Portsmouth War Dead project

Leading Seaman Martin Joseph Edward Kelly
French Ship Branlebas
Killed 14/12/1940, Portsmouth Naval Memorial
Age 31

The Branlebas was a French Frigate/Torpedo Boat - it had a crew of over 100, so probably what we would describe as a Corvette I think - and had escaped the fall of France, taking part in the evacuation at Dunkirk before joinin the Free French Navy in England.

She went down in a heavy storm 25 miles South West of the Eddystone Light on 14 December 1940. The Free French Navy must have been short of sailors, as there were 102 Royal Navy ratings on board when she went down.

 

Electrical Artificer 1st Class Arthur Ivor Bigglestone DSM and Bar
HM Submarine Triumph
Died 20 January 1942, Chatham Naval Memorial
Age 36

Petty Officer Frank Gerald Collison DSM and Bar
HM Submarine Triumph
Died 20 January, Portsmouth Naval Memorial
Age 29, from Cosham

Early in the war HMS Triumph completed the staggering feat of crossing the North Sea after having 18 foot of her bow blown off by a mine on Boxing Day 1939.

After being repaired she went on to give sterling service. Operating in the Mediterranean from early 1941, Triumph sank the Italian merchants Marzamemi, Colomba Lofaro, Ninfea, Monrosa, the Italian auxiliary patrol vessels V 136 / Tugnin F, Valoroso, V 190 / Frieda and V 137 / Trio Frassinetti, the Italian tugs Dante de Lutti and Hercules, the German merchant Luvsee, and the Greek sailing vessels Panagiotis and Aghia Paraskeva. She also damaged the Italian armed merchant cruiser Ramb III, the Italian tankers Ardor and Poseidone, the Italian merchant Sidamo and the German merchant Norburg.

In early 1941, she sank the Italian submarine Salpa off the port of Alexandria, Egypt. In August of that year, she torpedoed the Italian cruiser Bolzano, which suffered considerable damage but survived. Bolzano was later captured by the Germans after the surrender of Italy in 1943, while she was under repair from the damage she had received from Triumph. The cruiser was later sunk in 1944.

Triumph was also slated to play a part in Britain’s first ever airborne operation, Operation Colossus. She was due to evacuate the airborne men after they had attacked the Aqueduct at Tragino, but this had to be cancelled and they were captured and became Prisoners of War.

HMS Triumph left Alexandria on 26th December 1941 to land a party of commandos ashore and then patrol the Aegean. Four days later she signalled that the party had been successfully landed at Bireans. She was due to return to pick up the commandos on 9th January but failed to make the rendezvous. Nothing further was heard of the submarine. No axis power claimed her destruction and it is believed that she struck a mine.

Bigglestone and Collison were both awarded a DSM for their part in Triumph's succesful patrols in the Mediterranean, and both received a Posthumous Bar to their DSM after their deaths.

 

Fantastic idea James. Best of luck with it!

 

I've just inputted the 700th name on the list, so I thought it was about time for a progress report!

353 Royal Navy, 188 British Army, 111 RAF, 25 Royal Marines, 14 Merchant Navy, 1 Canadian Army, 4 NAAFI, 1 Palestinian Police Force, 1 Royal Navy Canteen Service, 2 Royal Naval Patrol Service, 1 Royal NZ Air Force.

Buried or rembered in cemeteries or on memorials on 4 continents, in Britain (467), Algeria (4), Australia (2), Bahamas (1), Belgium (8), Burma (6), Canada (1), Egypt (15), France (46), Germany (22), Gibraltar (1), Greece (6), Holland (15), Hong Kong (4), India (4), Iraq (2), Israel (2), Italy (34), Japan (3), Kenya (2), Libya (3), Malaysia (2), Malta (6), Norway (2), Serbia (1), Sierra Leone (1), Singapore (14), South Africa (1), Sri Lanka (1), Syria (1), Thailand (3), Tunisia (10), Uganda (1) and USA (2)

Youngest 16 (Boy 1st Class Gordon Ogden), oldest 73 (Admiral of the Fleet Sir Roger Keyes).

5 DFC, 3 DFM, 1 DSC, 2 DSM and Bar, 9 DSM, 1 DCM, 1 MM, 2 BEM, 2 MBE, 10 Mentioned in Despatches. And 1 Cross of St George (Russia) from WW1.

 

Warrant Officer (Pilot) Cyril Davey
249 Squadron RAF (Mustangs)
Died 19 October 1944
Buried in Belgrade War Cemetery, Serbia
Age 22, from Cosham, Portsmouth

It seems that 249 Squadron were based in Italy and flying Mustangs in support of the Partisans in Yugoslavia and the Balkans. Whether Davey was shot down or crashed I can't seem to find out.

