Swindon in the Past Lane

Swindonians celebrated a low key Christmas in 1940 following a year in which the war had bit hard.  But the town and district made sure that the most vulnerable citizens were catered for, especially the evacuees, so far from home for the festive period. Frank Leigh produced and starred in Jack and the Beanstalk, this year’s pantomime at the Playhouse.  Leigh scored a personal triumph in his role as Dame Durden according to the Advertiser reviewer who also commented on the ‘several pleasing specialities.’ At Lethbridge Road School, children from the infant class put on a production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs for their mothers with Jean Hawkins in the lead role of Snow White while local children and evacuees were treated to a Christmas tea and entertainment at the Club House, Shrivenham Road provided by the GWR Social Club. The Mayor and Mayoress, Alderman and Mrs F.E. Allen made a Christmas Day visit to various homes and institutions across Swindon ...

In this remembrance week it was appropriate that the speaker at the Swindon Society monthly meeting was Steve Williams who gave a talk about a soldier's life in the trenches. Dressed in authentic WWI uniform and carrying 60lb worth of kit, Steve showed us some of the gruesome weapons the men used in hand to hand fighting and trench raids. A military historian from Trowbridge, Steve travels the country with his reconstructed trench. He describes himself as a storyteller, but his presentation to group members on Wednesday evening proved he is much more than this. In 1914 the age range for recruits was 19-35 but Steve told how Recruiting Sergeants, who received a cash enhancement for each man they enlisted, were apt to turn a blind eye to enthusiastic youngsters. Following Kitchener's "Your Country Needs You" campaign 100,000 men enlisted in a week.  The new recruits of  K1-K6 Army Group, as they were known, grew moustaches in homage to Lord Kitchener....

Other writers have  said  it far better than I ever could -  They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:  Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.  At the going down of the sun and in the morning  We will remember them. Laurence Binyon (1869-1943) "When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say,  For Their Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today" Attrib. John Maxwell Edmonds (1875-1958)

The Leggett brothers - William (left) Ernest (right) Recent publicity concerning the future of Sanford Street School has highlighted the importance of a roll of honour on display there to former pupils who died in the First World War. Among the list of more than 130 names are those of seven sets of brothers killed in the 1914-18 war. An entry in the school logbook dated March 20, 1936 records – “Received today the memorial to Old Sanfordians who fell in the Great War.  It is a very beautifully made memorial, paid for by money in the School’s private fund.’ Two brothers listed among the dead are Horace and Reginald Corser, the sons of William and Elizabeth Corser of 1 Broad Street.  Reginald, an engine room artificer on HMS Defence was killed on May 31, 1916 during the Battle of Jutland.  He was 25 years old and had been married for less than a year.  Brother Horace was serving with the 79 th  Field Company Royal Engineers when he was killed on J...

When the going gets tough, the tough - laugh.  It's perhaps the most endearing quality we Brits possess, and never was the British sense of humour more important than during the Second World War.  Even the Government recognised that laughing at the enemy was a valuable weapon in our arsenal. Cyril Bird, Art Editor on Punch at the outbreak of war, offered his services free of charge to the wartime government.  Under the pen name Fougasse he produced a series of posters, which today are probably the most enduring images of British home front propaganda - Careless Talk Costs Lives.  The Cheltenham born artist took his professional name from the fougasse, a French anti personnel mine to which he likened his cartoons - "its effectiveness is not always reliable and its aim uncertain." Closer to home the mirth maker on the Swindon Evening Advertiser was George Arthur Middlelton.  George was born in Pontefract in 1888, the son of James Robert Middleton, a corn facto...

At the outbreak of war in 1914 the Great Western Railway employed about 80,000; 25,479 men enlisted in the services with 2,436 losing their lives by the end of the four year massacre. Throughout the war the Great Western Railway Magazine published details and photographs of the men who had lost their lives, which are now available to view on the Swindon Local Studies flickr page www.flickr.com/photos/swindonlocal Inspired by this project, family historian Ruth Wood decided to launch her own.  “ It just came to me that it would be so helpful to others, like me, researching their family history, if they could do a keyword/surname search for their GWR relative,” Ruth said. Now living in Durham, Ruth grew up in a Swindon ‘railway,’ family with several generations of engine drivers, boiler makers, electricians and engineers; her brother was one of the last intakes of apprentices at the Swindon Works. Liaising with staff at Swindon Central Library, Ruth launche...

The Battle of the River Plate in the South Atlantic on December 13, 1939 was the first significant naval battle of the Second World War.   The German pocket battleship the Graf Spee, engaged in ambushing merchant ships en route for Britain, was attacked by three cruisers, the Ajax, the Achilles and the Exeter.  However, prior to this battle, 300 British seaman, already taken prisoner by the Graf Spee, were transferred to the Altmark, a German fleet tanker. The men should have been released into Norwegian custody when the Altmark sailed past Bergen, but in direct contravention of international law the prisoners were hidden below decks in storage lockers. Despite two searches by Norwegian officials, the whereabouts of the men was only detected when prisoners released from the scuttled Graf Spee informed the British government. Among those on board HMS Cossack engaged in a daring raid to rescue the prisoners was a Swindon man, Edward Albert Head, the son of Francis ...