Lest We Forget – looking for relatives of a WW2 Wembley airman

 Guest post by local historian Philip Grant in a personal capacity

Extract from a document produced by the Dutch Airwar Study Group 1939-1945.

 

The Second World War seems a long time ago, and we probably don’t think about it very often, unless we were personally affected by the loss of a family member. But there are some people who still give their time and effort to ensure that those who lost their lives in that awful conflict are remembered with respect. I was contacted recently by one of those, asking for help to try and find relatives, and hopefully a photograph of, an RAF airman from Wembley who died in 1943, and I’m writing this guest post to ask for any help that you can give, please.

 

Ronald Douglas Francis (no relation to the editor) was born in May 1921. By the age of 21, he was a Sargeant in the R.A.F., and the wireless operator / air gunner on a Lancaster bomber flying missions to bomb industrial sites in Germany. On the night of 3 April 1943, his aircraft was shot down by a German night fighter, and at around midnight it crashed in flames in a forest near Stevensbeek, in the south of The Netherlands. All seven members of the Lancaster’s crew were killed, and their graves are now in a war cemetery at Eindhoven.

 

Some of the war graves at Eindhoven, and the gravestone of Sgt. R.D. Francis.
(Source: Commonwealth War Graves Commission website)

 

The Dutch Airwar Study Group 1939-1945 have been collecting information about this aircraft and its crew, and have sent me an excellent information sheet, prepared by one of their members, Rene, which I will ask Martin to attach at the end of this article. As you will see, they have yet to find a photograph of Ronald Francis, or of the plane’s pilot, 20-year old Pilot Officer W.H. Swire, and rear gunner Sgt. R.R. Feeley. They would very much like to have photographs of all the crew members, to include on a memorial it is hoped to erect near the crash site. A similar memorial was recently installed to remember the crew of a Wellington bomber, who also died in April 1943 when it crashed, just inside the Dutch border, after being damaged by “flak” (anti-aircraft gunfire) on a mission over Duisburg.

 

Memorial board to a Wellington bomber crew. (Courtesy of Leo Janssen)

 

As well as photographs, the Study Group would also like to contact any living relatives of Ronald Douglas Francis, and his fellow crew members, so that they can be invited to, or at least aware of, the steps being taken and events to commemorate the lost Lancaster bomber. Ronald’s parents, John Charles Francis and Winifred Edith Francis, lived at 19 Douglas Avenue, Wembley (a turning off of Ealing Road). Does anyone in the area still remember the family, including the names of any of Ronald’s brothers or sisters who might still be alive, and where they might be found now? If you have any information which might help, please send it to Leo Janssen at: leojanssen1954@ziggo.nl  (with a copy to Wembley Matters, if possible).

 

Wars are horrible things. They bring about terrible loss of life and injury, destruction and disruption of people’s lives. Bombing, especially the indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas, is one of its worst aspects. But it is not the men and women who volunteer, or are called-up, to serve in the armed forces of their countries, who cause the wars, or decide what acts of war are inflicted on “the enemy”. If they lose their lives (or suffer life changing injuries or trauma) in the course of their service, they deserve to be remembered with respect.

 

It is moving, and humbling, that there are groups of people in The Netherlands who are working to ensure that British and Commonwealth war dead are not forgotten. Another organisation, in the same North Brabant province as Stevensbeek, is the Overloon War Chronicles Foundation. They are collecting the photographs and stories of the Allied soldiers who fought and died in the Battle of Overloon, a crucial victory in the advance towards Germany in October 1944, and are among the 281 who are buried in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in the village.

 

A remembrance service at Overloon war graves cemetery. (Courtesy of Leo Janssen)

 

For the past few years, people the municipality of Land van Cuijk, which includes Overloon, have been holding a special remembrance event at their local war graves cemeteries each Christmas time. Any relatives of the dead, or others interested, are invited to join the local community for this. On Tuesday 24 December 2024 the tour of four cemeteries will end at Overloon, with a programme of music, speeches, poems and readings, starting at 4pm. And on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, candles will be lit on each of the graves, as part of the annual Lights on War Graves commemoration.

 

The annual commemoration and Lights on War Graves at Overloon cemetery.
(Courtesy of Leo Janssen)

 

Lest we forget!

Philip Grant.

