Who is This ? ? ?

[Guest]

3 hours ago, David Ridgus said:

 

Pretty certain this is a new one, although his brother featured quite early on. This is John Eden, elder brother of the Prime Minister to be, Anthony Eden. John was killed early in the war and the youngest brother, Nicholas, was lost with the Indefatigable at Jutland. What with his own harrowing experiences on the Western Front, and his subsequent gruelling work in the Second World War, I sometimes think it is hardly surprising Eden's judgement was so flawed when he was PM.

 

David

 

      I would disagree- Eden's memoir of his life as a subaltern in the trenches "Another World 1897-1917", published towards the end of his life is revealing and a very human document. This was probably the only time in his life that Eden mixed with ordinary folk for any length of time and he clearly retained a deep affection for his former men throughout his life. I understand he was an assiduous member of his regimental association. The memoir is full of nice little human touches that you would not expect of someone who comes across in later life as eternally patrician. 

    Perhaps the nicest touch is when Eden describes a visit by Plumer-always keen on seeing his fellow Riflemen- with Eden,as a junior staff officer tagging along at the back of the party as a tail-end Charlie. Plumer -as often, I believe, said quite loudly that a partioular platoon was the best he had inspected- with the Colonel adding "They were Mr. Eden's, Sir"- I think it was one of the proudest moments of his life.

     Eden was quite a few years younger than his brother John but his account of the loss of both John and Nicholas Eden is a sensitive one. And this is the man who soldiiered on with the opening meetings of the United Nations despite losing his son Simon, killed in Burma late on.

[neverforget]

11 hours ago, Fattyowls said:

I'm impressed that the admirable Arnold Ridley should have appeared three times. As we have some new recruits joining the more longstanding inmates (and contributing some good stuff) I think this is a Good Thing. We perhaps need another of our self denying ordinances that if we recognise someone from last time (or increasingly from the time before) we sit on our cyber hands for a while and maybe contribute the odd clue. What does the team think?

 

Pete.

 

 

I fully agree, Pete.

As an amusing (to me) twist, I did just this with #5743, mistakingly thinking him to be someone else ?

Looking at the picture, I thought he must be the brother of this chap, whom I had coincidentally lined up next for identification:

Who is he???

 

Edited 29 March , 2017 by neverforget

[Uncle George]

7 hours ago, voltaire60 said:

 

      I would disagree- Eden's memoir of his life as a subaltern in the trenches "Another World 1897-1917", published towards the end of his life is revealing and a very human document. This was probably the only time in his life that Eden mixed with ordinary folk for any length of time and he clearly retained a deep affection for his former men throughout his life. I understand he was an assiduous member of his regimental association. The memoir is full of nice little human touches that you would not expect of someone who comes across in later life as eternally patrician. 

    

 

You will have read 'Facing the Dictators': who is this chap? He was wounded by machine gun fire in 1916, and (so it is said), lost a testicle:

 

 

 

Edited 29 March , 2017 by Uncle George

[Uncle George]

17 minutes ago, neverforget said:

I fully agree, Pete.

As an amusing (to me) twist, I did just this with #5743, mistakingly thinking him to be someone else ?

Looking at the picture, I thought he must be the brother of this chap, whom I had coincidentally lined up next for identification:

Who is he???

 

 

He looks very like Lord Londonderry:

 

 

[Guest]

26 minutes ago, Uncle George said:

 

You will have read 'Facing the Dictators': who is this chap? He was wounded by machine gun fire in 1916, and (so it is said), lost a testicle:

 

 

 

 

     Then it must be Harry Crookshank- now a largely forgotten figure- save only for the nature of his war wounds. A salutary reminder that each wounded veteran's wars continue every day of their lives, not just until the ink of the politician's pen signs off a peace treaty.

     Let us remember him- as this is GWF- as Captain Harry Crookshank, Grenadier Guards and latterly the Honourable and Gallant Member for Gainsborough.

 

[RaySearching]

 clipped from Post 5757

 

Is this a VC ?

