Robert S. Arbib Jnr. - Here we are together

Robert S. Arbib Jnr.
Courtesy Lois Gebhardt and
American Birds obituary, 1987

I have only recently discovered the recollections of an American serving with 820th Engineer Aviation Battalion, Staff Sergeant Robert S. Arbib, Jnr., called ‘Here we are together’.

Robert Arbib relates his experiences in Great Britain during WW2 when he and his unit came over to construct airfields for the US Army Air Force. He and 4,000 US service personnel arrived in Glasgow aboard 'Monterey' in August 1942, a ship designed to carry 700. Arrival was soon followed by a somewhat disastrous march from the ship to the railway station when, as part of the headquarters platoon, he was towards the front of his column and dropped his entire reserve of seven cartons of cigarettes and twelve packets of pipe tobacco. He managed to retrieve them all but at the expense of the derision of the remainder of his battalion as they marched past and the polite amusement of the Scottish audience as he scrabbled to gather up the scattered packets. As he relates, a good sergeant would have left them and marched on but he never professed to be a good sergeant and apparently his company commander entirely agreed.

His battalion took the long journey by train non-stop from Glasgow to Woodbridge, near the coast of Suffolk in East Anglia. There they were soon started on establishing the ground works for a new airfield at Debach (Station 152), just outside Woodbridge, living in tented accommodation in nearby woodland which they nicknamed ‘the maze’ before later building their own Nissen huts. Their training in airfield construction had been for the establishment of temporary airfields behind the moving front line of an advancing army, the sort of thing where air-strips were graded and rolled, and then metal matting was laid rather than the more permanent construction of concrete runways required for the heavy bomber airfields but within a few days the battalion was learning the hard way.

Much of their introduction to the customs and currency of the country was provided by the local beat constable whom they called ‘Sheriff’ Moody. They discovered their nearest pub., the Grundisburgh ‘Dog’, and the warm English beer. Some of the visiting Americans tended to stay on their base but many were to become more acquainted with their host country. Work on airfield building was dirty and hard and the impression is that ‘play’ in their time off, taken by most of them in Ipswich, was also hard. A truck would take as many as it could carry into the blacked out town to relax in the many pubs to be found there although he was a bit of a loner on these excusrions and found somewhere quieter. He later related how the drinking habits of the two countries differed a great deal.

Robert Arbib had trained as a camouflage expert and he soon found that he was redundant. There was no time to camouflage airfields under construction and he became the battalion postal clerk and errand boy, travelling daily to the clearing centre for all US mail at Sudbury. He and his driver would stop for a wash and shave in the luxury of hot water at the YMCA in Ipswich before breakfast and then going on to Sudbury, visiting banks, laundries, dry-cleaners and anywhere that official business sent him, and some places that it didn’t. He made a number of friends in Sudbury and names many of them, in particular those at the post office, at the bank and where he occasionally stayed when on an overnight pass, Gainsborough House.

Work progressed until late April 1943 when, with Debach still unfinished and with only one runway completed they were suddenly transferred to nearby Wattisham also in Suffolk, an old established RAF fighter airfield with grass runways where they were to build concrete ones for a new bomber and transport base. Here his unit had the luxury of purpose built RAF accommodation and the occupants Nissen Hut 7 at Debach found themselves in Flat 33 of the living quarters for married NCO’s at Wattisham. His visits to Sudbury continued but in May 1943 he was transferred to Watford into a new role as part of the Army Public Relations team.

This role took him to the many different US units under the administrative control of the Eastern Base Section, which was based in Watford but which was responsible for US army personnel from the Thames to the Scottish border, reporting on the many human interest stories. In Watford the members of the EBS were billeted in private houses and marched each day up Langley Road to their headquarters in a building which had been a school. At Watford he made many more friends and remembers with particular fondness the regulars of the public house ‘The Unicorn’where he learned the variety of English beers as well as making new English friends from the villages of Kings Langley and Chipperfield.

Included in the narrative Robert Arbib relates his impressions in more depth of many aspects of his experiences here. There are some sharply observed chapters on the personnel of the Observer Corps post at Grundisburgh, of a Sunday spent at Felixstowe, of a dance at Woodbridge as a guest of the warrant officers and sergeants of 7th Highland Light Infantry, of London and Sudbury at night and of the sight of the many searchlights, of the eccentric personnel of the Public Relations unit at Watford, of Kingston upon Hull as the reception port for much of the US equipment being landed here, of the homes and hospitality of the many English friends he made as well as accounts of visits to the countless places between London and Scotland that his public relations role took him.

This slim volume is a gem of a memoir about relatively unrecorded aspects of the war and relates the author’s sympathetic appreciation of the countryside, the buildings, the English and their heritage. It is also the only published account by an American that I have come across of this aspect of the US war effort in this country, when great numbers of airfields were built from scratch to accommodate the US Army Air Force.

