remembrance Sunday, we headed into London to the RAF Museum. I've had this one on my list to visit for a while, and it did seem like the perfect day to do it.

We set off from home at 9am, taking the car to Epping, then jumping on the Underground into London, after 3 different tube trains and several long interchange walks through the stations, we made it to the museum grounds just as the gun sounded for 11am and the 2 minute silence - so stopped next to a replica Spitfire to observe it.

Those who watched the Royal Albert Hall Festival of Remembrance the previous night will have had their memories refreshed about this year being the 70th Anniversary of the Dambusters raid, and indeed a Lancaster Bomber is one of the highlights of the museum, looming large over the Bomber Hall. Almost more impressive though, to my mind at least, was the wreckage of a Halifax bomber which had to make a wheels up landing on a frozen Fjord in Norway in 1942 following being hit by flak whilst taking part in one of the raids on the Tirpitz.

We'd made our way almost right round the bomber hall before we suddenly spotted another absolute highlight of the museum. Tucked neatly in one corner, "hidden", almost, is this...

...ridiculous eh, I mean, how on earth do you hide a Vulcan Bomber for goodness sake? They've managed it though - it really did take us completely by surprise when we spotted it! Better still, they have installed a TV screen in the Bomb Bay so you can sit right underneath the belly of the plane watching the short film being shown!

As well as the usual food outlets, the museum also has a large area where you can sit and eat your own food - we made use of this as we'd taken our lunch with us. It's a great area for people with children too as there are lots of interactive things for them to do while the adults are sitting down resting their feet! On the subject of interactive stuff, the museum also has two Flight Simulators - one - a flight with the Red Arrows - wasn't operating on Sunday, but the Flight in a Tornado one was, and was great fun - although you do get rather thrown about and have to hang on VERY tightly! I think it might be a more comfortable ride if you were harnessed tightly into a seat! Although entry to the museum is free of charge, the simulators cost £3 each to ride. We also bought a visitors guide for a very reasonable £2.95.

Looking through the body of the Halifax

With planes from the very earliest bi-planes to a full scale model of the new Lightning II Joint Strike Force Fighter on display, there is plenty to see - and the Timeline of Flight makes fascinating viewing as it weaves the Milestones achieved in flight over a 100 year period with the history of each year. There is a complete hangar focusing on the events of the Battle of Britain, and an exhibition giving lots of information about the RAF's "Workhorse" - the Chinook helicopter.

Those outside London don't need to miss out as the RAF Museum has a second branch located at Cosford in Shropshire with a huge number of exhibits, simulators etc. We'd certainly highly recommend either as an interesting day out, and ideal for a cold, grey, wintry day as almost everything is under cover!

Robyn

The RAF's London Museum can be found a short walk from Colindale underground station, just 30 minutes from central London on the Northern Line. It has a website giving further infiormation - see www.rafmuseum.org.uk

It's not all bad...

A lot of the time when you hear people talking about Social Media - Twitter, Facebook etc - it's the negative stuff you hear. Twitter is "just about people saying they are on the bus, or what they're having for dinner" while Facebook "encourages users to replace words to describe emotions, with emoticons". Back in August an Economist Online article said "Past investigations have found that using Facebook is associated with jealousy, social tension, isolation and depression." and there are any number of similar articles out there on the net. On Saturday though, a different side of social media was seen by many...

Source: BBC News Website

This is Harold Jellicoe Percival - a former RAF Serviceman who during World War II served on Groundcrew with 617 Squadron maintaining the Lancaster bombers that were used on the famous "Dambusters" raid. He died recently, and the Funeral Directors looking after his funeral - which was set for, rather appropriately, 11am on Monday morning - were concerned that as he had no family that they were aware of, there would be nobody to attend the funeral. As a result they placed an advert in the local press asking for Service personnel to attend.

By Saturday morning, the story was doing the rounds on Twitter...

RT - 99 year-old war hero #Lytham has nobody to go his funeral on Monday. Any service folk available? via @SgtClem) pic.twitter.com/VfizlhwNYT”
— Lee Rowlands (@leerowlands81) November 9, 2013

...and by the middle of the day it had been picked up on FaceBook also - by several celebrities including Jason Manford - and with over 482,000 "likes" on his Facebook page, this is always going to get to people's attention even faster.

