Liddle - Captured memories, 1930-1945 : across the threshold of war, the thirties and the war

Dedication

This book is dedicated respectfully to the memory of all those whose 1939-45 lives are documented in the Second World War Experience Centre in Walton, near Wetherby, in North Yorkshire, and to the continued secure development of the archive for the nation

First published in Great Britain in 2011 by
Pen & Sword Military
an imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire
S70 2AS

Copyright Peter Liddle 2011

ISBN 978 1 84884 233 5
Print ISBN: 978-1-84884-233-5
ePub ISBN: 9781844687381

The right of Peter Liddle to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted
by him in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Contents

Acknowledgements

My appreciation must first be expressed towards all those who feature in this book. By definition, I remember them all and am mindful today of the privilege of working with them to record the years of their youth.

Next, the support of the Trustees of the Second World War Experience Centre in Walton, near Wetherby, in Yorkshire, has been a prerequisite for successful development of this book. I thank them all, not least Major-General Henry Woods, reliably supportive from days at the Liddle Collection in the University of Leeds. I take particular pleasure in acknowledging here my debt, in relation to this book, and the Centre's debt, with regard to its continued existence, to the Chairman of the Trustees, Robert Fleming. In difficult times, he has made possible the Centre's continued contribution to the rescue of the heritage of personal experience during the war years. All those closely associated with the Centre are aware of the vital nature of Rob's commitment.

No tribute to authorities at the Centre should omit Hugh and Mirabel Cecil, who gave essential support at its foundation twelve years ago and continue so to do with their fund-raising lecture series sponsored by SERCO. I must mention too, the Trustees who have guided the fortunes of the Centre from 1999, with the invaluable support of Mike Gooley, the Chairman of the Travel firm, Trailfinders, and of the trustees of numbers of charitable organisations. This support, and the loyalty of the Friends of the Centre, have superbly sustained the endeavours of staff and volunteers to the extent that approximately 9,000 individual testimonies are preserved among the Centre's holdings.

I thank the authorities and staff administering the Liddle Collection, Brotherton Library, the University of Leeds, for their help with this book, as with the previous volume, generously given.

In my time as Director of the Centre there was an admirable team of volunteers. I thank them all and because some had a particular association with my recordings I would like gratefully to mention them by name Keith and Brenda Clifton, Trevor and Terry Mumford. In discussing, reflecting upon, and working to cross-refer the interviews, I thank Braham Myers, Stan Hope, Robert Carrington, John Pickering and Bill Haygarth.

Carolyn Mumford did almost every interview transcription. The book would not have been possible without her work. Anne Wickes, with incomparable dedication to the Centre as a member of staff, was additionally invaluable to me in providing transcripts electronically and Cathy Pugh kindly found time among her duties to scan selected illustrations. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with the knowledgeable Jonathan Fenny, a volunteer, in the selection of illustrations. His research was crucial in this enthralling but time-taking responsibility.

While most of the photographs are from the Centre and three are from the Liddle Collection, there are some from other sources. From staff in several institutions I have been given swift, efficient and generous help Phil Dunn at the People's History Museum, Manchester, Ruth Kitchen at the National Media Museum, Bradford, Christine Vickers from the photographic archives at Eton College, Roger Ivens from Oldham Local Studies and Archives, Janette Flynn at Maryhill Public Library, Glasgow, and Adam Smith, Director of the EAA Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, USA. I appreciate being able to use an image of Pearl Harbor courtesy of the US Library of Congress. For photographs from private sources, I thank Sir Henry Leach, Sir Bernard Lovell, Frances Stott, Joan Potter, Sue Gudgeon, Jane Green and John Ratcliffe. In website research for suitable illustrations where I had gaps, family support from my son Steven and from my wife, Louise, developing Steven's leads, proved fascinating as well as fruitful.

Every effort has been made to contact owners of copyright material. The author and publishers apologise for any inadvertent omissions and will be pleased to incorporate missing acknowledgements in any future editions.

Not forgotten as I think of those who have helped in the work of rescuing the slice of the past illustrated by this book, are all those who gave me the opportunity of interviewing them. So many of them offered hospitality, one quite extraordinarily so, providing accommodation and a scheduled list of his frequently distinguished associates to interview, year after year, in and around Edinburgh. This was Ian Campbell, Medical Officer to a Canadian battalion on D-Day and thereafter.

In the Centre's team endeavour, I would also like to commend those volunteers who gave, and continue to give, their time and expertise in recording the memories of what should be an unforgettable generation.

I would like to thank my editor, Linne Matthews, for the sensitivity as well as the efficiency of her work, and my son Duncan for assistance with the index.

To conclude, I thank my beloved wife, Louise, for her practical help and advice in the preparation of this book. I thank her for her patience too in putting up with my undiminished enthusiasm for my work.

Peter Liddle, Rawdon, Leeds

List of Illustrations

SECTION ONE THE THIRTIES

SECTION TWO 1939-45

AT SEA

IN THE AIR

ON LAND

ON THE HOME FRONT

Introduction

How I came to record people's memories of the past and why I believe it is so important that this work is undertaken, are explained in some detail in the introduction to Captured Memories 1900-18. Suffice to say here that teaching history made me aware of the important but perishable nature of our heritage of memory. I became so anxious about society's seeming indifference to the disappearance of this element of our past that I felt impelled to make a contribution to its rescue.

With the support of others, this led to the creation of two new archives, one dedicated to the First World War the Liddle Collection in the University of Leeds and one to the Second World War the Second World War Experience Centre. These archives contain original letters, diaries, photographs, artwork, newspapers, maps, artefacts, and manuscripts and typescript recollections, but from their foundation, in 1968 and 1999 respectively, a special concern was the recording by interview of memories of the wars and of the period leading up to them.