The Dambuster

70 years ago this week on the night of the 16&17 of May one of the most daring raids on Germany took place on the Rhur Valley to breach the The Möhne and Edersee Dams. I had already done some work looking into the background of this raid in looking for the remains of a dam used in the development tests of the bouncing bomb at the Nant-Y-Gro.
Some of the photos I took there were used in Britian at War Magazine for the 70 anniversary edition featuring the raid.  By chance while talking with a guy at work I was told one of the men from the raid was buried at a local church nearby. I felt I had to visit and see the grave of one of the people who made history. What I found was a bit more of a surprise than I expected.

  St Michael & All Angels was in Clifton Hampden and I had visited it a few years ago.

I saw this grave of Peter A Standing who won the South Atlantic medal a few years before so this time looked around some more of the churchyard.

 

Looking around the churchyard it was not looking before I came across some commonwealth War Graves

Then to my surprise I came across

Major John Howard DSO 

Who is buried with his wife.

After looking round some more I finally found grave of David John Shannon DSO DFC RAAF 27.5.1922 - 8.4.1992  RAF 106 & 617 Squadron THE DAMBUSTERS.

I felt honored to have visited the graves of such men.

Beside his grave is that of is wife Ann

St Michael & All Saints is a beautiful churchyard with a view over the Thames. I will revisit and post some photos of the church inside which is just as superb.

Churchyards

My travels have taken me to may church's some large some small most have one thing in common, they have a churchyard where the parishioners are buried. In this blog I would like to share a few of them with you.

 St Peters Church in Piddington

This I would call the new churchyard which is next door to the old one at St Peters in Piddington.

Another St Peters, this one in Caversham near Reading

The place has many old graves  which are can be seen from the path or a short walk through the churchyard.

St Helen's in Berrick Salome is a pretty church with a churchyard to suit.

The graves are well laid out with old

And newer ones that are ell kept.























I'll leave you with these pictures from Eaton Hastings Church.

Looking towards what was the rectory, seems country vicars lived well years ago.

Ivy is a bane on gardens and destroys what it covers but it gives a certain beauty to headstones.  I hope you have enjoyed my churchyards, I'll look some more out another time.

Cholsey Churchyard

Over in the far right hand corner of Cholsey Churchyard not far from Agatha Christies grave you will find the grave of Alfred Shaw. Alfred was Station Master at the old Moulsford Station and would probably have lived with his wife in one of these houses

On the 21st February 1876 he was helping  load sheep on a wagon when one tried to escape. Alfred managed to stop it but ended up falling on top of it. He recovered ok and help load another 15 on the truck before going home for tea. After the last train had gone he retire and during the night his wife woke with  his soring and she told him to stop as it frightened her, next she heard a rattle in his throat and he died. At the inquest it was said that they think he died from internal injury  caused by the fall.

Moulsford station used to be here and the platforms would have been on the right of the photo and on the left where the two lines are near the old Hotel now a block of flats.

Alfred was 29 when he died and left his wife of 26 and two young children with no support. The inscription reads.
" Alfred Shaw of Manchester Late Station Master Moulsford GWR who died February 23rd 1878 age 29 Years  I will go to him but he shall not return to me"

Not far away near the church you will find the grave of Reverend Wyatt Cottle who fired the parish clerk for sacrilege and was then taken to court. The clerk was proved innocent but it ended up  in him going to the High court in London and being Granted a writ of mandamus to be given his old job back. The clerk ended up getting paid off with in effect 70 years wages. 

Cottle on the other hand was not trusted in the village after that and ended up himself being taken to court for non payment of work that had been done for him, he died on the 27th May 1832 age 77 being out lived by the clerk who died in 1845 age 70.