 

Chief Petty Officer Reginald Vincent Ellingworth GC
HMS Vernon
Killed 21 September 1940
Buried Milton Cemetery, Portsmouth
Age 42, from Portsmouth

C.P.O. Ellingworth, together with Lt. Cdr. Richard Ryan, R.N., went to a warehouse in Dagenham, Essex, where an unexploded bomb was hanging from a parachute. The pair, who had faced many dangers together, were both killed by it's explosion and both were awarded the George Cross posthumously.

 

http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/searching-someone-military-genealogy/20710-all-george-crosses-world-war-two.html#post213549

See post 39 and 40. I have pictures of them and will post them on the thread when I get around to it. I don't suppose your anywhere near the cemeteries ?

 

http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/searching-someone-military-genealogy/20710-all-george-crosses-world-war-two.html#post213549

See post 39 and 40. I have pictures of them and will post them on the thread when I get around to it. I don't suppose your anywhere near the cemeteries ?

I'm gonna go and have a look at Ellingworth's when I get a chance, and Haslar isnt too far for me to go.

Very interesting to see Ryan's citation, as they seem to have written Ryan's and then tagged Ellingworth onto it! I downloaded Ellingworth's and I wondered why it was so minimal.

 

Great if you can get me a shot of the headstones and the entrances to the cemeteries mate.

As for the citations I don't think those two were listed in the Gazette and I wrote the circumstances from research.

 

yeah sure I should be able to pop to both sometime soon. Milton Cemetery is a stones throw away from the Hospital where I was born over the road

Haslar is a very interesting cemetery apparently. Its in the grounds of the Royal Naval Hospital Haslar, which was in operation from the early 1700's, so there are quite a few interesting graves there. Including many Turkish prisoners who were used as slave labour for building in and around Gosport - hence why Gosport is called 'Turk Town'.

 

Major Robert Cory Easton DSO MBE
Lancashire Fusiliers, attd. 142nd (2nd Suffolk) Regiment Royal Armoured Corps
Killed 3 September 1944
Buried Montecchio War Cemetery, Italy
Age 29, from Portsmouth

Major Easton was a pre-war regular officer, commissioned in 1935. At some point he transferred from the Lancashire Fusiliers to the 2nd Bn Suffolk Regiment, who were one of the infantry units converted to Armour during the war. Proof that infantry officers can make very good commanders of armour too!

Easton had already been awarded an MBE before he received his DSO, although when this was and what for I have not been able to find out as yet.

Easton's DSO was Gazetted on 24 August 1944, just 10 days before he was killed in action.

Major Easton’s Squadron was in support of the Royal Canadian Regiment during the advance along the Liri Valley, and in support of the 48th Highlanders of Canada during the attack on the Adolf Hitler Line near Pontecorvo. In action with both these Battalions, Major Easton has shown very great powers of command, inspired leadership and extreme coolness under fire.

In an attack in support of the Royal Canadian Regiment on 16th May 1944, shortage of ammunition and tank casualties resulted in only three tanks being available to remain in close support of the infantry on the objective, of which one was Major Easton’s. He took personal command of this composite troop, and gave the utmost support to the infantry under heavy mortar fire and some Anti Tank fire for several hours.

During the attack by the 48th Highlanders of Canada near Pontecorvo on 23rd May, when both infantry and tanks were pinned down by Machine Gun and Anti Tank Gun fire respectively, Major Easton’s Squadron was in action for some 12 hours. Throughout the action Major Easton maintained superb control of his Squadron and never once relaxed his efforts to assist the infantry on, despite a steadily diminishing number of tanks at his disposal. In order to exert maximum control he had to position his tank in full view of the enemy Anti Tank Guns.

Throughout the action he showed outstanding calmness, disregard of danger and overwhelming cheerfulness which were an inspiration to his Squadron, to the Regiment and indeed to the infantry he was supporting.

Major Easton also commanded a small composite tank force placed in support of 4 Canadian Recce Regiment on 22 May, in an attempt to turn the right flank of the enemy line. Again his complete disregard of danger greatly assisted in the clearing of a serious block to the advance, during which he carried out a mine recce on foot under heavy mortar and small arms fire.

The information passed back by Major Easton during these operations has invariably been useful, accurate and very full.

 

I've had an idea for a project, thought some of you might find it interesting.

At present there is a fundraising drive going on to raise enough money to erect a WW2 memorial to the people of Portsmouth who died 1939-1945. There is a WW1 memorial but after 1945 I guess people were tired of war and there wasnt the will to erect a memorial.