 

LETTER: A Wembley airman and wartime POW, 1940-45

My father in the first weeks of captivity, when razors were not available, and consequently (as he wrote home) 'most of the fellows here look like Biblical characters'.
 

Dear Editor,

An article written by me about my father G.C.G. 'Todd' Hawkins is about to appear in the November 2024 issue of Bristol Blenheim magazine. I've taken the liberty of writing a 288-word description of the article, which is attached to this e-mail, and which might perhaps appear on the Wembley Matters blog if you thought it of sufficient interest to readers.

In the first half of last century Todd's family was well known to such Wembley personages as G. Titus Barham, the Rev. J.W.P. Silvester (who as vicar of St John's church married my parents), and his son Victor, the prominent dance-band leader. Todd's own career ended in a stroke of extraordinarily bad luck after nearly five years in captivity.

 

‘Todd’ Hawkins, 1911-45

An RAF airman, from a family once well known in Wembley, was shot down over occupied France on the first day of the Battle of Britain and spent nearly five years as a prisoner in Germany, only to be killed by ‘friendly fire’ a few days away from liberation.

‘Todd’ (Gordon Cyril George) Hawkins flew as a navigator/bomb aimer in Blenheim bombers. His story, illustrated by photos and his own drawings, is now told in an article by his son Richard in the latest issue of Bristol Blenheim, the magazine of the Blenheim Society. The article is based on material preserved by Todd’s family, including letters he wrote home and cartoons he drew while a prisoner, as well as wartime mentions in the Wembley News.

Todd was born in 1911, left school at fourteen, and became a clerk in the Workers’ Travel Association. His life before the RAF was nearly all spent in Wembley, while its population grew from 10,000 to 100,000. His parents were Henry Frederick Hawkins (shopkeeper, organiser of the Wembley town band, and active in the Wembley Tradesmen’s Association and sports club) and Susannah Jane Hawkins, eldest daughter of James Wood Blackmore, the first LMP policeman to be stationed in Wembley.

Todd met many Canadians among his fellow prisoners, and might have emigrated to Canada if he had survived the war. Over 200 of the cartoons he drew as a POW did survive. It is hoped that they will have a permanent home in the RAF Museum at Hendon.

Copies of the Nov. 2024 issue of Bristol Blenheim with the article on Todd can be obtained from the editor, Ian Carter, through the Blenheim Society website, https://blenheimsociety.com/contact

 

 

Richard Hawkins

 

 

Fryent Country Park extra! – The bunker on Gotfords Hill

I am pleased to publish this spin-off from Philip Grant's series on the history of Fryent Country Park

One of the encouraging things about sharing the local history I know is that other people sometimes add things that I didn’t know! This has happened through comments made in response to Part 3 of the Fryent Country Park Story.

One comment, from Wally, which began with memories triggered by an old photo of a gipsy camp, went on to say: ‘On top of “Mole Hill” in about the 60's an underground bunker was dug and buried and we saw its construction. Never found out what it was for or if it's still there.’ “Mole Hill” was actually Gotfords Hill, which today looks serene in its country landscape, but I had heard rumours about something “secret” which used to be there.

1. Looking across the Country Park fields, to Gotfords Hill, Kingsbury and beyond.

An anonymous comment followed, first saying: ‘I remember the bunker and what was inside,’ and later adding: ‘like a man hole cover in a concrete surround, a jacobs ladder leading down to a couple of rooms one with a early warning machine.’ There had obviously been something on that hilltop, but what was it?

The following day another comment arrived, which provided hope that we might soon have the answer. Brian wrote: ‘I have some photos of the bunker - not very good ones and I can't remember where I got them from, so I don't know who owns them.’ A day later, he had sent them to Martin, and we had our first glimpse of the Gotfords Hill bunker.

2. Royal Observer Corps volunteers at Gotfords Hill, 1968.

3. ROC men around the open trap door to the bunker.

The photograph above gives a clear picture of five of the men, four of them wearing the uniform of the Royal Observer Corps (“ROC”), a volunteer organisation linked with the RAF. Do you recognise any of these men, or are you one of them, who could tell us more? Once
the uniform was clear, it led me to an excellent website run by the Royal Observer Corps Association, which has helped provide the following information.