 

[neverforget]

11 minutes ago, Uncle George said:

 

He looks very like Lord Londonderry:

 

 

 

18 minutes ago, Uncle George said:

 

You will have read 'Facing the Dictators': who is this chap? He was wounded by machine gun fire in 1916, and (so it is said), lost a testicle:

 

 

 

Not Lord Londonderry, he was born in (what was then) part of Cumbria, and was a grammar school teacher before he enlisted. No prizes for spotting that he is seen here collecting his V.C.

Yours obviously isn't Hitler, who of course sprang immediately to mind. 

[Guest]

48 minutes ago, neverforget said:

I fully agree, Pete.

As an amusing (to me) twist, I did just this with #5743, mistakingly thinking him to be someone else ?

Looking at the picture, I thought he must be the brother of this chap, whom I had coincidentally lined up next for identification:

Who is he???

 

 

       Jackie Smyth?  

 

 

 

[neverforget]

5 minutes ago, RaySearching said:

 clipped from Post 5757

 

Is this a VC ?

 

A case of us both posting simultaneously Ray. Yes it is. 

[neverforget]

2 minutes ago, voltaire60 said:

 

       Jackie Smyth?  

 

 

 

Not him either. 

Awarded the V.C for continously throwing bombs at the enemy for an astonishing 40 hours, which temporarily drove the enemy out of their trench, and then, after refusing to be relieved, charged the trench and retook it.

[Guest]

    Hmm-Jackie Smyth was speculative- His VC doesn't quite fit with the rank on uniform sleeve. And I couldn't spot a cap badge correctly-even at Fovant (Well,save the front cover of Alan Whicker's excellent memoir of WW2- his greatest achievement was to hold a commission in The Devonshire Regiment)

    Right - to business- It must be "The Cigarette VC"- perhaps,in our age of political correctness, the only positive advert for smoking. If it is him, the citation for his bit of Russian gun metal reads:

 

War Office, 9th September, 1915. His Majesty The KING has been graciously pleased to award the Victoria Cross to the undermentioned Officer: — Lieutenant William Thomas Forshaw, I/9th Battalion, The Manchester Regiment, Territorial Force. • For most conspicuous bravery and determination in the Gallipoli Peninsula from 7th to 9th August, 1915. When holding the north-west corner of the "Vineyard," he was attacked and heavily bombed by Turks, who advanced time after time by three trenches wh'ich converged at this point, but he held his own, not only directing his men and encouraging them by exposing himself with the utmost disregard to danger, but personally throwing bombs continuously for 41 hours. When his detachment was relieved after 24 hours he volunteered to continue the direction of operations. Three times during the night of 8th-9th August he was again heavily attacked, and once the Turks got over the barricade, but, after shooting three with his revolver, he led his men forward and recaptured it. When he rejoined his Battalion he was choked and sickened by bomb fumes, badly bruised by a fragment of shrapnel, and could barely lift his arm from continuous bomb throwing. It was due to his personal example, magnificent courage and endurance that this very important corner was held.

 

     I suspect that as a schoolmaster, he had no problems with classroom behaviour

[neverforget]

11 minutes ago, voltaire60 said:

    Hmm-Jackie Smyth was speculative- His VC doesn't quite fit with the rank on uniform sleeve. And I couldn't spot a cap badge correctly-even at Fovant (Well,save the front cover of Alan Whicker's excellent memoir of WW2- his greatest achievement was to hold a commission in The Devonshire Regiment)

    Right - to business- It must be "The Cigarette VC"- perhaps,in our age of political correctness, the only positive advert for smoking. If it is him, the citation for his bit of Russian gun metal reads:

 

War Office, 9th September, 1915. His Majesty The KING has been graciously pleased to award the Victoria Cross to the undermentioned Officer: — Lieutenant William Thomas Forshaw, I/9th Battalion, The Manchester Regiment, Territorial Force. • For most conspicuous bravery and determination in the Gallipoli Peninsula from 7th to 9th August, 1915. When holding the north-west corner of the "Vineyard," he was attacked and heavily bombed by Turks, who advanced time after time by three trenches wh'ich converged at this point, but he held his own, not only directing his men and encouraging them by exposing himself with the utmost disregard to danger, but personally throwing bombs continuously for 41 hours. When his detachment was relieved after 24 hours he volunteered to continue the direction of operations. Three times during the night of 8th-9th August he was again heavily attacked, and once the Turks got over the barricade, but, after shooting three with his revolver, he led his men forward and recaptured it. When he rejoined his Battalion he was choked and sickened by bomb fumes, badly bruised by a fragment of shrapnel, and could barely lift his arm from continuous bomb throwing. It was due to his personal example, magnificent courage and endurance that this very important corner was held.

