Pte, Samuel Cassidy KOSB Arnhem

Discussion in 'Airborne' started by Lofty1, Jan 29, 2012.

  1. Lofty1

    Lofty1 Senior Member

    Having read Lofty's story of Sammie Cassidy in Arnhem I would like to add to the story. I am sammies grand daughter and my mum Elizabeth Cassidy/Ross never knew what happened to her father except that he had been Killed at Arnhem. I decided in 2002 that I would find out what happened to him. I first contacted the KOSB Divisional Headquarters and they put me in touch with the Reunion Secretary who in turn gave me the address of one of the Veterans. Each time I wrote to someone they gave me another person to contact who in turn gave me a wee bit more information. I also started to read a lot of books relating to the story of Arnhem. I also joined the Arnhem 1944 Veterans Club for my mum and put an add in the Newsletter. I contacted a Cafe in Oosterbeek that I had read Veterans visited whilst there and asked would they put up a poster asking for information, they said they would so I sent the poster. I started to get more and more information around this time The Home Office sent me his war record and also the letter stating that he was originally buried by the Germans in the White house grounds.
    One of the books I first purchased was 'Off at last' and I had originally written to Robert to tell him he had named my grand father in a photo which wasn't him and also that in his first print it stated that he was killed in a glyder accident and this was also incorrect after this we kept in contact and everything I found out subsequenly I sent him copies off to keep him informed.
    When I was finally told what happened to Sammie it took me while to tell my mother as I didn't really know how to tell her it was an accident and the gun had jammed.
    Although we as yet don't know where he is resting all we can assume is that he is one of the 8 KOSB Privates buried in Osterbeek Cemetary we knew none of this when I first began searching in 2002.
    In 2010 I got an email from Paul Wright saying that he was a relative of ours on Sammies side. We knew nothing of this side of the family as paul's grandmother was Sammies step sister who my mother was previously inaware of. What was more surprising was that he too had been researching my grandfather and thorough talking to the people I had also been in contact knew of our existence.
    We travelled to Arnhem with Paul in 2010 and it was an amazing time to see all the places we had read about and we met Verteran Jeff Roberts who told us first had what had happened. It was an emotional time not just for my mum but for the entire family as now we knew what had happened and saw where it had happened. We hope to go back soon.
    The programme came about in a surprising way as Paul Reed had taken 360 Productions to Arnhem as they were making a programme about the Arnhem Story, As fate would have it they stayed at the 'White House' and Robert Sigmond was assisting them with the story, he told them more about the KOSBs and as 360 Productions is a Northern Irish company they asked was there a Northern Irish connection Robert told them about Sammie.


    Firstly welcome to the forum.
    Thank you for relating your journey to finding out the facts regarding Samuel, and the additional information.
    I am sure the facts you found, although tragic, have left both you and your family very proud of Samuel, a good and brave soldier.
    lofty
     
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  2. TomTAS

    TomTAS Very Senior Member

    Hi Elizbath & Lofty,

    First off Elizabeth Thanks for sharing your side of this wonderful and yet sad story... And Lofty once again my thanks keep up the good job....

    Kind Regards
    Tom
     
  3. STAN50

    STAN50 Senior Member

    For anyone interested in this story it has now been written up and is one of many different others in a new book called:
    'Arnhem 1944 The Human Tragedy Of The Bridge Too Far. Written by Dilip Sarkar MBE.
     
    Last edited: Jun 29, 2019
    Lofty1 and CL1 like this.
  4. nigel barrett

    nigel barrett Member

    A greatly moving story combined with an amazing set of coincidences. I will be taking my 16 year old son to the 75th commemorations in a few weeks in an effort to keep the history going, and would like to visit this spot in order to pay our respects.
     
  5. Tony56

    Tony56 Member Patron

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