On Monday morning it is believed that anything up to 1,000 people attended the funeral service at Lytham Crematoriam. RAF Scampton, "Coe's" wartime base, was represented, as was the RAF Association. As well as military veterans and current serving personnel, many ordinary members of the public also attended.

If you need something to restore your faith in the power for good of Social media, then this is surely it?


Robyn        

** In Memory of Harold Jellicoe Percival **

1914 - 2013

Remembering...

This is the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. A good many people will have been at an event where these fantastic planes will have made an appearance, sometimes just as a flypast of one, sometimes the iconic "set of three" - Lancaster, Hurricane and Spitfire. However they appear, they always serve as a reminder to stop and think just how much is owed to the ladies and gents of not only the RAF but of all the forces, working to keep our shores safe during conflicts.

The BBMF are based at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire, and their history began on 11th July 1957 when the "Historic Aircraft Flight" was formed and made it's first appearances with three Spitfires. In February 1958 the flight was renamed "The Battle of Britain Flight" and in March that year it was rehomed at North Weald in Essex. The North Weald stay proved to be a short one however and just a couple of months later the Flight was on the move again - this time up to Martlesham in Suffolk. Further moves around East Anglia followed over the next few years, and by the early 1960's the Flight was housed at RAF Coltishall in Norfolk with four aircraft - 1 Hurricane and 3 Spitfires. On 1st June 1969 the name "Battle of Britain Memorial Flight" was officially adopted. More planes were added - first a second airworthy Hurricane, and then, possibly more significantly, in late 1973 - Lancaster PA474 was officially transferred to the Flight from RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire. In March 1976 the Lancaster - and the Flight's other aircraft - returned to Lincolnshire to another new home - Coningsby, where they have been housed ever since.

Only 1 member of Aircrew is permanently assigned to the Flight - Squadron Leader Dunc Mason, Officer Commanding RAF BBMF. The rest of the pilots, navigators etc volunteer to serve with the flight and give up their weekends in order to carry out flying duties. In the week they are flying Typhoons, Hercules and other fully operational aircraft - at the weekends it's Hurricanes, Spitfires, a Douglas Dakota or the Lancaster. The majority of the groundcrew also volunteer to be part of the BBMF, and working hours can be irregular to say the least - particularly during the display season! This year a member of BBMF groundcrew volunteered to participate in the Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall, also.

Next time you see the BBMF, remember those who lost their lives flying these amazing aircraft, and think just how much we owe to them.

"The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the world war by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."

Winston Churchill - August 20th, 1940.

Back in time...

Just back from another weekend away - our final one for some time you'll be relieved to say! Once again our tent was our "Bed & Breakfast" for the weekend, and we stayed on one of our favourite campsites, Breck Farm at Weybourne, which allows campfires. The reason for the trip was to take in the annual "1940's weekend" at the North Norfolk Railway - always great fun to see a whole load of Army, RAF & Navy types wandering round your campsite, and some of the most fantastic vintage vehicles pulling on and off the site too!

The effort that people go to with their costumes is just incredible - some of these guys go all over the country visiting these re-enactment events, others just turn out for this one as it's local to them. Either way though, it's a fantastic sight...

The steam trains add a nice authentic touch to things, the ticket to the event lets you ride up and down the line as much as you like so we got on at Weybourne (walking distance from the site) and travelled up the line to Holt - where there was a big display of military vehicles and vintage cars, before travelling back along to Sheringham where the bulk of the action takes place. There are trains coming and going all day giving a good opportunity for photos...

...Sheringham also has live music on throughout the day - and a beer tent!

Shame about the plastic glasses but I guess authenticity can only go so far!  Each station has it's "NAAFI" selling sandwiches (Spam, corned beef, or cheese!), cakes likes carrot cake and bread pudding, and teas, although we walked into the town at Sheringham and had fish & chips on the seafront - still authentic as these would have been available in wartime although we would probably have had to queue for a lot longer for our fish!

Nice to see some of the younger people in the town getting into the spirit of things too - this effort was definitely being taken in the spirit in which it was intended...