Originally published by Longman’s Green in 1946 'Here we are together' was also issued by the Right Book Club in 1947 but remains quite an uncommon book in either edition. It appears from other sources that Robert Arbib went on to become a respected ornithologist and it is apparent throughout this account that his skill in observation was already acute during those early years. Do look out for a copy.

RNPS Commando - Petty Officer Harold Hiscock

PO. Harold Hiscock, courtesy
Commando Veterans website

I was recently talking to a colleague, a retired British Army Major who now leads battlefield tours in Europe and who had been investigating the records of Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, in what was East Germany. He had come across a reference to an Royal Naval Patrol Service member, apparently a commando, who had been executed there in 1945 and who is mentioned on the Addenda Panel of our Memorial in Belle Vue Park, Lowestoft. Knowing my interest in RNPS matters he mentioned the details to me.

I had not heard anything about him and I checked with those at ‘the Nest’ (Sparrows Nest Gardens, Lowestoft where the RNPS Museum is situated) and they hadn’t either so I have been trying to follow it up. The name on the Addenda Panel is Petty Officer H. Hiscock and the details of the Commonwealth War Graves record of him as ‘of Newfoundland’, his service no: LT/JX 217862, his date of death: as 02/02/1945 and that he was attached to HMS Quebec.

Isn’t Google wonderful! Cutting a long story short(er) it appears from a WWW search that PO. Hiscock was a member of a seven strong team trained at the Combined Forces Training Centre at Inverary (HMS Quebec), operating as part of No. 14 (Arctic) Commando who were sent to Norway in Operation Checkmate to attack Axis shipping by attaching limpet mines to them. In mid April 1943 the team, a fishing coble and two canoes were dropped by an MTB on a small island north of Stavanger from where they operated, attacking and sinking a number of ships at Haugesund.

Subsequent details are somewhat sketchy but it appears that the whole team was captured by the German Army over a period of several days in mid May, with the aid of the police and Norwegian civilians. The team were operating in uniform and should have been regarded as prisoners of war but for Hitler’s notorious ‘Commando Order’ of October 1942 ordering the execution of any commandos. They were handed over to the Security Service (SD) and after spending some time in Grini Concentration Camp in Norway they were transferred to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp just outside Berlin. There they underwent forced labour, marching 30 miles per day over cobbles breaking in army boots for a number of months.

PO Harold Hiscock recorded on the
RNPS Memorial in Belle Vue Park, Lowestoft

Except for two the almost exclusively naval team were executed at Sachsenhausen on 2nd February 1945. The team comprised Lieutenant John Godwin, RNVR (in command), Sgt. Victor John Cox (on attachment from No. 12 Commando), Petty Officers Alfred John Roe and Harold Hiscock, and three Able Seamen, Neville Arthur Burgess, Keith Mayor and Andrew Anthony West. Two of the team, PO. Alfred J. Roe and AB. Keith Mayor, were transferred to Belsen where PO. Roe was executed on 7th April 1945 and Mayor died there from typhus.

As is the sad way with these things the men who served together and mostly died together are commemorated separately on a number of different memorials for those with no known grave. Lt. Godwin is mentioned on the Portsmouth Memorial, Sgt. Cox at the Brookwood Memorial, PO. Roe at Portsmouth, PO. Hiscock at Lowestoft, AB. Burgess at Chatham and ABs. Mayor and West at Plymouth.

So much time has passed that it may be too late but PO. Hiscock was a Newfoundlander and it would be great to hear of any recollections of him from any surviving RNPS members, other wartime colleagues or from any of his family in Canada or elsewhere.

RNPS Silver Badge File (II)

The front and back of the original RNPS Silver Badge,
about the same size as an old shilling or new 10p

On delving deeper into the file about the Royal Naval Patrol Service Silver Badge in the National Archives (the account of the discovery of which was first published in the RNPS Newsletter), we find it lays to rest some of the folklore about the reason for the change of design of the Badge, from the original pin type to the later four-eye type, with a rather more mundane account.

Traditionally the reason for the change was that Badges of the original pin type were too easily detached from clothing. So many were being reported lost or stolen, when in fact many were probably being given away as sweetheart brooches, that the design was changed to make them more securely attached. The facts are a little different.

The initial production run in 1940 had been of 20,000 Badges and by late September 1941 the Commander of the Patrol Service Central Depot, Commodore Daniel de Pass, anticipated that the supply would be exhausted by the end of the month and he requested the Admiral Commanding Reserves for the supply of a further 10,000. He also noted that it was possible that there was 'a certain amount of trafficking in these Badges' and suggested that future replacements, which could be obtained for sixpence, should be noted in the rating's pay book with the date of issue, date of replacement and issuing signature.

