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Spr. James Buck . British Army 560th Field Coy. Royal Engineers from Wymondham, Norfolk (d.31st Jul 1943) I purchased a cased, mounted set of 'Badge and Bombs' comprising cap, collar and shoulder badges. The case has the trademark of Frank Pricket Watchmaker and Jeweller Finkle Street Sedbergh. Behind the mount is a letter on lined paper written in pencil from Jim Buck to Dearest Glad leaving the case in her care as a memento. Jim gives his address as Sapper J Buck, 8th Independence Company, Old Prep School, Sedbergh, West Riding Yorkshire. From research, Jim served with 560 Field Company in Malaya and was a POW in Burma working on the infamous railway. Jim died on 31 July 1943 and lies in Kanchanaburi Cemetery in Thailand.
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Pte. Kenneth Edmund Buck . British Army 13th Btn. Kings Liverpool Regiment from Old Swan, Liverpool I was eight years old in 1940. My mum's sister aunty Marjorie had been married to uncle Ken Buck since 1937. He was my best friend and mate. When he was on leave at 7 Finchley Road, Anfield, Liverpool, he taught me how to march properly, and all the different orders when carrying one's rifle, with and without the bayonet fitted. He was a pretty good instructor as I became the marching instructor for the 10th Life Boys and then helped with the Boys Brigade when I was older. It was when he was showing me how to present arms with the bayonet fitted that we had a wee bit of an accident. I had to order uncle Ken to present arms, which he did to perfection except that the bayonet went through the glass chandlier light, through the plaster cast moulding in the ceiling into the bedroom floor boards upstairs. We were both rolling around with laughter for a few minutes. Then he told me I had better go round to my own house and ask my mum if she would come round and give him a hand to tidy up. He started to push his rifle backwards and forwards to free it from the floor boards upstairs it had stuck into. He gave it a bit of a heave and it came free. What also came free was the real lovely scrolled plaster of paris decorative circle in the ceiling and about one third of the ceiling. He just stood there and said `Marjorie is going to be very annoyed with me'. He was covered in plaster of paris dust powder and just looked like a snowman. I don't think he or I had ever laughed so much. I went and got my mum and she helped uncle Ken and me to clean up. The room was spotless and if one didn't look up there was nothing wrong with the room. Uncle Ken and aunty Marjorie had a lodger - mum's youngest sister aunty dora and she was getting married to uncle John Feilding who was a pti in the Air Force Regiment. All mum's brothers and sisters had lived with my mum and dad and me, plus dad's father who was called "pa". He was captain of a Mersey tug boat the Bramley Moore.
This was because mum's dad had lost both his lower legs an inch or two below his knee's in the First World War. He was a ship's engineer and, unfortunately, an alcoholic. His wife died of a broken heart in 1935 and he became a bit of a tyrant. Anyway I tried to get in touch with my uncle Ken after the war. My mum went to the pier head to meet his ship. I think it as about mid 1946 as aunty Marjorie had been having a affair and just left a letter for mum to meet uncle Ken and tell him the bad news. I did get to speak to him in July 1953 by phone as I went to sea, when I joined the Rangitane in London. His mum had married again after the First World War, as his dad Edmund Brown Buck had been killed in France serving with the Cheshire Regiment in 1918. I visited the apartment his mum and stepfather lived in at 99, Essendine Mansions, Maida Vale, London just around the corner from Lords cricket ground. My mum and I went to London just before the war in Europe ended. Possibly it was because my mum had to tell Mrs Dowell about Marjorie. I have traced all uncle Ken's sister Cecelia's children and their children, but I am afraid they were just not interested. I want to put him in my family's genealogy which I have almost completed and for just over the last ten years have been trying to find out about uncle Ken. All his papers are still in the hands of the Defence Department. We have no photos of him as Marjorie destroyed them all.
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F/Sgt. Albert Buckell . Royal Air Force My father, F/Sgt. Albert Buckell, RAF, was a prisoner in Stalag 8B/344, Lamsdorf. He talked about a fellow prisoner, a Canadian airman called Vernon Bastable, whose courage he admired. The two of them changed places with army privates in order to go out on a working party. However, Bastable's true identity was discovered by the guards who said he would be returned to the camp the next day. The prisoners levered up one of the bars on the window to allow hom to escape, but he was recaptured shortly afterwards. He is listed in the book "Footprints in the Sands of Time" by Oliver Clutton-Brock. Does anyone have any news or information about him?
Update
Flight Officer Vernon Bastable died in 1949. He is listed on the Canadian Veterans' website. He had a brother Gerald who was a Sgt in the Dragoons, who was killed in 1944 and one surviving brother, Harold, also a Flight Officer who was a navigator in Bomber Command. Harold was shot down the day after D-day and captured by Gestapo and spent 101 days in a concentration camp. (Al Blondin)
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Pte. Donald Buckingham . Army Royal Army Veterinary Corps My Dad, Donald Buckingham was in Stalag 18a, now at the grand old age of 95 he has had to go into a home for the elderly, on sorting out his belongings, he gave his old army papers and some photos of time in the camp, a lot of them have no names on and he can no longer remember the names of the guys he was with.
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GWA Buckingham . British Army GWA Buckingham served with the British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch. Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.
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Rosemary Buckingham . Women's Land Army
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Buckle . British Army Royal Artillery Buckle served with the Royal Artillery British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch. Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.
