Tagged with: Memories
Posts (9)
Heritage Minister "disappointed" with National Library for accepting SS man's bequest
BBC Wales History
The National Library of Wales has been criticised by Heritage Minister Huw Lewis AM for accepting a bequest of £300,000 and archive material from a Frenchman, Louis Feutren, who served in the Waffen SS during World War Two. The SS was a notorious paramilitary wing of Adolf Hitler's army, acti...
Welsh POW David Harries shares memories of the horrors of war
BBC Wales History
Eyewitness accounts from those who lived through World War Two can provide valuable historical documents for subsequent generations. Welsh Airman David Arthur Harries, from Llandybie, Carmarthenshire, tells how he survived a Japanese prisoner of war camp in Indonesia. In spite of witnessing i...
Welsh War veteran with a James Bond connection
BBC Wales History
As Remembrance Sunday approaches, the Big Lottery Fund continues to share with BBC Wales History the remarkable stories and memories of men and women in Wales who have fought in past wars. One remarkable man is Dennis Whitcombe from Cwmbran in south Wales. Dennis Whitcombe World-fam...
Life Stories at St Fagans: National History Museum
BBC Wales History
If you're looking for inspirational, history-based activities to enjoy next weekend, then reserve your place on Life Stories, on Saturday 20 November at St Fagans: National History Museum in Cardiff. Life Stories is a free one-day community event exploring the value and popularity of stories ...
Women war veterans
BBC Wales History
During World War Two, women across Britain were encouraged to do 'their bit' as part of the war effort. Posters and campaigns were seen around the country asking women to "Join the Wrens and free a man for the fleet". Members of the Women's Royal Navy Service (WRNS) were referred to fondly as 'Wrens' and they played a valuable role in both world wars, as well as in other conflicts throughout the 20th century. Women were encouraged to join and to do jobs that had previously been done by men. Women joined in their thousands and by the end of World War Two over 74,000 women had been recruited to the service. Margaret Street and Margaret Read are active members of the North Wales Branch of the Wrens Association. Margaret Street and Margaret Read responded to the call, and even though the ladies are now in their nineties they have very clear memories of their time spent in the Wrens. You can read some memories of their wartime experiences below. Margaret Street (left) and Margaret Read (right) in uniform Both woman are members of the North Wales Branch of the Wrens Association which very recently received a grant from the Big Lottery Fund to help their members attend reunions in Liverpool, Caernarfon and Cambridge, among others. To find out more about the Big Lottery Fund's Heroes Return 2 programme, call the helpline on 0845 00 00 121 or visit the website www.biglotteryfund.org.uk. Margaret Street It was the lure of crossing oceans that led Margaret Street who now lives in Prestatyn, north Wales, to join the Wrens. Margaret Street in in Ceylon, now called Sri Lanka. Margaret is on the far right side of the middle row. "All I wanted to do was go abroad and I thought joining the Wrens was the perfect answer to my wanderlust," says Margaret who signed up in 1944, aged 19. She recalls her disappointment at being located just 10 miles from home: "When I joined I went to a training establishment called Mill Hill in London from where they sent me back to Liverpool," Margaret Street "I volunteered for overseas duties as a signalling watchkeeper, but if you were under 21 you had to have your parents' permission to go abroad. It took me six long months to persuade my parents to agree to that." A few months later Margaret was drafted to Ceylon, or Sri Lanka, as it is known today. The first officer described the posting as, "a completely different life - you'll have to work hard because there's a huge harbour there and a lot of signals going on all the time, but you can play hard. There's swimming, picnicing and barbecues." To a 19-year old girl, this sounded too good to refuse. Margaret, along with six other Wrens, packed their bags and headed for Trincomalee. "Trincomalee was hectic. By then the European war was over so they sent out ships from both the home fleet and the Mediterranean fleet to join the Far Eastern fleet ready to invade Japan. "It was a huge harbour, one of the biggest in the world and the ships were absolutely crammed in and sending signals all the time to each other. You could almost walk from one ship to another it was so crowded," recalls Margaret. Margaret was on duty when the signal came through that the atom bomb had fallen and VJ day (Victory in Japan) was announced. "You could never believe what it was like; everyone was really excited. The sailors were throwing their hats in the air and we were given free drinks. All the local people as well as the sailors were all around the harbour cheering. When dusk came, all the ships were lit up and there were hundreds and thousands of fireworks going off - it was a wonderful experience," says Margaret. But of course, VJ day meant that it was time for the Wrens to head back to Britain. Along with thousands of other Wrens Margaret was demobbed in 1946, but she remains an active member of the Rhyl Wrens Branch. Margaret Read Margaret Read was 24 years old when she answered the call of duty. After signing up to the WRNS, the Women's Royal Navy Service, Margaret was sent to Blundellsands in Liverpool where she trained as a signal watchkeeper before being drafted to a new post at Machrihanish on the Mull of Kintyre in Scotland. Communications team for the HMS Landrail in Machrihanish, Scotland. Margaret Read is in the second row, third from right. Photograph taken in 1943. "I worked underground in a PCB - a protective communications building. I was a signal distributing watchkeeper or 'bunting tossers' as they were known. When we received messages we had to know whether it was confidential. It was then up to us to pass it on to the right people," says Margaret who, at 93 years old, is the oldest member of the Rhyl Wrens Branch. Margaret Read "I was on duty when VE Day was declared - it was night time and the armistice with Germany would be signed the next day. To celebrate, the battleships company, including the Wrens, were given permission to 'splice the mainbrace'," which meant they had permission to have a little drink. "We all had a tot of rum. All the men had it regularly, but us Wrens had never had it before. We went across and all we had was our mugs. There was this big barrel which had big brass bands that shone and the officer of the day had a ladle and he gave us all a little. "One of the Wren officers was there with some water - she didn't want a lot of tiddly Wrens!" laughs Margaret.