Certain minutes seeking Treasury approval then follow until a letter from the Royal Mint on 31st October which states that while there is no problem with producing the Badges, the contractors who supply the pins and catches are having difficulties in obtaining them. The reason for this is not given but it can only be assumed that the steel for pins is of a high quality, and it is known from other sources that high quality steel was in short supply and probably reserved for more warlike purposes.

Before the difficulty in the supply of pins and catches was resolved the Commander Minesweeping - Peterhead, Cdr. J. P. Dobson, submitted a suggestion, on 20th March 1942, that because of damage to clothing the Badge be remodelled with two eyes so that it could be sewn to the sleeve. This was amended to 'four small loops' by the Flag Officer-in-Charge - Aberdeen, so that the Badge would lie flatter, and submitted through the Commander-in-Chief - Rosyth to the Secretary of the Admiralty and recommended for the concurrence of Their Lordships, a copy being received by the Silver Badge Office at Lowestoft on 30th March 1942. There is also a copy of the concurrence of Commodore Daniel de Pass with this proposal.

The later version of the RNPS Silver badge

Not surprisingly with such support subsequent Badges were produced to this new pattern with four eyes which overcame the problem of the shortage of pins and helped to prevent damage to ratings' clothing. By 25th August 1942 there is a note that an initial supply of the new style Badges has been received at Lowestoft.

There is correspondence in the file between the Naval Branch at the Admiralty and The Treasury about the recall of old style Badges for exchange for the new, which was eventually agreed but only on a voluntary basis. Also in the file is a new Admiralty Fleet Order dated 3rd September 1942 amending the description of the Badge and specifying that it is to be sewn onto the sleeve, and on 4th March 1943 a new AFO incorporating the old Orders specifying the qualification for receipt of the Badge as well as the new description.

As a matter of interest the initial production of 20,000 Badges had been achieved at a total cost of £569.00, of which £329.00 had been for the silver bullion and 50 guineas (1 guinea = £1.05) the design cost paid to Kruger Gray. There is no record of whether the cost of silver bullion had risen by May 1942 when the new style Badge was produced.

Fr. Anthony E. Sketch

Fr. Tony on the 40th annivesary of his
ordination in 2002, on the sanctuary of

Our Lady Star of the Sea, Lowestoft

On 10th October we said goodbye to Fr. Tony Sketch who had been our parish priest for nearly twenty years and who had, in his own words and after a long illness, 'gone home to God'. The formal occasion of his Requiem Mass was marked with a packed church of Our Lady Star of the Sea, Lowestoft, with over 30 of his fellow priests from all over East Anglia concelebrating and led, in the absence of a bishop since the death of our Bishop Michael last year, by our diocesan administrator Fr. David Bagstaff. This was followed by a private burial attended by his family at Kirkley Cemetary and a wake for everyone in the Stella Maris Hall, when memories of and anecdotes about him were swapped.

Fr. Tony came to Lowestoft in 1982 and soon became a popular figure having an impact on the town with his support for the ecumenical Christians Together movement and with his work in the chaplaincy at Blundeston Prison. His greatest impact however was amongst his parishioners with his humanity and his impish sense of humour. With many he soon came to be regarded as an extra member of the family, someone who would be invited to family celebrations as a matter of course and who would come and be a welcome guest. At times a deeply spiritual man he also had an appreciation of many of the fine arts, a love of music and of the culinary arts both as a consumer and as an experimental cook.

During his time in  Lowestoft his was the moving force for the renovation of the Presbytery, the remodelling and re-decorating of the Sanctuary at Our Lady's as well as the repair and restoration of its tower, and for the purchase of a new home for St. Nicholas Church to replace the 'temporary' one serving the parish in South Lowestoft.

We would lose him from the parish from time to time as he was also an international director of the shrine at Lourdes and his administrative duties took him away from us for short periods but his familiarity with Lourdes also meant that he led several parish pilgrimages there as well as to the Holy Land.

A serious road accident when he had been a young man took its toll on him in later years and from time to time he was dogged by ill-health. Ordained in 1962 he served as Parish Priest at Lowestoft from 1982 until 1998 when he continued as assistant for a while. After retiring to a flat overlooking the sea he was eventually unable to care for himself any longer and was admitted to a care home where he died peacefully on 26th September at the age of 75 years.

Fr Tony worked publicly for the material improvement of the fabric of the parish but, unseen by most, he also brought back to the Church many who had lapsed as well new members, through his quiet spiritual ministry. He was not a conventional Catholic priest but he was no fool either; he was his own man and not always entirely at peace with some of the church hierarchy. He was, however, a 'larger than life' character and it is sad to think that he is no longer with us in body but his sense of humour will be with us still and I am sure that we will continue to hear him chuckling over our shoulders at some of the absurdities of life.

Lowestoft ChurchFest

Now that the event has finished I have edited this post slightly to bring it up to date but an amazing couple of weeks has come to an end. In that time some 38 churches in the district from the Baptist, Bethel, Church of England, Community Church, Methodist, Roman Catholic, Salvation Army, Seventh Day Adventist, Society of Friends, United Reformed traditions have together opened their doors, put on special events and invited everyone in.

