Old soldiers remember Omdurman

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Published on Wednesday, 09 May 2012 20:12
Written by Andrew

John Brock and John Bevan with a photograph of a young Corporal Brock transmitting a Morse Code signal in Khartoum.

 

Two former Corporals in the Royal Corps of Signals who both served in Sudan after the war couldn’t believe the odds of bumping into each other when they met at the Second World War museum at Carew Cheriton Control Tower recently. Museum President, John Brock M.B.E., was pleasantly surprised to meet former Corporal John Bevan when he visited the museum with a group from Penally Church.
 
As they shared memories of Omdurman and Khartoum they discovered that they had actually worked in the same signals office in Khartoum albeit not at the same time.
 
John Brock was a seconded from the Royal Corps and Signals to the Sudanese Defence Force between 1946 and 1948 while John Bevan was with the Royal Corps of Signals between 1950 and 1952.
 
Said John Brock, “It was a pleasant surprise to meet John Bevan and great to be able to reminisce about Omdurman and Khartoum either side of the River Nile”.

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Gateway to the past.

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Published on Wednesday, 09 May 2012 18:56
Written by Andrew

Pembroke and Pembroke Dock Gateway Club members, staff and volunteers outside Carew Cheriton Control Tower recently.

For Jackie Cunningham, one of the organisers of the visit by Pembroke and Pembroke Dock Gateway Club to Carew Cheriton Airfield, the occasion had special significance. Her aunt, Mary Cook, served as a WAAF during the Second World War on the base and actually worked inside the Control Tower which is now a museum.
 
Members of the Gateway Club learnt how three other WAAFs who served in the Control Tower had returned to the Museum some years ago and had provided detailed advice that enabled volunteers there to ensure that exhibits and furniture were authentically displayed.
 
Jackie said her aunt, who lived in Pembroke Dock and cycled each day to Carew Cheriton to carry on her duties, met her future husband there.
 
The Pembroke and Pembroke Dock Gateway Club, which has been helping local people with a learning disability enjoy social activities for over 30 years, usually meets at the Pembroke R.F.C clubhouse. They all agreed that dressing up in authentic uniforms and singing wartime songs in the Museum’s air-raid shelter was a great evening’s entertainment.

Pembroke and Pembroke Dock Gateway Club members agree to “meet again” after singing wartime songs in Museum air-raid shelter

 

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St Teilo’s children get wartime message by carrier pigeon

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Published on Friday, 16 March 2012 19:20
Written by Andrew
St Teilo’s RC School Years Five and Six join John Brock in front of the museum’s wartime Post
The story of Dickin Medal winner Winkie, the carrier pigeon, saving the lives of crashed aircrew in World War Two fascinated Year Five and Year Six children from St Teilo’s RC School, Tenby when they visited Carew Cheriton Control Tower recently.
 
The children from St.Teilo’s School watched in awe as they were “locked” into the Control Tower’s main operations room while the Museum’s President, John Brock M.B.E. carefully took Winkie from her wicker basket and then showed them an actual message that had been tied to a pigeon’s leg during the war.
 
Although “Winkie”, a blue chequered hen carrier pigeon, was actually based at RAF Leuchars, Fife, many pilots taking off from RAF Carew Cheriton during the war took with them locally reared carrier pigeons they could release to fly home to the South Pembrokeshire airbase if they were forced to crash land.
 
The Carew birds were raised by pigeon fancier Capt. Jack Howell of Tenby who became well known locally for scaling the cliffs around South Pembrokeshire to reduce the population of the pigeon’s main predator by replacing Peregrine Falcon eggs with substitute sham eggs that would never hatch. Such was the threat to carrier pigeons returning home with messages that £1 rewards were paid to anyone handing in the tail feathers of Peregrines they had killed.
 
Maria Dickin C.B.E., founder of the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA), established the Dickin Medal award for any animal displaying conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty whilst serving with British Empire armed forces or civil emergency services.
 
The first recipients of the award were three pigeons, serving with the Royal Air Force, all of whom contributed to the recovery of air crew from ditched aircraft during the Second World War. Between 1943 and 1949 the medal was awarded 54 times; to 32 pigeons, 18 dogs, 3 horses and a cat, to acknowledge actions of gallantry.
 
Winkie was the second animal to receive the Dickin Medal. She was on a British Bristol Beaufort Bomber when it crashed into the North Sea on 23 February 1942 after being badly damaged by enemy fire following a mission to Norway. The crew did not have time to radio an accurate position before ditching but they were able to set Winkie free and she flew 120 miles home to Broughty Ferry, where her owner, George Ross, discovered the exhausted pigeon. He alerted the airbase at RAF Leuchars in Fife and a search and rescue mission was launched. St Teilo’s RC School Years Five and Six Pupils attentively listening to John Brock story of heroic pigeons

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Monkton Priory CP School take the salute

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Published on Friday, 16 March 2012 19:14
Written by Andrew
Monkton Priory CP School take the salute
RAF Carew Cheriton is fast becoming a must see educational attraction for schools throughout Pembrokeshire who want to give their children a feel for what life was like in the 1940s.

Over 30 pupils from Monkton Priory CP School were the latest group to visit.
Interest in the Control Tower is increasing so much that Deric Brock, Chairman of the community group of volunteers said “We are proving to be more successful than we had ever hoped when we took on the challenge of renovating the Control Tower building 12 years ago. It is hard to believe that when local farmer and owner of the land at Carew Cheriton, Phil Davies, offered the local community history group the opportunity to take over the building, that had spend the previous 50 years as a cow shed, things would turn out so well.”

 
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Llanddewi Velfrey Women’s Institute dress up for action

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Published on Friday, 16 March 2012 19:05
Written by Andrew
“Air Raid Warden” Deanna Lewis rings out a warning to Llanddewi Velfrey WI Members during visit to RAF Carew Cheriton

In a change from the norm Llanddewi Velfrey WI Branch held their March meeting at at RAF Carew Cheriton instead of the village hall.
Members later enjoyed a tour of the Museum and Control Tower dressing up in authentic uniforms from the Second World War and working up an appetite before visiting the Carew Inn for an evening meal.
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