Good afternoon, This year is the 80th anniversary of the disastrous Oran landing as part of Operation Torch. My father Lt. JCC Pagnam SBS 2 landed with 10 other SBS. I am organizing a Memorial in Oran this November. I am trying really hard to contact descendants of the remaining 9 (I am in contact with Capt. Harry Holden-White's daughter). If you have read this far - check out my basic website for the other names and details about the Memorial. If you are connected to Oran in any way, I willingly invite you to the memorial. Home
Joe, Welcome aboard. Just looked at your website, the names of the nine are not fully visible. Do you have their first and middle names? Who died? I realise now this has been a long running task! There is a series of very small threads most of the SBS soldiers, with his full name: 233300 J C C PAGNAM, MiD, Gordon Highlanders attached SBS 3972208 L BATES, MiD, Welch Regiment attached SBS 4032370 Derek Charles ELLIS, MM, KSLI attached SBS 397220 C A BLEWETT, MiD, Welch Regiment attached SBS 14241643 H WRIGHT, MiD, Royal Artillery & SBS 2621940 Ronald SIDLOW, MiD*, Grenadier Guards attached SBS 6482237 Ronald William LOASBY, MiD, Royal Fusiliers attached SBS Who was captured later when on a beach recce on Panatelleria. From: http://www.commandoveterans.org/sites/www.commandoveterans.org/files/2SBS.pdf 162512 Harold Vere HOLDEN-WHITE, MC, MID, Royal Sussex Regiment attached SBS - who you have contact with his descendants Three are not subject of threads; were they those who died? So: J. Embelin, E.J.A. Lunn & Sgt. A. MIlne. Embelin and Lunn are not on: Commando Roll of Honour 1940 -1945 | ͏ These are all threads by dbf. Embelin was a Royal Engineer Company Sergeant Major. From: http://www.commandoveterans.org/sites/www.commandoveterans.org/files/2SBS.pdf The book 'SBS' by John Parker (published 2013) refers to a Lieutenant E. J. A. Lunn aka "Sally". From: https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/SBS/0JpOAUU6yJ0C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq="operation+reservist"+++"SBS"&pg=PT44&printsec=frontcover I note Wiki has a slim entry and nothing on 2 SBS being there: Operation Reservist - Wikipedia Could the person named as the author for a separate memorial in 2012 help? See: Operation Reservist
David, Thank you so very much for taking the effort and time to respond! I have amended my site so the names can be seen and this is the most definitive list I have: Capt. Holden-White, Lt. J C C Pagnam, Lt. E J A Lunn, Sgt. J Embelin, Sgt. A Milne, Cpl. D C Ellis, Cpl. Sidlow, Cpl. Wright, Cpl. Blewett, Cpl. R W Loasby, Cpl. L Bates. I don't have full names. I have reached out via this site and Commandos Veterans. I do some work with genealogy and have contacted families who I think could be descendants. I have read several books on the SBS, and have started my own book with totally about Oran. Your link is the same Eric "Sally" Lunn who had a very active SBS career, Oran aside. He did earn the MC - as did Holden-White (Oran). At Oran, Embelin was the only casualty and the rest were mostly captured. Off the top of my head, I know that 2 or 3 of the group did not marry, so that limits descendants. I know of Captain Peters of course, but your link to the 2012 memorial has the author's address, so I will communicate with him.
I looked at Ronald Loasby, as it is a slightly unusual surname and Ancestry has an entry that suggests he died in 1993. He was a Metropolitan Police officer based in Croydon in 1939. Would the local newspaper in Croydon, the Croydon Advertiser, be interested in a story seeking his relatives? See a recent thread here: http://www.ww2talk.com/index.php?th...soldier-in-the-heat-of-war.93383/#post-963318 Their email is: newsdesk@croydonadvertiser.co.uk Secondly, there is: https://www.met.police.uk/police-fo.../about-us/about-the-met/met-museums-archives/ . There is not a specific MPS history group, there is national police history group: https://www.policehistorysociety.com/ Facebook yields up this sentence: From: https://m.facebook.com/nt/screen/?params={"note_id":433886984677472}&path=/notes/note/&refsrc=deprecated&_rdr There is an artist who Google links to Romeo Mountjoy, though that name does not appear on his FB entry: https://www.facebook.com/1011013599077974/posts/down-poppy-lane/1317483461764318/ She is an artist in South Wales, with a number of advertisments and gallery showings, so contact could be made via them. For D.C. Ellis: Derek Charles Ellis (1920-1972) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree which shows no children and he died in 1972. It does have a photo of him. Found one of the missing Eric John Lunn: 198819 Eric John Alfred LUNN, MC*, MiD, Royal Artillery attached SBS and A.R. McClair and E.J.A. Lunn which shows his photo (from a later mission in Greece). There is an entry for Arthur Edward Embelin on: SBS - Embelin, Arthur Edward which has his Service No. 1867223 and on: Warrant Officer Class Ii Arthur Edward Embelin | War Casualty Details | CWGC He was from Dublin and a WO2, he has no known grave. On Twitter Embelin appears in a November 2021 entry by @AndyBenns: Perhaps worth contacting him? He has written up his research for the Royal Hibernian. DYRMS is a military school in Kent, with a strong military link. Perhaps a line of inquiry? Do they know of him even? See: Home There is an open access 2011 American article, 21 pgs. 'Death at the hands of Friends: The Oran Harbor Raid during Operation Torch' by Mark J. Reardon. I expect the focus is not the SBS. See: DEATH AT THE HANDS OF FRIENDS on JSTOR Finally I double-checked on the CWGC website to see if any of them died subsequently, none did.
One, last name just explored: Sgt. A. Milne on Joe's website. There is a good possible, as the only A. Milne from 2 SBS listed: SBS - Milne, Alexander (Ginger) He was 2 SBS, Service No. 2878140, who in June 1943 was reported: The CWGC record shows his first name was Alexander, ex-Gordon Highlanders and his only listed relative was: From: Serjeant Alexander Milne | War Casualty Details | CWGC
David, thank you so much for all this help and research you did. It does cover basically what I already have. Sgt Milne was my father's paddler, but again, no contact. I am contacting the Croydon Advertiser regarding Loasby. I am slightly disappointed to come to a dead end like this. I live in Virginia, and there are some difficult logistic for me to go to Oran in November. It would mean so much to hear from relatives, and for some of them to attend. Right now it is just me, Holden-White's daughter Harriet and my wife. She found out this evening, that it could just be the three of us and didn't seem to think it was a good idea. But if it just Harriet and me, we will afford the SBS team the recognition they deserve. If you have any, even distant contacts or ideas, please do let me know. If you wish a direct connection - joepagnam@comcast.net.