As well as being an opportunity for those who don't attend any church to have a look inside somewhere they might have wondered about or for those who are lapsed churchgoers to renew their acquaintance, it is has been an opportunity for members of the different congregations to meet on each others ground and find out how similar we all are rather than how different! So soon after the event it is impossible to say how successful the 'back to church' final theme has been but time might tell. You can't drag people back to church but you can try and offer the opportunity to those who have an unfilled spiritual need in their lives.

We already have an excellent ecumenical tradition in Lowestoft with Christians Together. Some of us are also part of the Men's Christian Network which meets at 8.00am several times a year at a variety of venues to listen, after a full cooked English breakfast, to a guest speaker relating aspects of his work, life and/or experiences in relation to Christianity. I won't suggest that without the breakfast it is would be quite as popular but that at Pakefield Church Hall, the first event of the Fest, was very well attended to hear the speaker, the moving force behind the ChurchFest, Canon Ian Bentley.

Many of us also heard Ian speak at the dinner arranged by Our Lady Star of the Sea the following evening. A very full programme continued throughout the week and with church-sitting in my own church for two mornings I managed to visit only a few but they included a Yarmouth Brass concert at St. Mark's Oulton Broad, Spinners and Weavers at Our Lady Star of the Sea (as well as a visit to the top of the church tower), a vegetarian lunch at the Seventh Day Adventists, an attempt to 'Meet the New Minister' at the South Lowestoft Methodist Church (but I arrived just too late) and a presentation about the Eighth Air Force at St. Edmund's Church Hall, Kessingland by Bob Collis on behalf of Gisleham Holy Trinity - and there were another 43 events I didn't manage to visit in just the first week! The following week started with a Harvest Thanksgiving service at the United Reformed Church and has gone on in like manner to week one.

Many congratulations to Rev'd. Canon Ian Bentley for a remarkable achievement in bringing all the churches together, albeit very willingly, and to the churches themselves for the effort that went in to make the Lowestoft ChurchFest truly memorable.

Lady Emma Kitchener, LVO

At the Lord Kitchener Memorial Holiday Centre we were delighted to learn that Lady Emma Kitchener, aka Lady Fellowes of West Stafford, has agreed to be our new Patron following the death of her uncle, and our previous Patron, Lord Kitchener.

Sadly she was not able to be with us at our Annual General Meeting this year as her husband, the Baron Fellowes of West Stafford, possibly better known as the writer of Downton Abbey, Julian Fellowes, had commitments in Los Angeles at the Emmy Awards.

We look forward to perhaps seeing both of them at our next Annual General Meeting!

Graeme Roberts (only a death seems to prompt a post)

It's a sad fact of life that you older you get, the less time you seem to have to cover all the tasks you set yourself. As a result this blog has been sadly neglected. This year I have allowed such uplifting events as attending the memorial service for Lord Kitchener in Westminster and talking to the visitors from our twin town of Plaisir about the Royal Naval Patrol Service pass by without comment. Some events, however, are so hard hitting that time must be found.

I lost a friend yesterday. Graeme Roberts was a bookseller, a unique one in my experience with a divi's eye for any sort of collectable book and a vast experience of sci-fi. When I first knew him he was trading as Magpie Books at 53 Brushfield Street, Spitalfields and then at The Clerk's House at 118½ Shoreditch High Street. Based in the wilds of Suffolk I had known him only remotely since the early 1990's as a fellow bookseller but I got to know him properly with the coming of the world wide web. The internet gave us much better opportunities for contact, for the exchange of views on books, on bookselling and on the world in general, which had not been possible when buying and selling from each other by post.

In the late 1990's, concerned with the increasing avarice of some of the major bookselling websites, a small group of us, led by Graeme, explored the possibilities of a cooperative of independent booksellers. That group came into being and briefly flourished but the nature of cooperation was always going to be a difficulty with such independent and somewhat eccentric people as booksellers and it gradually declined.

During this time Graeme had left his roots in the east end of London for West Yorkshire and after a spell near Todmorden ended up at Hebden Bridge. Graeme had some relationship and financial difficulties and I lost touch with him for a while but I am pleased to say that we picked up the pieces again last year and were in infrequent but regular touch. He was due to visit his mother's grave in Essex and had promised to bend his route to come and stay and be introduced to our local micro-brewery.

Graeme was outspoken, a trait which sometimes got him into trouble but a trait which made him who he was, a genuine man with no pretentiousness. He made mistakes - don't we all - but he made efforts to correct them and although in his last few years he was probably less financially secure than at any other time of his life, I hope and believe that he was content, amongst some real friends at Hebden Bridge. Rest in Peace, Graeme.

Lord Kitchener

It was with great sadness that I learned just before Christmas of the death of Henry, 3rd Earl Kitchener on 16th December 2011.

