New Project

Hi All,

In view of the cost of a photograph from the private websites such as the Maple Leaf Legacy and the BWMP i have decided to start a new Project, the aims of the project are set out below.
I am already working with The Veterans Affairs Canada team and have been working with them for the last year or so. I'm hoping to also be working with a New Zealand and South African goverments who i have been in contact with for the last few weeks.
The Project is called The Commonwealth Roll Of Honour Project and here are the aims.

The aim of this project is to work in conjunction with the governments or similar bodies in each Commonwealth Country to develop or contribute to a source of FREE online information of their war casualties.
Our hope is to include all the information we can, including attestation papers, service records, medal records, war diaries, photographs of headstones and memorials and any other information available.
If you are interested in helping with such a project or you are looking for a relative and would like our help please join our group and become a part of the Commonwealth Roll of Honour Project.
COMMONWEALTH ROLL OF HONOUR PROJECTS

Please email me or PM me should you wish to help or if you have any questions. I hope that you will be able to join the Project and look forward to working with anyone who wishes to help.

A proper website will hopefully be up and running within the next couple of months.

Best wishes
Mike (Gen)

 

Hi All,

In view of the cost of a photograph from the private websites such as the Maple Leaf Legacy and the BWMP i have decided to start a new Project, the aims of the project are set out below.
I am already working with The Veterans Affairs Canada team and have been working with them for the last year or so. I'm hoping to also be working with a New Zealand and South African goverments who i have been in contact with for the last few weeks.
The Project is called The Commonwealth Roll Of Honour Project and here are the aims.

The aim of this project is to work in conjunction with the governments or similar bodies in each Commonwealth Country to develop or contribute to a source of FREE online information of their war casualties.
Our hope is to include all the information we can, including attestation papers, service records, medal records, war diaries, photographs of headstones and memorials and any other information available.
If you are interested in helping with such a project or you are looking for a relative and would like our help please join our group and become a part of the Commonwealth Roll of Honour Project.
COMMONWEALTH ROLL OF HONOUR PROJECTS

Please email me or PM me should you wish to help or if you have any questions. I hope that you will be able to join the Project and look forward to working with anyone who wishes to help.

A proper website will hopefully be up and running within the next couple of months.

Best wishes

Mike (Gen)


I tried joining the group as i have a hotmail passport but it would not let me!

 

will join when the website is set up.

and anyone who volunteers, kiss your knees and ankles goodbye.

 

Just PM'ed you Morse, sorry it wouldn't let you join, i'll try to sort that out asap.
Mike

 

Hi Mike,

A very worthwhile project. I can only reinforce that areas like photos of headstones and memorials should be available free. That is why I have commenced my project to provide the photos of the RAAF deaths around the world. Mike and his contacts have been very helpful in assisting me with many of my photo requirements.

These volunteers around the world, who spent their time taking these photos for these projects did not charge or receive a cent and would have been under the impression that these would have been available to interested parties without charge.

I wish you well with your efforts.

And yes Kitty, it is a re-awakening to your knees and ankles.

 

Looks good, I will sign up.

 

Hi Spidge,

Just sent you what i have got in Sussex which is 2 of the 4 cemeteries. I have asked my volunteer to pop out and get the others for you.

Mike

 

You'll be made more than welcome Wise1. If you could email me your location in Scotland i can send you a spreadsheet with what i need in your area.

Kitty, You should try Brookwood with more than 13,000 buried there. My knees were like jelly at the end of the day, lol.

Thankyou all.
Mike

 

Hi Spidge,

Just sent you what i have got in Sussex which is 2 of the 4 cemeteries. I have asked my volunteer to pop out and get the others for you.

Mike

Thanks Mike.

 

You'll be made more than welcome Wise1. If you could email me your location in Scotland i can send you a spreadsheet with what i need in your area.

Kitty, You should try Brookwood with more than 13,000 buried there. My knees were like jelly at the end of the day, lol.

Thankyou all.
Mike

Try Leek Cemetery. never have i come across burials on hills that are basically 1in2 slopes. :wow:

Ouch.

And you can keep brookwood, i have been wading through stuff better not mentioned to get you your photos

 

Mike

Have e-mailed you separately but just for the record I think the project is completely deserving of all the support it can get from all of us.

Best wishes

Ron

 

Thanks Ron, I have put a message on the msn group for you in reply to yours.

Kitty, You know its all very much appreciated, i'll buy you some shoe polish as well if you want, lol.

Thankyou all for your support
Mike

 

Count me in! Just need some free Sundays and I'm all yours!