The centrepiece of the memorial is in place, and now the aim is to raise enough money to pay for engraving names on a wall running around the centrepiece.

To do this the Council published a full list of all known Portsmouth people who died during WW2. I had a look through to make sure that my great-uncles details were correct, and it got me thinking.

I've been using MS Access at work a lot recently, and theres a lot of possibilities for creating reports, queries etc for extracting information from a database. And using the details on the Council's list, CWGC website and other research it should be possible to find out all kinds of things. For example I'm thinking about average ages, the proportion of men in particular arms of service, how many men died in particular theatres, where they are buried or commemorated, etc.

Already I've noticed that Portsmouth was hit pretty hard when ships were sunk, in particular big Battleships like the Hood, Royal Oak and Barham - hundreds of men killed at once. And very few Portsmouth people seem to have served in the RAF, compared to the RN and Army.

It could also be a useful way of flagging up interesting stories that might have slipped through the net so far. For example, how did Private Richard Aikman, of Portsmouth, come to be serving in the New Zealand Infantry? And how come Able Seaman Walter Andison, also of Portsmouth, came to be buried in St Pancras in London?

I've entered all of the A surnames so far!

Hi James,

Great idea to have all of the people together. What is the difference between Access and Excel? James- Anybody?

How many names do you have to list?

My Aussie RAAF/RAF count now totals 11,091 deaths. The basis of mine is from CWGC which were transposed to a spreadsheet (15) at a time.

I then had to go to the Australian Roll of Honour and enter their "Posting at Death" ONE by ONE!

I can sort the spreadsheet by Surname,

Rank,(How many squadron leaders, Wing Commanders etc)

Service Number,

Posting at death (which tells me how many died in a particular Squadron or Unit in seconds)

by Date,
(who died on this date around the world)

by Age, (eg 18year olds - 74, 19's - 466 - 20's - 1,326)

by Nationality, (UK or Australian - If UK, they were in Britain when war broke out or they were Australians in the RAF that I have found through research who sailed to Britain as they were not accepted by the RAAF). I found one (RAF) a couple of months ago and he turned out to be the third highest Australian Ace who I had never heard of),

by Cemetery, (Allows me to see how many deaths there were in the UK for instance by county then down to village)

by Country (shows where these deaths/burials occurred in 67countries)

by Locality.

I also have all I know about that member listed in the comments section of the spreadsheet in the members name cell.

It also tells me with a quick query, how many headstone photos I have achieved (over 8,000) and how many more are required.

For example, I can sort the Squadron Leaders and find out How many, who was the youngest and who was the oldest.

Another example is that 181 Aussies died while members of 10sq RAF of which 137 are listed on the Runnymede Memorial.

The statistics that the spreadsheet provides will allow me to place details on the web that even the Australian Government sites do not have.

I do hope your project provides you with as much enjoyment and online camaraderie as I have received from mine.
Cheers

Geoff

 

Warrant Officer (Pilot) Cyril Davey
249 Squadron RAF (Mustangs)
Died 19 October 1944
Buried in Belgrade War Cemetery, Serbia
Age 22, from Cosham, Portsmouth

It seems that 249 Squadron were based in Italy and flying Mustangs in support of the Partisans in Yugoslavia and the Balkans. Whether Davey was shot down or crashed I can't seem to find out.

19 October 1944
249 Squadron
Mustang III KH428


Three Mustangs were airborne from Brindisi at 0930 on 19 October (1944), flown by Wt Off Davey (KH428), Plt Off R Andrew (a new pilot, in KH530) and Flt Sgt Clarke (KH422), their task to bomb the railway at Amyntaion in northern Greece, and then to strafe roads to the southern end of Lake Ohrid... (after completing their attack) ... they then turned west for base. Over Albania was a thick cloud layer and Clarke lost sight of his companions about 15 miles north-east of Tirana. He made several attempts to call the two pilots, after which he crossed the coast at Lalze Bay and reached Brindisi with the aid of homing directions. Three days later the Squadron received news that Andrew was safe and unhurt. He had baled out when his fuel became exhausted, but of Davey nothing was heard.


