I have been looking into the history of my Village, Gilling East and found a man drawn by a local man some years ago that outlined all the military presence during the war and after for a POW camp. However I can find nothi g at all online about any of this. One common issue I found is that often I find results relating to Gilling West which is a different village. To clarify, I am looking for Gilling East near Helmsley. I have attached some photos of the map I found. If anyone can point me in the right direction too find out about the military presence in the Village. Thanks,
The way I followed the history of individual sites in WW2 was rather expensive and long, but here goes. Your village is in Northern Command of the British Army. I suggest use the National Archives Discovery search engine and research the files for the units you definitely have identified as being present. For instance 11 Armored Div founded in March 1941, in Yorkshire under Northern Command, under Major-General Percy Hobart. Their war diaries should reveal something - try the Adjutant diary first. You may get an Order of Battle, or list of units and location. Then you can go to the unit diary and 'home in'. Sometimes you are lucky and there is an overlap between the comings and goings and the outgoing names the incoming unit as their advance party comes in to check the place out (and the handover of the light bulbs!) The Northern Command WDiaries of their Adjutant and the WD of the Adjutant for the NC Area for N Yorkshire might help too. Regional Commands had lower levels of command.
Chris. I was interested in your post. My father was stationed in Gilling East in 1942. He was with the 147 Essex Yeomanry, Royal Artillery as part of the 42nd Armoured Division. The regiment became part of a new regiment (191 Herts and Essex Yeomanry, Field Regiment, Royal Artillery) in December 1942. His regiment moved north from their base in Essex in Christmas 1941 and were stationed initially in Thirsk. In May 1942 they moved to Kirby Moorside/Nawton and then on June 23, 1942 they moved to Gilling East where they were stationed in the grounds of Gilling Castle. They were there in Gilling East until the formation of the new regiment in December 1942, at which time they moved to Hovingham and Slingsby, with artillery firing practice being carried out on Spaunton Moor and Fylingdales. It was during the regiment's stay in N Yorks that my father met and married my mother who was working in Thirsk! The regiment landed on Juno beach in Normandy on DDay +3 and eventually progressed via Caen, Le Havre to Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. My father survived the war. I have the War diary so can supply details.
Welcome to the forum Peter Chris has not been on the forum for a few months I will drop him a message on your behalf to let him know regards Clive
Afternoon, Good to hear that there is more information about my tiny village out there! I have been doing a little bit of my own digging and been collating some photos, documents, whatever I could find really so anything you have is great! I will share also the stuff I found in a shared folder for all when I am next able as I am aware from home at the moment.
Thanks, Chris. I have a history of the 191 Herts and Essex Yeomanry RA and also the War Diary for the regiment but I found a very informative source recently - World War Two Memories of a Yeoman It is written from a personal perspective and it covers the full period 1939-1946. It was a personal record compiled by Felix Johnson who was in the same Battery as my father; I have recently made contact with the Johnson family to find details of the regiment in late 1944 in the Scheldt campaign
Chris In common with Peter Davies, my father was in the 147 Field Regiment RA (Essex Yeomanry) and stationed at Gilling East from 28th December 1942 to 1st March 1943 and they had their 431 Battery panoramic photo taken at Gilling Castle (RHS attached). He stayed with the 147 Fd throughout the War, whereas Peter's father must have been in 413 Battery many of whose men were split off into the 191 Herts and Essex Yeomanry. I have only just noticed your documents at the top of the thread so thank you for posting those. When I was up walking near Scarborough in 2016 I actually visited Gilling Castle Prep school to confirm I had identified the location correctly. Ian
I do know that Duncombe Park was a huge military training area for armour. Some of the estate roads that still remain, were built for that training. F
Yes, Ian you are correct. My father was in B Troop, 413 Battery, 147th Essex Yeomanry Army Field Regiment, R.A and was among those split off into the newly formed 191 Herts & Essex Yeomanry. After the battle of the Scheldt was won and access to Antwerp was secured in December 1944, 191 Herts & Essex Yeomanry was disbanded. My father was sent to 110 HAA Regiment, firstly defending Ostend and then Antwerp from V1 and V2 attack and eventually in Spring 1945 to Fallingbostel (Germany) near Bergen Belsen and then Siegen (Germany)
When I was trying to find the house in the panorama I attached above I contacted the North Yorkshire County Record Office. They actually came back with a suggestion of Duncombe Park, which I admit looked very similar to the building behind the Battery. So similar in fact that I researched the architect, William Wakefield, and lo and behold he had another property nearby which was an exact match, Gilling Castle. I then confirmed this by visiting when we were up in Scarborough walking in 2016. 431 Battery may well have been stationed at Duncombe Park, I dont know the precise area Ian
Apart from the excellent Felix Johnson blog you mention, are you aware of other accounts from 413 Battery notably the book "One Man's War" by Ron Davies and Peter Mitchell's blog? They are both "A" Troop, and carried on with the EY after Dec '42, but there may be some overlap with your father's service. I know very little about the 191 FD; I have an article “The battle of Caen” by Major General L C Manners-Smith, Commander of the 1st Corps Artillery on D-Day taken from the "Royal Artillery Commemoration Book 1939-1945". It is a summary of how Caen was taken, including how Officers from the 191st Herts and Essex Yeomanry entered Abbey of Saint-Étienne and reassured the civilians sheltering there, despite German soldiers not having been fully cleared from the area Ian
My father's name was Llewellyn George Davies and he was a Private, enlisting in April 1939 when living in Mount Bures, Essex. I have not seen the article you mention but there is a good description of the taking of Caen and the role in the action of the CO, Col Maurice Hope in "View from the Bridge", an account of the 147th and 191st published in the 1960s. I'll try to find the article you mention
Ian. An Armoured Brigade was based at Duncombe Park so if 431 Fd Bty was armoured rather than wheeled then they would have supported that Armoured Brigade. Wheeled artillery tended to support Infantry Brigades as a general rule. Regards Frank
Frank At the time the 147 Fd Regiment (Essex Yeomanry) had wheeled guns. They did not get their first tracked guns (Priests) until the beginning of December 1943, then replaced these with Sextons in Feb/March 1944. However when they were in Yorkshire they were under command of the 42nd Armoured Division, specifically its 30th Armoured Brigade. My father's 431 Battery worked very closely with the tanks of the Lothian & Border Horse Regiment of that Brigade at the time. That Armoured Division of course eventually converted to the specialised AFVs of 79th Armoured Division. I strongly suspect they were based at Gilling Castle along with the rest of the Regiment Ian