 

     I suspect that as a schoolmaster, he had no problems with classroom behaviour

Quite so. The cigarette V.C. is correct. (If not politically) Unsurprisingly, I don't think that many of them stopped to consider the dangers of smoking under those circumstances, other than drawing the enemy's sniper fire of course. 

(After almost 50 years of smoking I am now into my third week of abstinence. Probably about time, considering the discovery of a lung tumour last year, which eventually was diagnosed fortunately as non-malignant. But then, I digress)

[Ron Clifton]

On 3/28/2017 at 09:51, Uncle George said:

Basil Rathbone's brother John, KIA 1918?

If you click on the photo, you get there with minimal effort!

 

Ron

[Guest]

14 minutes ago, Ron Clifton said:

If you click on the photo, you get there with minimal effort!

 

Ron

     

      David Ridgus pointed that out to me-  Oh, you technology savants!!!  I tell friends that I'm so technologiclly illiterate that it took me ten years to get the hang of matches- kept holding the brown end of the match and wondered why it didn't strike. After a deal of coaching, I have mastered the 3-pin plug.  The PC and lap-top (Surely must have some connection with Peter Stringfellow??) are beasts that have to be confronted. But don't you fret Ron- I now know that "JPEG" is not a plastic clothes peg-so I'm on to you!!

[Guest]

25 minutes ago, neverforget said:

(After almost 50 years of smoking I am now into my third week of abstinence. Probably about time, considering the discovery of a lung tumour last year, which eventually was diagnosed fortunately as non-malignant. But then, I digress)

 

    It is no digression. Good luck with all.  With "Decline and Fall" coming up on TV, then always remember the malicious barb by dear Evelyn against Randolph Churchill ,who had a non-malignant growth removed- something to the effect  "Trust the surgeons to remove the only part of you that wasn't malignant"

[neverforget]

1 minute ago, voltaire60 said:

 

    It is no digression. Good luck with all.  With "Decline and Fall" coming up on TV, then always remember the malicious barb by dear Evelyn against Randolph Churchill ,who had a non-malignant growth removed- something to the effect  "Trust the surgeons to remove the only part of you that wasn't malignant"

Thanks for the good wishes, and for reminding us of the amusing anecdote ?

[Fattyowls]

UG, is your number 5756 Francisco Franco? He was wounded in Morocco in 1916 fighting the Rifs.

 

Pete.

[Uncle George]

49 minutes ago, Fattyowls said:

UG, is your number 5756 Francisco Franco? He was wounded in Morocco in 1916 fighting the Rifs.

 

Pete.

 

Yes. One of a number* of Western European interwar uniball autocrats, about which one hears so much. 

 

*2

Edited 29 March , 2017 by Uncle George
Scansion

[Stoppage Drill]

If he was fighting the Rifs he might have considered himself lucky to have lost only one bollock.

[Uncle George]

1 hour ago, Ron Clifton said:

If you click on the photo, you get there with minimal effort!

 

Ron

 

I've been wondering how post #5641 was solved so swiftly. Which reminds me, I meant to post the link:

 

https://archive.org/details/fourthseal031079mbp

[Stoppage Drill]

This chap must have had a dry sense of humour

 

 

[Uncle George]

7 minutes ago, Stoppage Drill said:

This chap must have had a dry sense of humour

 

 

 

Rifle designer Friedrich von Martini?

[Stoppage Drill]

What a clever answer !

 

But wrong.

 

Edited 29 March , 2017 by Stoppage Drill
Heh, heh, heh.

[Guest]

• Bears a passing resemblance to a younger version of the late,great William Claude Dukinfield-  You tempt me with the words "dry" and"humour"-perhaps intentionally ironic. Alas, I suspect it is not he- for his contribution to WW1 was marginal. Mind you, his contribution to the study of never drinking water was profound...............

[Stoppage Drill]

'A woman drove me to drink.

And I didn't even have the decency to thank her.'

 

I noticed that resemblance too.

 

Alas, no.