 

Hi Andy,

Welcome to the project. If you PM me with your email address i'll send you the details for Western Australia. I now have the datasheet for all British casualties as well though i don't have it for the Australians yet but that should be coming from CWGC anytime now.
Take care
Mike

 

Mike

Whilst thinking about your new project I went back to a short story I posted on the BBC WW2 Peoples War Archives concerning one of our wireless ops who was killed at Cassino.

The story was originally headed by a not very distinct group picture and it has now ocurred to me that it would be more fitting to show the photo I took of his memorial stone at the CWGC Cemetery at Cassino.

The original story went as follows:

I first met Geoff in March 1943 at Congleton in Cheshire.
I had been posted to his unit, the 228 Signal Training Rgt, to join a draft of Driver/Wireless Operators about to be sent to North Africa as re-inforcements to the British First Army.
Geoff stood out like a sore thumb, not because he was noisy or flashy, the reverse in fact, he was overly quiet and perhaps too well spoken for your average ‘squaddie’.
He also seemed much older than the rest of us, I would have guessed in his 30’ s as opposed to the early 20’s of his peers, it should have occurred to me then that he was probably a volunteer.

Sixty years later and trying to remember his accent, the nearest I can get to it is that it was like Brian Sewell’s, the renowned art critic. The beautifully enunciated vowel tones were certainly there and as an ex Londoner with a slight cockney accent myself, I was suitably impressed. Rumour had it that Geoff was a former bank manager and, somehow he never seemed at home in his uniform which, I noticed, he always kept immaculately pressed.
After our spell in North Africa and Sicily I next remember meeting up with Geoff again as our unit assembled for the forthcoming battle of Cassino. We were in this nameless field and had been watching with some interest a procession of French North African Gouams in their colourful uniforms, trudging along the nearby road with their heavily laden mules.
Suddenly , with a shriek of brakes, a Jeep pulled up and out popped a red-tabbed Brigadier. After checking our Div and ‘Tac’ sign by the roadside to make sure he had come to the right place he strode into our camp.
There was much saluting from all ranks, a flurry of activity from the BSM and an abortive attempt to call out the guard but the Brigadier insisted that he wanted no fuss.
He was, he said, only there on a personal matter and could someone find him Gunner Burnard ?
In the meantime our O/C, Major Mouland was peeping furtively from his tent-flap, obviously not wanting to be involved if it wasn’t an official visit and yet presumably slightly peed off that the Brigadier hadn’t actually asked to meet with him.
With much interest and amusement from all the onlookers, Geoff was warmly greeted and back-slapped by the Brigadier who, we later learned, was his brother-in-law !
I can’t remember any further sightings of Geoff and was to hear no more of him until April the 14th when we received the shocking news that whilst carrying out his normal duties as a wireless op he had been killed by a blast from a German mortar.
There is a footnote to this little story.
In 2005 the Heroes Return scheme reminded me that I had never been back to Cassino and I so I decided to visit the Commonwealth cemetery and pay my respects to the fallen.
I looked up the details of Geoff’s burial site on the CWGC website and discovered for the first time that his name was Reginald Geoffrey Burnard, he was aged 42, married and came from Somerset.
I’ve no doubt that when I visit the Cemetery I will find other men of the 49th LAA Rgt who fell at Cassino but it is Geoff that I will remember the most because he was the first and I believe the only Driver/Op of our group to be killed at Cassino and his death reminded us only too well that we all lived on borrowed time.

 

A very interesting story Ron

 

Interesting story Ron.

Interesting also to see that the three graves behind are Gerry Chesters boys from the North Irish Horse.

 

Kitty, You know its all very much appreciated, i'll buy you some shoe polish as well if you want, lol.


Considering its the expensive balsam from brasher then you're on! :icon-mrgreenbandit:

gen, I have already emailed you this, but I can't seem to find any Army Canucks of WW2 in any of the cemeteries i have investigated so far. Lots of RCAF lads, but they are left with their crews etc, no Army though. As I said I will check with the relevant authorities in the areas first to see if they were moved.

 

Kitty,
Thought you would of been wearing your wellies, didn't expect you to be wearing designer shoes to take the pics.
Mike

 

Hi Mike,

Just joined in your worthwhile project. Whilst I do not have any photographs of other than North Irish Horse headstones, would details of the award of the Maple Leaf to the 25th Tank Brigade and information about the joint NIH/Seaforth Highlanders of Canada burial service be appropriate?

Cheers,

Gerry