Near the church you can find the graves of the Hunt Family who were local landowners and farmers owning the Elms























The nice thing about the graves is that they have the footstones in place as well

Nearby you can see other graves with footstones which belong to the Larkcom family

In the north side of the church are more footstones though I must admit when I first saw them I though they were graves of children

The names mentioned in this blog can also be found in a new book called Crime & Calamity in Cholsey by Barrie Charles  which takes place between 1819 - 1919. If you wander round the churchyard you can find a lot of the graves of the people mentioned in the book.

Since writing this blog I the extension in the churchyard has opened and while looking around at some of the new graves I was surprised and upset to see this wooden cross. The name at first I made me think and the age was about right for who I thought it was. I asked one of the his friends and he confirmed it was who I thought it was, he had been killed in an RTA. Phil as I knew him used to be  a Scout leader and looked after the Cholsey cub pack when I knew him and also helped out. When our kids grew up he always asked after them when I saw him occasional. Phil worked as a bus driver taking children to and from. The school. On the day he died was on leave but the person who was supposed to drive did not turn in, Phil gave his day up to take the kids to school and it was while he was returning to the depot that a van cut across the road in front of him at a road junction and Phil's bus hit the van  and he was killed. I was very sad to hear this and even sadder I had not heard so I could attend his funeral. He will be missed by a lot of people.

Rest In Peace Phil

A village Cemetery

Blewbury is a village I pass through twice a day on my way to and from work, like most villages in the UK it has an old church (St Michaels) and churchyard which is full or not used.

St Michaels Church

 St Michaels Churchyard

Some of the old headstones lining the path to the church

Not sure if it's his grave or a memorial but he did leave a message.

Inside St Michaels it is worth looking around as it is quite old an still many of the features

Though the bell tower is not one of the places you can visit, I had an invite

 

The west tower has a ring of eight bells. Joseph Carter of Reading cast the sixth bell in 1586.  As well as his name and the year, the bell bears the legend Blessed be the name of the Lorde. Henry II Knight, also of Reading, cast the third bell in 1663. His successor Samuel Knight cast the fourth bell in 1689 and the fifth bell in 1704. Edward Read of Aldbourne, Wiltshire cast the seventh bell in 1752. John Hunt, who briefly ran a bell-foundry at Cholsey, cast the tenor bell in 1825. These may have completed a ring of six bells, until John Taylor & Co of Loughborough cast the present treble and second bells in 1906. St Michael's has also a Sanctus bell that Thomas II Mears of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry cast in 1819 (History taken from Wikipedia)

And an even more impressive view from the top of the tower.

Heading out of the village you will find two cemetery's  this older one which is dedicated to the men of the village who gave their lived in the war

And the new one which is used now.

The older one which is no longer used is worth a visit

There are a couple of war graves and one of a local paster and cricketer

 The cemetery is well kept and still have people visiting to leave flowers.

 

Though some grow on their own

One side you can find the small graves of children who have  passed away before their time which I always find sad

Worse when they have only been on this world for less than two weeks and now seem forgotten but she does have a bunch of snowdrops growing on her grave.

Snowdrops growing through fallen leaves by one of the older graves in the Blewbury  cemetery, beauty in decay.

Killed By Enemy Action

 70 years ago on the 10th February 1943 will be remembered as a tragic day in Readings history. On that fateful day a German Bomber flew in over Reading dropping bombs and firing a machine gun at people on the ground. Four bombs fell in a line killing 41 people most of which were in a restaurant called the Peoples Pantry.

A little distance away two little girls  Violet Brown age 10  and Betty Parsons age 11 must have heard the air raid siren and ran to hide in an arcade which unfortunately for them took a near hit. The wall near them collapsed and they were caught under the falling masonry and killed. 

 

 

They were buried beside each other in Reading Cemetery along with the other casualties of the raid. 

 

At the end of the row you will find this headstone. It says

"Here lie the unidentified remains or two persons killed by enemy action 10th Feb 1943 Rest Eternal Grant unto Them O Lord"

 

 

The people who died on that tragic day lay almost forgotten today, they will be remembered as a new memorial That was unveiled near where they all died.

  RIP