Robyn

HMY Iolaire

In the early hours of the morning of January 1st 1919, HMY Iolaire, travelling from Kyle of Lochalsh on the Scottish mainland to Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis ran aground on rocks at Holm just outside the harbour at Stornoway.   The real tragedy about her loss however, was that she was fully loaded (some speculate that she was in fact OVERloaded) with men of the island returning home having been released from service in the Navy at the end of World War 1. 205 men at least are known to have lost their lives - many within sight of their homes and with their loved ones sitting up eagerly awaiting their return.

Almost everyone on Lewis at that time was directly affected by her loss. Some villages lost a substantial part of their population. Mothers lost sons, husbands and sweethearts never came home, and an island which had already lost so many to the war, lost still more just when they thought they were safe to believe it was all over. The local people were faced with the terrible job of having to recover bodies from the shoreline over the following few days, and still others had to identify those found - a truly appalling task when the ravages of the rough seas are considered. To this day the tragedy remains close to the hearts of the people of Lewis

The loss of the Iolaire remains one of Britains worst ever peacetime disasters.

Car ferry MV Isle of Lewis passes the spot where the Iolaire went aground

Robyn.

Hidden London...

I met a good friend for lunch the other Friday. In between all the eating and drinking (there MAY have been a glass of something lightly sparkling involved) we talked, among other things, about the hidden stuff in London, the things that the vast majority of people walk past without even looking at. After she had headed home to Surrey, and I was walking back through to get on the tube, I started really looking around and hunting out the odd things along my path.

I walked through Horse Guards Parade first - past the smartly dressed members of the Household Cavalry on guard at the entrance. Straight ahead of you, at the other side of  Horse Guards Avenue is the Guards memorial, which most people will likely recognise.

But look - just off to one side is this memorial to Lord Kitchener...

...I remember seeing that years ago, when I was a child my Nan used to take me all over London - her own knowledge of the Capital was just superb, and she taught me about so many of these little hidden places, like Postmans Park, for example. (Google it - I can't find any photos on this computer!)  Anyway, I had another quite specific statue in mind next, so turned onto The Mall where the flags were fluttering proudly...

...don't worry, I didn't take my life into my hands to take this shot - there was a traffic island...and, incidentally, FAR less traffic than you expect there to be. I got distracted before I got to my next target by this...

It's Scott of the Antarctic of course - or Captain Robert Falcon Scott to give him his proper name - and I had absolutely NO idea he was there! ("There" being at the Mall end of Waterloo Place, for those who know London at all). Impressive eh? I couldn't get a full height shot of him on his plinth sadly as in spite of the fact that I was clearly standing there photographing it, a couple of tourists came and plonked themselves down on the base of it - gah! I mean, how rude?!  Anyway, that did mean I lingered less before heading onwards - to this...

This is the memorial to the Crimean War, with Florence Nightingale taking her place at the front.

Oddly enough so far as I can find out there is only the one Statue to Nightingale in London, although Derby has three.

I was back in London the following day, and obviously still had my "spotting the not-so-obvious" head on as I saw this fascinating clock on the way to the platform for our train from Kings Cross...

...I was quite disappointed when I got to the other side of it that it didn't run from 1 > 12 on that side!

Robyn

Dulce Et Decorum Est, Pro Patria Mori?

DULCE ET DECORUM EST

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime . . .
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
 Pro patria mori.

Wilfred Owen
8 October 1917 - March, 1918

Wilfred Owen was just 25 when he died, in November 1918, within days of the end of the first World War. He joined up voluntarily in 1915, and went to the front line at the end of the following year. He was then invalided back to the UK in 1918 with concussion and shell-shock, before being passed as fit and returning to the Front in September 1918. Just a month later he won the Military Cross by seizing a German Machine-gun and using it to kill a number of enemy soldiers.  He was killed on November 4th 1918, and even as the news of his death reached his parents, the bells were ringing to celebrate the Armistice on the 11th November.


Owen's war poetry is generally haunting, evocative, but none more so to my family that the one above. My great Grandfather, John Henry Stanley, served in France with the Devonshire Regiment in the Great War, and was also awarded the Military Cross for Gallantry, Coincidentally also in October 1918. An account of the action in which his was won appears in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "The British Campaign in France & Flanders - Jul. - Nov. 1918". 