As previously mentioned I have an interest as one of the trustees of the Lord Kitchener Memorial Holiday Centre. Lord Kitchener had only been our patron for a relatively short time, after the death of our previous patron HRH Princess Alice, but he had been a vice-patron and a stalwart supporter of the Centre at Lowestoft for a number of years.

The trustees were very grateful that his family had managed to arrange what turned out to be his final visit to us in September this year and our heartfelt condolences go out to them for their loss. We also have every sympathy with the unfair situation expressed by Julian (Fellowes), Baron Fellowes of of West Stafford, that his wife The Lady Emma, although Lord Kitchener's niece and legal heir, cannot inherit the title as 4th Countess under current legislation.

Loss of friends

Self, Keith
Ann, Doreen

It's been a sad week for us with two funerals. The first, on Monday, was that of Penny Barley, much loved wife of Robin with whom I worked for several years in the late 1970's and who was taken after a very short illness. She was far too young to have been taken yet at all and the sense of loss and her popularity was marked by the standing room only at the celebration of her life.

Yesterday, Thursday, Ann and I attended that of Keith Savage whom we had known for the nearly fifty years it is since he and I had served together with the East Suffolk Police at Lowestoft.

Those were the days of foot patrols, of great-coats surmounted with a cape when on night patrol shaking hands with shop door handles and of point duty in a white-painted wooden box at what was known as Tuttles corner, the junction of Waveney Road with what was then the A12. This was some time before we eventally took delivery of the first Panda cars in the town and he became Panda 4 and I Panda 2 (it was physically more comfortable policing but we lost touch with the public).

Towards the end of the 1960's Keith and I, with our respective wives Doreen and Ann, spent a memorable holiday together bed and breakfasting round the Highlands of Scotland. Being realistic about the reliability of our own cars, Keith's Morris Minor and my Sunbeam Alpine, we hired a Ford Corsair.

The image shows that we made it, all the way to the top (click the image for a larger version where the text is readable). We were young, carefree and full of hope and anticipation if a little windswept!

Yesterday brought some consolation, that of renewed acquaintance with Keith and Doreen's son (and our Godson) Gary and of meeting his wife Natalie. Doreen and Keith had every right to be very proud of Gary's achievements, of his double first at Cambridge, his doctorate and his teaching career at Eton, Westminster and now as Headmaster of Alleyn's School at Dulwich. It was also good to renew friendships with colleagues not seen for so long.

In latter years after he had retired from the police Keith, always a collector, became a fellow bookseller with a shop in Saxmundham. We would visit on an occasional basis but never on a Tuesday afternoon or a Saturday when Ipswich Town were playing at home as he always had a prior engagement!

We'll miss you, rest in peace Keith.

AGM of Lord Kitchener Memorial Holiday Centre at Lowestoft

From left: Guest speaker Colonel Moss, Lady Fellowes, Lord Kitchener,
Chairman: John Greenacre, Lord Fellowes, Trustee: Michael Sims

Wearing one of my other hats I recently attended the Lord Kitchener Memorial Holiday Centre for their Annual General Meeting. The LKMHC is a prime building facing the sea in the Suffolk coastal town of Lowestoft which provides serviced holiday accommodation to ex-members of the merchant and armed services. It first openend its doors in 1919 as a memorial to the national war hero the first Lord Kitchener of Khartoum, who had died with his staff when HMS Hampshire was sunk by a mine off the Orkney Islands in 1916.

The Lord Kitchener Memorial Holiday Centre, Lowestoft

This year, after much planning, we were delighted to welcome back our patron, the present Lord Kitchener, who had not been able to visit us for some years after a stroke. By planning well in advance his niece and her husband, the Lord and Lady Fellowes of West Stafford, were able to drive him from his home in West Sussex. Lord Fellowes is better known as Julian Fellowes (the actor and writer, Gosford Park, Downton Abbey, etc.) and his wife Lady Emma, and we managed to fit the AGM into their busy schedule so that they could bring Lady Emma's uncle.

The AGM was attended by some 90+ friends and supporters of the Centre in a somewhat less formal meeting than of recent years. We heard a brief summary of the last financial year from the new chairman of the management committe, Dr. John Greenacre, an interesting account of his work by Colonel Neale Moss, Commander Aviation 16 Air Assault Brigade, and a short address by Lord Kitchener. Lady Emma was presented with a posy by the chairman's daughter, Alice Greenacre.

Lady Emma and Alice Greenacre

The meeting was very well attended and as well as the top-table guests our distinguished visitors included Major-General John Sutherell, Peter Aldous MP, the Chairman of Waveney District Council, the Mayor of Lowestoft and many more. All the armed services were represented as were many ex-service associations. Aftewards we enjoyed an excellent buffet prepared and served by the Centre staff and our VIP guests took the opportunity to talk to our many other guests at the Centre that evening.

