Examples of Published Stories
Here are extracts from two histories. In both of these examples they were compiled based upon research in a range of archives, family memorabilia and family recollections.
Colin was just 22 years old when he lost his life whilst serving with the RAF in August 1942.
‘….........when he was transferred to R.A.F. Station Oakington in Cambridgeshire. Here we have the first surviving dateable letters that Colin sent to his parents. There are seven letters from Bourn, a satellite aerodrome to Oakington, and twenty eight in total. They were written on a mixture of R.A.F crested paper, thin writing paper and pages from note books, and written in, either fountain pen or pencil. In them he describes his day to day life in the R.A.F., constantly enquires about his family and deals with the domesticity of his life dominated by his laundry and the price of cigarettes and tobacco. The letters start as those of a young 20 year old man away from home and having to cope with the discipline requirements of R.A.F. life, whilst living in, at times, very basic conditions. By the later letters we see Colin’s personality shine through, in some stunningly eloquent passages in which he shares his experiences with his mother.
R.A.F. Bourn had been established merely weeks when Colin was sent there and, although equipped for aircraft, had little to support the men required to maintain the planes or aerodrome. Colin’s first letter describes life at Bourn and the basic conditions for those there
‘On Saturday afternoon an officer came into the signals room and told Bill and I that we were to go to Bourn to look after the signals section of the flare path. It is our job to land and signal planes that want to land on our drome.
It is a new station and we have to sleep in a caravan because there are no billets for us to sleep in. As it is we do not get much sleep as we both have to be ready any moment day and night in case a plane wants to land…..’
Frederick was married with six children when he died during the 3rd Battle of Ypres in October 1917.
It’s likely that the family mainly grew their own food, certainly in later years the cottage had a thriving vegetable garden and Frederick’s sons kept the family larder well stocked with game birds and rabbits. In all likelihood Frederick himself was used to handling a rifle and would have been responsible for bringing the food to the family table. The big pantry would act as the cold storage room and would often have game birds hanging from the ceiling. A heap of guns and fishing rods and tackle were usually found stacked up in the hallway. Any provision which needed to be brought would be purchased from Bungay, the nearby market town, which was within walking distance, albeit a long one.
The cottage water supply was from a nearby stream which fed into a well. Sanitary arrangements were served by an outside soil toilet with seats for two adults and one child to sit side by side. This was probably shared with the cottage next door. There was no electricity supply to the cottage and the rooms were dark with lighting by oil lamps. Frederick’s grandchildren, William and Nancy, would later recall the patriotic paintings on the walls of the cottage such as “The thin red line” by Robert Gibb showing the Sutherland highlanders at the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War and “Waiting for her ship to come in” as well as a dominating print of Queen Victoria facing the bed in Frederick and Gertrude’s bedroom.
We can only speculate as to why Frederick enlisted, probably partly a patriotic desire to defend his Country, stirred up by Lord Kitchener’s recruitment campaign and probably mostly economic desperation with a need to support his ever growing family in a harshening job market. Gertrude would have been heavily pregnant with her 6th and what would be their final child in the January and by this early point in the war it was clear that a number of breweries were struggling to survive financially.