John Henry (known to the family as Jack) was born in 1892, to Mary & Henry Stanley. War broke out when he was 22, and like many others he had no hesitation in leaving his employment as a Wood Working Machinist with a Cabinet maker, joining the army and going off to fight. In June 1918 he married my Great Grandmother Priscilla, they were married by special licence while he was on leave - she must have been terrified for those final few months of fighting that he would not return. Jack would have identified all too clearly with many of the references in the poem - not least the aspect of being caught up in a gas attack. Reading through, we can hardly begin to imagine the terror, the confusion, and the panic to which Owen refers - particularly perhaps for those in charge, knowing that responsibility rested with them to ensure the safety of their men. The helplessness of seeing one of your friends dying in front of your very eyes - "He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning" tells all too clearly what the effects of gas would have been like - a truly terrible death, both to suffer and to witness. Owen also touches on how much seeing these events haunted them - referring to re-living these deaths in his dreams. I wonder whether Jack suffered the same thing?


Following the end of the war Jack returned to his family in Walthamstow, North East London - my Nan, Dorothy, was born in 1919, Great Uncle Kenneth in 1925, and their family was completed with the arrival of my Great Auntie Dee (Full name not given as she is still very much alive and would choose not to have her name plastered on the internet!)  in 1928. Sadly he was never fit enough to return to his old employment, and instead became an Insurance Agent.

Jack died in February 1932 aged just 39, directly as a result of the effects of a gas attack during World War 1. 

Lest We Forget....

Robyn - 11th November 2012.


In memory of 2nd Lieutenant John Henry Stanley MC  - Dec. 1892 - Feb 1932.

Remembering....

This is the Commando Memorial at Spean Bridge in the Highlands. A special place indeed, and one we drive past every time we visit the Hebrides. A huge number of the British Commando forces carried out their training in this area, hence the decision that the Great Glen was an appropriate place for their memorial, unveiled by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother in 1952. There is now a garden of remembrance there too, a lot of the current day Commandos choose to have their ashes scattered there on their death, and there are also small memorials there to some of those who have lost their lives in the Falklands, Afghanistan & Iraq.

To all those who have given their lives in the service of their country, whether in times of war, or peace, thank you.

Robyn

At the going down of the sun....

In spite of it being fairly close to us, we'd never before been to the Imperial War Museum at Duxford. When we realised a while ago that the admission could be paid for using ClubCard Deals vouchers we decided that it would make a good frugal day out, and chose today as our day to visit based on all the exhibits being open as it is remembrance Sunday. (The majority of the time through the winter some areas are closed off - the admission fee drops slightly to take account of this). To our surprise on arriving we were told that admission today was free, so the vouchers have gone back on the shelf for use elsewhere! The museum was holding its own remembrance service which we attended, and the shot above was taken as we left the building afterwards.

I'm currently taking part in a photographic challenge on an online community I'm a member of - it was borne from a number of people complaining that they didn't use their cameras enough, something which I really identified with, so I suggested that we got together and made a concerted effort to put that right. From a personal perspective I should probably use it as an incentive to post here more often - oddly enough it isn't a problem when we're in the hebrides, but once back in real life any number of lame excuses can come along and stand in the way of me simply taking, processing and posting a shot. Annoying, isn't it!

Robyn

We're HERE!

At last - here we are on North Uist.  Concerns about being able to find a solid wi-fi connection for updating this have proved completely unfounded as there is now a broadband connection at the cottage we are staying in. This came as a complete surprise - it's still too new to have been advertised by the cottage's owners yet - so far it seems absolutely fine and wonderfully fast....apparently though when the conditions are bad it can come and go a bit....
We were blessed with marvellous weather on the way up yesterday as this shot of the Commando Memorial at Spean Bridge in the Highlands shows. The memorial is wonderful - it stands overlooking the area where the WW2 Commando's were trained, and cannot be missed from the road as you pass by..... There is a small memorial area too where people leave tributes to those they have lost - many of those mentioned lost their lives in the 1939-45 conflict, others took part in that and have passed away since, and the most recent was killed in Iraq in 2007.
Robyn