The stamina of Lord Kitchener, now in his nineties, was amazing and he circulated and spoke to many people during the buffet. This was Lord and Lady Fellowes of West Stafford first visit to us and they really showed in interest in what we were doing at the Centre. Lady Emma was given a short tour of some of the rooms and I even managed to get my first editions of 'Snobs' and 'Past Imperfect' signed by Lord Fellowes (in his persona as Julian Fellows).


The stalwart service of the Centre manager Steven Schofield, his wife and Centre housekeeper, Lorraine, and their staff was publicly acknowledged. The Centre, which is open from April until th end of October is able to offer bed, breakfast and an evening meal to 20 guests at a time in 10 en-suite twin-bedded rooms, at a rate which is kept below the minimum income level by grants from service charities.

The management committee and trustees are all unpaid, a fact to which tribute was paid by Lord Kitchener, who has experience of management fees being charged in other charitable enterprises. The trustees and management were very grateful to all those who made the evening go so well, not least the police at Lowestoft who were able, by their presence, to ease the arrival of guests in a single-carriageway road. It is hoped that the visit of our noble, gallant and distinguished guests can be repeated next year.

From the left:
The Baron Fellowes of West Stafford (Julian Fellowes),
The Lady Fellowes of West Stafford (Lady Emma)
and The Earl Kitchener of Khartoum

Further details about the Centre and the service offered can be found at:

Lord Kitchener Memorial Holiday Centre

Lowestoft and Plaisir Twinning

With delight I have discovered the Lowestoft and Plaisir Twinning Association blog.

Choisissez une langue de traduction:

What seems like a lifetime ago in 1979, when I was still serving in the Suffolk Fire Service, my wife and I were the guests of the the Briand family when we attended the original twinning ceremony between our two towns in France. Lieutenant Briand was in command of the Sapeurs-pompiers at Plaisir and I was a full-time operational Sub Officer at Normanshurst in Lowestoft.

The formal ceremony 1

(Click on any image for a larger version)

The formal ceremony 2

The formal ceremony 3

After the formal ceremony. Lieutenant Briand (fore-ground, in uniform) with his wife and mine, Ann

I believe the visit was for three days, a most hectic period of almost non-stop activity covering the twinning ceremony itself, the 'cross' (a cross country run, viewing not taking part), a social event in a community centre, a jazz gig in a park, a visit to the the Caserne (Fire Station)...

A visit to the Caserne....

....where I am even allowed to play with some of the equipment.

and another to the Palace of Versailles, as well as the hospitality at the home of the Briands and of their friends and neighbours.

...and another to the Palace of Versailles...

The Briands had no English and we had only very rusty 'O' level French, but with the help of a French/English dictionary we managed to communicate. In fact we found that it was by far the quickest way to learn French, to be plunged into a totally French speaking environment!

Sadly, shortly after our visit I started to develop health problems and after one more promotion and a couple of years taken for the diagnosis to be completed I had to retire from the Fire Service on grounds of ill health. I have lost touch with the Briands so if anyone knows of their whereabouts I would be pleased to hear.

A little while later we were able to return a small portion of the hospitality that we had received. The Briands were unable to visit but another family (sadly their name has been forgotten) who had connections with SNCF stayed with us.

At the time we were running a guest house but they stayed as our guests and, in the hope that the Transport Museum at Carlton Colville might be of interest, took them there. They appeared to enjoy it but after their high-tech French railways it must have seemed rather quaint.

With other commitments in our lives we lost touch with those involved with the twinning. The level of commitments in other directions is still high but it is great to have the opportunity to try to establish them again.

A cautionary tale...

You wouldn't think that selling books would involve the loss of much blood but unless you keep your concentration, it can!

The steri-strips came off today but you can still see the angle at which the steel rule was being held to guide the Stanley knife through the cardboard of the book-pack, trimming it to size. Only a blade past the prime of sharpness prevented complete removal of the top right corner of the index finger. On the other hand (so to speak) a sharper blade might have cut straight through the slight fault in the cardboard that made it jump.

Either way, it has been a 'sharp' reminder to keep your mind on what you are doing!

An RNPS silver badge file in the National Archives

Late last year I was asked if I would like to give a short talk to the local Rotary Club about the Royal Naval Patrol Service. Flattered that anyone would think that I knew enough about RNPS to take it on I readily agreed and then wondered if I could really get away with it. This would be to a local Lowestoft audience, men who could well have served or whose fathers had served in RNPS and I needed to get my facts right. I knew my limitations but fortunately I had a couple of months in which I could refresh my memory and try to fill some of the gaps in my knowledge.