'The Big Experiment'
Roy Noble
They say that if you want to feel better about yourself, attend a reunion. There you'll see how rough the others of your age look. I'll have the chance this week when I attend my old college rugby club's 60th anniversary. Not that I was ever a gifted rugby player. I was, and still am, your definitive 'Second Team' man... or maybe the third team, if the blood flow wasn't reaching the Commonwealth regions of the body in any given week. Mind you, my old college, Cardiff Training College, or UWIC as it is now, was a strong PE college with a great tradition in rugby football. Players such as Clive Rowlands, Dewi Bebb and David Nash, all Welsh internationals, had preceded us and, years later, the likes of Gareth Edwards, JJ Williams and Ryan Jones were to grace the college teams. I was not a PE student, and the vice principal, Mr Eric Thomas, an upstanding gentleman in every way, did have problems with two sub-species of the student body: girls and non-PE types. In fact, he took us lesser mortals of the male wing aside and pleaded with us not to make the place untidy and unkempt. Considering Thomas Gilmour Nimrod and myself, he had a point. In fact, I was only to be chosen for the college rugby teams three times in the three years that I was there, on all occasions for the Third team may I add, and that was because there was a nasty bout of gastro-enteritis in the college and they were choosing anyone who could stay away from a toilet for at least four hours. Oddly enough, they were so short one week, I was made captain, and I scored a try. I've still got the blades of grass in a box at home now, just to prove it. It was in the winter of 1963, a winter so cold we could walk across, and play rugby, on a frozen solid Roath Lake for well over a month. For all my failings on the fields of battle, the students, God bless them, did elect me student president in our third year and I rewarded them at a conference of college student delegates at Manchester in 1963. It was the year of 'The Big Experiment'. It had been decided to allow girls to visit the boys' rooms, and vice versa, twice a week, for an hour and a half on a Wednesday evening and for two hours on a Sunday afternoon, on both occasions after a heavy meal. At the conference in Manchester, the delegate for Trinity College, Carmarthen, of all places, had spoken from the platform on the subject of the experimental visiting. He pleaded: "We in Carmarthen think it's all too much, all this visiting. We can't take it, so I move a resolution that we reduce the hours or stop it altogether." I was a galvanised coiled spring and I was on my feet in a flash with a counter resolution: "I move that the experiment is continued, Mr Chairman, with a a view to future assessment and a possible expansion." It was carried in a wild wave of enthusiasm, with whoops and cries of delight all around the conference hall. I was a hero, in Manchester... and back in Cardiff Training College. Roy Roy Noble is bringing his famous storytelling skills to a computer near you as part of the BBC First Click campaign - aimed at encouraging people to take their first steps to getting online. If you know somebody who needs help to get online, call the free BBC First Click advice line on 08000 150950.
Past Master on BBC Radio Wales
BBC Wales History
There's another chance to listen to Past Master on BBC Radio Wales over the coming weeks. Presenter and BBC Wales History blogger, Phil Carradice delves into the famous and not-so-famous happenings and events in the history of Wales. Listen again online as Phil explores the remarkable life o...
The Battle of Britain: 70 years on
BBC Wales History
Radio Wales presenter Dewi Griffiths was just eight years old when World War Two began. Growing up in Ton Pentre in the Rhondda Valley, Dewi remembers how family life centred around war reports on the wireless and how, as a young lad he knew the distinctive sounds of the enemy aircraft. Here h...
Memories of the Six Bells mining disaster
BBC Wales History
Neil Donovan was 12 years old when the explosion at the Arael Griffin pit at the Six Bells Colliery occurred on 28 June 1960, killing 45 men. Here he remembers the days immediately following the disaster: "I became aware of 'an accident' at Arael Griffin at lunchtime when I was outside Bryn G...