The Observer Corps was set up in the 1920s, to help the RAF in keeping track of enemy aircraft that might attack this country during any future war. I had heard that Gotfords Hill was the site of an observation post during the Second World War, and that would explain its later use by the ROC. 

Although the RAF had radar around the coast, to help spot approaching formations of German bombers during that war, it relied on a network of observation posts to help track their movements once they were over Britain. The post on Gotfords Hill probably reported directly to Fighter Command HQ at Bentley Priory, on the type and number of planes they could see, and the direction they were flying. Because of their vital work during the Battle of Britain and the Blitz, King George VI awarded the Observer Corps its Royal title in 1941.

4. A World War 2 Observer Corps observation post. (Still from a British Pathé newsreel film in 1941.)

After 1945, the nature of any future conflict changed, with faster jet aircraft and the development of nuclear weapons. The role of the ROC also changed, and from 1957 it was brought under the control of the new United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation (“UKWMO”). Between then and 1963, around 1500 underground ROC posts were built, in a network across the whole country. Many reused old ROC locations, such as Gotfords Hill.

Wally’s comment was right, when he said that an underground bunker was dug and buried there in the 1960s. The bunker had reinforced concrete walls, one foot thick, and could only be reached by ladder down a 14-foot concrete shaft from the surface. The Gotfords Hill bunker opened in 1961, and was named ROC Post Colindale (which has led to at least one website saying it was in the London Borough of Barnet!). It was reached via a footpath across the field from Valley Drive, and through a locked gate in the high wire fence surrounding the site.

5. ROC members around the top of the bunker, with Valley Drive in the background.

The bunker consisted of two rooms, a monitoring room and a storeroom (with a chemical toilet in it). The Cold War was at its height in the early 1960s, and in time of an emergency the job of these ROC posts would be to report where nuclear bombs had exploded, and to monitor the spread and toxicity of the radioactive fallout. Two or three observers would be expected to seal themselves into the bunker, and stay there, potentially for many weeks!
 

6. Inside the monitoring room in the Gotfords Hill bunker.

The radioactivity readings, from equipment linked to the surface, would have been used alongside reports from neighbouring posts (Acton, Northolt, Chorleywood, Kings Langley and Bowes Park/Haringay) and data from the Met. Office to predict where the nuclear fallout would spread to, and alert people there of danger coming their way. If you are interested, there is a public information film [“The Hole in the Ground” (1962)] on YouTube, all about these methods:

I remember those times, as my grandfather was an active member of the Civil Defence Corps then. Aged 11 to 13, I was “volunteered” to help, as a casualty, with a number of their training exercises. For one big exercise there was no gory make-up, just dozens of us delivered to a mock casualty clearing station in a local school. We each had a card listing the symptoms we had to describe to the first aiders, whose task it was to decide what to do with us. My “condition” was radiation sickness, and the symptoms were awful! Since then, I’ve been convinced that nuclear weapons should never be used again.

As the threat of a nuclear war with the Soviet Union diminished, half of the underground ROC bunkers were closed in 1968, and Gotfords Hill was one of them. The photographs that Brian shared with us are dated 1968, and may have been taken as the ROC members paid a last visit to their post (if whoever took them would like to get in touch, we would be happy to give a proper acknowledgement). Although the hatch and its surround have gone, the sealed-off bunker underneath must still be there!

7. Closing the hatch to the bunker in 1968, with the fields of the future Country Park beyond.

The final photo shared with us shows the metal hatch being closed; but the pictures have also “lifted the lid” on the mystery of the Gotfords Hill bunker. It is now part of the Fryent Country Park Story!

Thankfully, the bunker never had to be used for the purpose it was built to serve, but history can teach us things, if we are willing to learn. In the 1950s, the government perceived a danger which threatened the life of everyone in the country. They planned for what would be required to deal with that threat, put in the resources necessary, and trained the staff and volunteers who would be involved. Even though that threat passed, without becoming a reality, the country was prepared.

Philip Grant.

IF YOU ENJOYED THIS YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN THE SERIES OF ARTICLES ON FRYENT COUNTRY PARK

 

History of Fryent Country Park – Part 1

History of Fryent Country Park – Part 2

History of Fryent Country Park – Part 3

History of Fryent Country Park – Part 4

History of Fryent Country Park – Part 5

History of Fryent Country Park – Part 6

History of Fryent Country Park – Bunker Special