I was a bit hazy about the sequence of events surrounding the development of different minesweeping methods. I re-read my references and all that I could get hold of from elsewhere. Amongst the sources I examined were the cabinet papers of the first few months of the war, when Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty. These are held in the National Archives and fortunately most of them seem to be online. It was while I was searching in the National Archives (as one does!) that I checked to see what they had on the silver badge and I came across a file from 1940 with the name:

HONOURS AND AWARDS (85): Institution of silver badge for personnel serving in Auxiliary, Anti-Submarine and Minesweeping Vessels.

(For those unaware, the silver badge was unique to the RN Patrol Service. It was produced at the personal intervention of Winston Churchill when First Lord of the Admiralty in December 1939 and it was awarded exclusively (it was believed, more later) to RNPS personnel after six months sea time on minesweeping and anti-submarine duties to reflect the hazards of their tasks. It was indeed solid silver and was a much prized mark of distinction).

The file sounded intriguing but unlike the cabinet papers, it was not online I could not dip into it to confirm what it was about and there was no mention of the Patrol Service in the heading. To have confirmation I would need to get it copied and there would be a cost involved, unless I wished to travel to Kew to view it in person.

As I hadn’t previously heard of this file before deciding what to do I checked with the RNPS museum curator to see if he already had a copy or even knew of it. He hadn’t heard of it so I asked the National Archives to quote for supplying a copy.

The basic information available about the file did not give any indication about its size. The scale of charges by National Archives is a very reasonable 43 pence per A3 photocopy plus a charge for post and packing. When you ask for a quote they promise a reply within ten working days and after about a week the quote duly arrived.

They set out the number of pages and the cost of copying and shipping. Although the per page cost of 43p had seemed very reasonable it was a bit of a shock to find that the file contained 120 separate pages and the quote including carriage was £65.00. This was, however, a record that needed to be investigated, would be cheaper than travelling to Kew and I am delighted to say that it was worthwhile.

Although there appear to be gaps in the file it contains copies of correspondence between Admiralty departments, between the Admiralty and the Ministry of Shipping, the Patent Office, The Royal Mint, the Naval Press Bureau etc. on all aspects of the design, production and distribution of the badge. There is even a covering letter from the Royal Mint to the Admiral Commanding Reserves for the fee of 50 guineas charged by Mr Kruger Grey for designing and modelling the badge, asking for sanction for its payment.

Unfortunately there are copyright issues with showing some of the contents of the file which I have not yet cleared with the National Archives. There is much more of interest in the file which needs time to detail than I have at present but I hope to have a better description and permission to supply images available in subsequent posts.

Rotary East, Lowestoft

What nice people they are at Rotary East, Lowestoft.

They recently invited me to talk to them for 20-30 minutes about the history of the Royal Naval Patrol Service, a branch of the Royal Navy which had been based at Lowestoft during WW2. They gave me a very nice meal and were very patient when I was still talking 40 minutes later.

I took a visual presentation with me, to help get the message across. They seemed to appreciate it and were very complimentary at the end.

I wonder if they'd invite me again if I could think of something else to talk about?

Campaign for REAL Books

We are delighted to add our support to the Campaign for Real Books, an idea to help preserve the nature of the printed word.

In recent years we have lost too many bookshops, both those selling new and secondhand books, and those left need all the help they can get just to survive. If the electronic reader takes any more out of the market for real paper books then more bookshops may not survive, which will be a loss for us all.

We understand that it is due to launch in the very near future and when we have the information about how the scheme will work we will be happy to give a discount to those that have joined.

Political confusion

This is NOT a political point but despair at a further example of the misuse and confusion about our language. One of our up and coming politicians, in quite an important and powerful government position as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, does not seem to know the difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion.

Danny Alexander, addressing the Liberal Democrat Conference on Sunday 19th September, said:

"tax avoidance and evasion are unacceptable in the best of times but in today's circumstances they are morally indefensible"
AND
"the Chancellor and I have agreed to invest 900 million pounds extra on a package of new measures to crack down on tax avoidance and evasion"

One would have thought it might be surprising but perhaps excusable in a member of parliament with an artistic speciality. According to HM Treasury's website, however, Danny Alexander has previously spent a number of years as a specialist communicator and has been a shadow Secretary for Work and Pensions and so hopefully is aware of our tax system.

For his information and that of any other members of HM Government, my understanding of the difference is:

1. Tax avoidance is the legal way of reducing one's tax liability within the existing tax rule framework.
2. Tax evasion is the illegal concealment of tax liability.

For further information search Google for 'define:tax evasion' and for the speech extract (a brief 1 minute 30 second video) see the BBC News page: Government crackdown on tax...

Rant over. I feel better now. Thank you.

Dornford Yates and C. W. Stamper

In 1913 Mills and Boon published a book called ‘What I Know’, by C. W. Stamper, the memoirs of a chauffeur/motor engineer to King Edward VII from 1905-10, with an acknowledgement in the foreword to Dornford Yates 'but for whose tireless assistance these memories might never have been published' (published in US as 'King Edward as I Knew Him' by Dodd Mead).