See:
249 At War:The Authorised History of the RAF's Top-Scoring Fighter Squadron of WWII.
Cull,Brian.
London:Grub Street,1997
pp.190-1 & 264-5


Thanks to Col Bruggy

Hope this is a help

Regards
Peter

 

19 October 1944
249 Squadron
Mustang III KH428


Three Mustangs were airborne from Brindisi at 0930 on 19 October (1944), flown by Wt Off Davey (KH428), Plt Off R Andrew (a new pilot, in KH530) and Flt Sgt Clarke (KH422), their task to bomb the railway at Amyntaion in northern Greece, and then to strafe roads to the southern end of Lake Ohrid... (after completing their attack) ... they then turned west for base. Over Albania was a thick cloud layer and Clarke lost sight of his companions about 15 miles north-east of Tirana. He made several attempts to call the two pilots, after which he crossed the coast at Lalze Bay and reached Brindisi with the aid of homing directions. Three days later the Squadron received news that Andrew was safe and unhurt. He had baled out when his fuel became exhausted, but of Davey nothing was heard.


See:
249 At War:The Authorised History of the RAF's Top-Scoring Fighter Squadron of WWII.
Cull,Brian.
London:Grub Street,1997
pp.190-1 & 264-5


Thanks to Col Bruggy

Hope this is a help

Regards
Peter

Thats great Peter, thank you. Someone brought my attention to the book but you've beaten me to it!

 

Hi James,

Great idea to have all of the people together. What is the difference between Access and Excel? James- Anybody?

How many names do you have to list?



Hi Geoff,

Access is a database, for listing individual records. We use it at work chiefly for maintaining mailing lists, group visits, etc. Whereas Excel is more for collating statistics, producing graphs, etc. Both have their pros and cons and to be honest I prefer Excel because its much easier to use but seen as I'm trying to develop my Access skills I thought it would be the way to go for this project.

You can however export data from an Access database to Excel. Which is useful because there are a lot of formulas, functions etc that you can do in Excel that you can't in Access. For example it will be easier to calculate average ages, produce graphs, things like that. However in Access you can produce reports and queries that give you whatever information you want to extract, for example if I wanted to find all of the members of the Hampshire Regiment who died between 1939 and 1945, or all of the burials in a certain cemetery of country.

According to the list there are 3,380 people of Portsmouth who died in the Second World War. The list I am using on the Council website does not include Civilians, so i will use Geoff's search engine to extract them. I also suspect that there are a handful of people who aren't on the Council list, so I will again do a sweep with Geoff's search engine to double check.

 

Hi Geoff,

Access is a database, for listing individual records. We use it at work chiefly for maintaining mailing lists, group visits, etc. Whereas Excel is more for collating statistics, producing graphs, etc. Both have their pros and cons and to be honest I prefer Excel because its much easier to use but seen as I'm trying to develop my Access skills I thought it would be the way to go for this project.

You can however export data from an Access database to Excel. Which is useful because there are a lot of formulas, functions etc that you can do in Excel that you can't in Access. For example it will be easier to calculate average ages, produce graphs, things like that. However in Access you can produce reports and queries that give you whatever information you want to extract, for example if I wanted to find all of the members of the Hampshire Regiment who died between 1939 and 1945, or all of the burials in a certain cemetery of country.

According to the list there are 3,380 people of Portsmouth who died in the Second World War. The list I am using on the Council website does not include Civilians, so i will use Geoff's search engine to extract them. I also suspect that there are a handful of people who aren't on the Council list, so I will again do a sweep with Geoff's search engine to double check.

Thanks James,

I had certain issues with CWGC as many of my lads slipped through the net so to speak by not having the country or state or suburb listed for the next of kin.

Geoff's SE provided me with over 200 Australians who died while in the RAF and I have found another forty odd through research and a few just fall into your lap out of the blue.

Good luck,

Geoff

 

I'm pretty sure that there will be a fair few names that will crop up from Geoff's Search Engine, I'm planning on searching not only for Portsmouth but for every conceivable locality and neighbourhood within Portsmouth as not every entry has Portsmouth, some have 'Southsea, Hampshire', which is of course part of Portsmouth.

There are a few names in the list that seem to have no apparent connection with Portsmouth, but presumably there must have been some local connection for them to be added to the Council list so unless I see conclusive proof that they have no Portsmouth connection I will keep them.

I have contacted the Council Department heading up the work on the WW2 memorial to inform them of what I am doing, as it might have a big impact on the memorial. I've already found a few spelling mistakes, discovered some ship/units, etc. The prospect of having another couple of hundred names to add to the memorial might just be worth them considering too...

 

James, if you come across anyone with links to the South Lancashire Regiment, let me know and I will send you what I have

Phil

 

James, if you come across anyone with links to the South Lancashire Regiment, let me know and I will send you what I have

Phil

Hi Phil thanks for the offer. None as yet, I've got East Lancs and Lancs Fusiliers but no South Lancs as yet. I've done c. 800 out of 3,000 odd names, so that may well change.