July 2017 HALE BRANCH ROYAL BRITISH LEGION NEWSLETTER – Issue 17 Welcome to the March edition in which we report on recent events and provide notice of a variety of events coming up during the year. OBITUARY watch the lines of inmates of the workhouse (later to become Smithdown Road/Sefton General Hospital and now Ron Rowson 13.12.1917-24.04.2017 Asda) shuffling around the courtyard, which was almost By Bill Sergeant directly opposite the junior school which he attended. In 1939, recognising the likelihood of war breaking out, Ron and a pal decided to volunteer for the forces, rather than wait to be conscripted, on the basis that if conscripted they could be posted to any of the services rather than the Liverpool Scottish, in which Ron’s friend’s father had served in WW1. At the time, Ron was courting his future wife, Marie, who lived in Vale Road, Woolton, and they were married in late 1939 – Ron wearing the uniform of the Liverpool Scottish. They were parted shortly afterwards, when Ron was posted to the South of England. After leaving school, Ron had served his time as a plumber and it was not very long afterwards that the Army decided that he would be more use as a plumber and transferred him to the Royal Engineers. Although not unhappy about this, Ron confided to me that he “never saw a tap during the whole of his service”! Ron survived the war and told me that he had taken part in Ron sadly passed away on 24th April this year, just 8 several Commando raids on the Channel Islands to destroy months before his 100th birthday. He was the oldest communication and other systems to prevent their use after member of the Hale Branch and widely admired and the German occupation. Although he didn’t mention it to respected, not just because of his age or his past military me, I have since learned that he was one of those evacuated service, but mainly because he was such a nice man. He from Dunkirk in May 1940 (Operation Dynamo). Just recently was born and raised in Liverpool, living in Wavertree, he told me how he had done several operations with the Anfield and Speke before, following the death of his wife, Commandos, including Canadians, and his job was to set he moved into Speke Care Home in Eastern Avenue, where explosive charges. One of these raids took place in late his wife had been a resident before him. I met Ron through March 1942, known as Operation Chariot and widely Jim Ross with whom Ron had made several trips back to considered to be “the greatest raid of all”. St Nazaire was a the Normandy beaches. Over time I think I got to know port on the River Loire which had a large dry dock and in Ron quite well and although he was naturally reluctant to 1942 was in Nazi-occupied France. The British High dwell too much on his WW2 experiences, he did tell me Command decided that they needed to put the dry dock out quite a lot about his past. I was enthralled when he told of action as this would mean that the large German me that as a young boy he had lived above a shop in battleships, especially the Tirpitz and Scharnhorst would be Smithdown Road, close to Woodcroft Road, and on denied the dock facility and would need to run the gauntlet occasions from the attic room he and his sister would of British ships to return to Germany for repairs or refuelling. 1 An obsolete British destroyer, HMS Campbeltown, was loaded with explosives and rammed into the St Nazaire dock gate, where it exploded later that day. Meanwhile a force of British Commandos attacked installations on the dockside, destroying communication and other facilities. This method of attack was chosen in preference to bombing from the air as this would have meant putting the lives of many French civilians in danger. Instead it was the The South Liverpool Breakfast Club is for all Armed forces Commandos who were endangered. Heavy German personnel and Veterans of all the 3 services. We meet every artillery fire destroyed the small boats which the Saturday morning at 10am have our breakfast and put the Commandos had used and of the 611 who took part only world to rights as only veterans can. We share stories of our 228 escaped; 169 men were killed and another 215 taken time in the forces and we can try to help anyone who is in prisoner. Ron Rowson was amongst those who escaped. need by either pointing them in the right direction or just Although there was great loss of life, the operation listening to any problems they may have. achieved its objective as the “Tirpitz” was shortly afterwards sunk without having sunk a single British ship. The venue is the Toby Carvery Ron wasn’t finished yet! In June 1944 he landed in Aigburth Rd Normandy a few days after D-Day and survived again! In Liverpool L19 9DN fact Ron said his only real injury came just a couple of years formerly the Kingsman pub. ago when he was on his way back to the Normandy beaches with fellow veterans. Because of their age, it was We have our own Facebook group with almost 200 members decided that the group would break its journey with an but we have in the region of 10-20 attending breakfast each overnight stay in Portsmouth. Unfortunately Ron had a fall week. Search ‘South Liverpool Breakfast Club’ to find us. in Portsmouth and dislocated his shoulder and returned to Liverpool. Yet the following day he attended in St John’s Our own Ron Rowson used to love getting picked up to Gardens, with his shoulder strapped up and in a attend when he was well enough and is missed by all wheelchair, to take part in a remembrance service! He was members. made of good stuff! Although I made a start on writing down Ron’s experiences, we never got beyond the first few years of his life. My most vivid recent memory of Ron was when a group of us attended Speke Care Home to see him be presented with the French Legion of Honour by the Lord Mayor. My hope was that Ron would still be around for his 100th Birthday, to receive a card from the Queen to go with the one he and Marie received on their 60th wedding anniversary, and just as importantly to allow us to share his birthday with him. Sadly this was not to be but we gave him a great send-off at his funeral on 7th May 2017. I for We had another WW2 veteran Edward Forsyth from one will never forget Ron Rowson. Mossley Hill but he has now moved to a retirement home in Northwich (where I still visit him occasionally). We visit a local nursing home in Halewood where there are a few ******************* veterans living there but cannot attend the club so we go to them all. he Hale RBL Branch now has a website and its address is :- http://branches.britishlegion.org.uk/branches/hale - do If you know any veterans of any age please let them know take a look for up to date information on fundraising about us and get them to home along. events and trips. New faces are always welcome. By Steve Hall 2 Summary of Recent Events This crater has over the years filled with water and is now preserved as the “Pool of Peace”. Belgium & France, April 2017 On our way to Mouscron, Belgium this year we called in at Langemark German cemetery, one of only 4 in Flanders. It Nine Elms British Cemetery - was used by 3rd Australian and is quite stark compared to British cemeteries with dark 44nd Casualty Clearing Stations when they moved from granite stones, many of which are laid flat. The cemetery Brandhoek in September 1917, so most of the dead are has 45,000 burials and it is visited mainly by the British. named. Amongst them were: Private Adam McCARTHY, 10th Battalion, Manchester Regiment. Adam died of wounds Amongst many of the sites and cemeteries visited this time on 11th October 1917 aged 30 years. The daughter of Marie round were:- Fisher, is to marry one of Adam’s descendants next year and Sanctuary Wood which housed a museum and very well laid a wreath; Sapper Timothy KELLY, 171st Tunnelling preserved trenches; Company, Royal Engineers, died on 23rd March 1918 during Spanbroekmolen and the “Pool of Peace” - “Moelen” is the German offensive, aged 31 years. Timothy was the Flemish for “mill” and at the end of the First Battle of Ypres grandfather of Peter Kelly, another of our party who also laid in November 1914 the German front line was established a wreath; st here on the high ground of Messines Ridge. On 1 January 1916, 171st Tunnelling Company began digging beneath the German positions to lay a mine and by 1st July 1916 they had completed their task and laid a mine charged with 90,000 lbs of ammonal! During February and March 1917, German tunnellers succeeded in damaging the tunnels and a gallery dug by the British who had to dig new access tunnels to the mine which was to be detonated as part of a salvo of 19 mines on Messines Ridge on 7th June 1917. They cut it fine – they finished their task on 6th June! Major Hudspeth, CO of 171st Tunnelling Company, was able to tell the 36th Ulster Division, who were to attack when the mine exploded, that the mine was ready.