Dornford Yates (real name Cecil William Mercer) was at this time still a practising barrister but he was short of work and had been writing stories for the Windsor Magazine, a popular monthly, since 1911. His first book in his own name, however, a collection of these short stories, would not appear until 1914. After WW1 he went on to give up the bar, became a full-time writer and wrote a further thirty-three books.

Although no acknowledgement of ‘What I Know’ ever appeared in Dornford Yates’ other works it is presumed that he was the ghost-writer but there was never any certainty. To those familiar with his work the turn of phrase employed in ‘What I know’ is typical of Dornford Yates’ style and although not a work of fiction it was still his first book. All that was lacking was proof.

In 1982 A. J. Smithers biography of Dornford Yates failed to mention it at all although there was a note in the preface to the 2nd edition in 1985 that the existence of the book had since come to his notice. In the third edition in 1983 of Richard Usborne’s ‘Clubland Heroes’ he mentions the book, which he has ignored until this edition, commenting on the fact that Dornford Yates himself never refers to the book in his quasi-autobiographies as he may have been embarrassed to admit to having been ‘ghost writer to a mere (albeit
royal) servant’.

With no-one producing definitive proof of authorship there had always remained that nagging doubt but a short while ago I managed to find proof, that satisfied me anyway, that the book was ghost written by Dornford Yates.

In November 2006 I acquired a rather poor copy of Stamper's ‘What I Know’ on ebay. The seller had described it as ‘signed’ copy but it turned out only to be initialled. It was, however, inscribed to ‘B. Barnham, with best wishes from the writer, D.Y., March 1914’ and it was certainly consistent with examples I had seen of Yates’ handwriting.

I queried with the seller about the ‘B. Barnham’ or any information she might have as to the origin of the book but she was unable to help me. Then earlier this year I mentioned the inscription on a ‘Yahoo’ group of Dornford Yates enthusiasts and a member using the name ‘Gillian’ came up trumps.

She had checked the 1911 census which shows the Mercer family as living at 79 Victoria Road, Kensington and lists the occupants of that address as follows:

MERCER, Cecil John/Head/age 60/Married/Solicitor/born Great Mongeham Kent
MERCER, Helen/Wife/age 51/born Pembury Kent
MERCER, Cecil William/Son/Single/age 25/Barrister/born Walmer Kent
BARNHAM, Beatrice/Servant/Single/age 21/House Parlourmaid/born Ledbury Herefordshire

So it appears that the book had been a gift from the son of the household, Dornford Yates, to the family’s house-parlourmaid and that he had acknowledged being the writer in his own hand.

Proof at last!

Churchill's Spearhead

John Greenacre, a currently serving officer (now retired, 6/5/11, ed.) and a colleague on the Lord Kitchener Memorial Holiday Centre management team is the author of a recently published book on the development of Britain's airborne forces during WW2, covering both parachute and glider elements.

The title is Churchill's Spearhead and is published by Pen and Sword at £15.99 plus post and packing. It is an in-depth study of the politics and policy concerning the development of the airborne forces; the methods and obstacles to providing bespoke equipment; the selection, recruitment and training of potential airborne personnel; how development was influenced by commanders both within and outside the new force; and how the force was employed in the Mediterranean and Western Europe theatres and the constraints encountered. Altogether a valuable contribution to the genre.

Dunkirk anniversary

To coincide with the 70th anniversary of the evacuation of Dunkirk we have nearly 60 items containing accounts of the progress of the withdrawal or the experiences of the soldiers, sailors and airmen involved.

The sad shorthand in our evolving language

I need to catalogue some stock that I have been passing over for some time and this morning I was flicking through an early edition of Byron’s ‘The Bride of Abydos’. I found that one of the leaves was marked with an oval ink stamp ‘ex libris vibira pinto’. Not being aware of ‘vibira pinto’ I Googled the whole phrase (as one does).

Most of the links presented to me had matched with ‘ex libris’ and I followed several of them. I was sad to find that, on internet at least, ‘ex libris’ was defined in several as ‘a bookplate’ which seems rather like putting the cart before the horse.

I may be wrong (my latin instruction was over fifty years ago and I was never very attentive) but I have always understood ‘ex libris’ to mean ‘from the books of’ or ‘from the library of’, ex being the preposition ‘out of’ and libris being the ablative plural form of liber or book. Since bookplates began it has frequently appeared on them accompanied by the owners name as a reminder that the book has an owner and should be returned.

That ‘ex libris’ has come to mean a bookplate is a very lazy supposition. There is already a perfectly good word for that ownership label, it is 'bookplate'. Just because many different bookplates have the common phrase ‘ex libris’ written or printed on them does not mean that it can be translated as ‘bookplate’. It is like saying that ‘no waiting’ means a metal sign at the side of the road.

Such shortcuts don’t improve our language and many of them debase it. It strikes me that the above is an example or should I use another and say ‘a for instance’?