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F/Lt. Henry Wilkinson Valentine Buckler . Royal Air Force 108 Squadron
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J. Buckler . Auxiliary Fire Service Horsham
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Trpr. Kenneth George Buckler . British Army 11th Hussars Royal Armoured Corps from Isle of Wight (d.14th Feb 1941) I am not sure of Kenneth Buckler's exact age, between 18-20. He was a driver and killed by a direct bomb hit whilst driving one of his superiors serving in Egypt. He was a drum major in the 1st Newport (The Old Guard) Scout band before deployment.
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Albert Henry Buckley . British Army Royal Army Service Corps Not much is known about Albert Henry Buckley / Merryweather. We know he was born in around 1921, but do not know where. He died in 1967 at the age of 45 in Middlesex. His mother died when he was young, but we do not know when or where this occurred. His father is completely unknown. We think he was an Army dispatch rider in North Africa during WW2. After the war we know he lived in Monmouthshire with his partner, Nina Julie Cookes, and had several children with her there. They were not married however, which intrigues me given the social expectations during the 1950's. There is a large gap in the information about them until 1967, which is when Albert died. If anybody has any information that may be useful please do not hesitate to contact me.
We have a series of so-called Chinese Whispers in terms of this man who seems to be a bit of an enigma. There have been all sorts of stories in the family - he died when my husband's dad (his son) was 14 years old, and he was a quiet man who certainly didn't talk about his past or the war. We're not sure if his real name was Albert Henry Buckley, or whether he was known as Albert/Bertie or something else. Also, there were stories that he had been adopted and that even his surname may have been different! He met my husband's paternal grandmother, Nina Julie Cookes (believed also to be known as Julia) in the Valleys in south Wales and they lived in Bedwellty. We know Nina Julie Cookes was married previous to meeting our Albert, but we have no idea about his life before he met her.
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Sapper Albert Charles "Nigger" Buckley . British Army 8th Army Royal Engineers from London, England
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Trpr. Arthur Buckley . British Army 1st Btn. Royal Tank Rgt. (d.10th June 1942) I have no family record of Arthur Buckley, who was killed in action at the Battle of Knightsbridge in 1942. I have found his grave, but have no idea how he died. He served with 1st Royal Tank Regiment whose museum said that no war diary was kept by the regiment. Has anyone any memories of this battle or photographs of uniform, etc? All records were destroyed by his mother on receipt of the news of his death. I need to remember his sacrifice.
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Sergeant D N Buckley . RAF 59 Squadron
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Eric Buckley . Royal Navy HMS Halsted
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Sgt. George Buckley . British Army 2nd Btn. North Staffordshire Regiment from Measham My Father was a regular soldier with the 2nd Battallion, North Staffs regiment, serving in Northern Ireland and Palestine before returning to the UK to prepare for the BEF and going into France and then into Belgium after the outbreak of War. He was in charge of a bren gun carrier and saw action against the German Army. On 21/5/40 he was involved in a battle with the Germans and his brengun carrier was hit by a German shell. His two companions were killed and Dad was also left for dead in the carrier for almost two days. Fortunately, before withdrawing on the night of 22/5/40 the carrier was checked and my Dad was discovered to be still alive. He was rescued and was evacuated through Dunkirk as part of Operation Dynamo. He was invalided out of the Army in September, 1940. I am in the process of collating any information regarding my father's Regiment and his time in the Army so would be glad of any other people's recollections or stories, relevant from 1933 to 1940.
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Sgt. George Buckley . British Army 2nd Battallion North Staffordshire Regiment from Measham My father, George Buckley was a Sergeant in the 2nd Battalion of the North Staffordshire Regiment. He joined the Regular Army in 1933 and served in Northern Ireland and Palestine before the outbreak of WW2. The North Staffs were sent into France as part of the BEF. Following the invasion of Belgium and the BEF withdrawal my father was I/C a Bren Gun carrier. During the retreat towards Dunkirk he was involved in a battle with the Germans on the 21st of May 1940 on the River Escaut near Tournai. On that same date Major Matthews of the North Staffs was killed. My father's bren gun carrier was hit by German shellfire and the two other crew members were killed:
Lance Corporal George Reginald Bolton, 23yrs old Army No. 5049586 and Private Eric Wilcox, 25yrs old Army No 5047504, Son of Albert Leopold and Ethel Wilcox of Nottingham. All three are buried in the CWG Cemetery at Esquelmes, Belgium.
My father was left in the Bren Gun carrier for two days, assumed dead with his fellow soldiers. Before the next withdrawal on the 23rd of May the Bren Gun carrier was checked and my father was found to be alive, although severely injured. He was rescued and took part in the Dunkirk Evacuation and was evacuated on HMS Codrington. Following medical treatment he was disharged from the Army on the 5th of September 1940.
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Mjr. Harry Hall Buckley . British Army Royal Engineers and Indian Army Ordinance Corps from Manchester In memory of my father, I am recording his wartime service.
Harry Buckley first became involved in militarism in 1936 at Cambridge University, where he joined the Officer Training Corps. He was studying mechanical engineering and mathematics, so naturally joined an engineer unit. After university he worked for Mather and Platt, an engineering company in Manchester and was in a Territorial Army engineer unit as a reservist.
With the dark clouds of war on the horizon he was fully mobilized before the outbreak of war in 1939 and deployed to France with the British Expeditionary Force as an engineering officer. It was in France that he met his future wife Margaret who was in the Auxiliary Territorial Service and was deployed to France as a ’passive air defence instructor’. Prior to deployment she had held the rank of corporal but had had to relinquish it to private for deployment purposes.
The stories of their meeting are entirely from my mother and can be related on another occasion. I attempted to engage my father on numerous occasions with questions like ’Tell us a story from the war’. He was always reticent and sometimes counter attacked with grizzly descriptions, to try and silence my questions. He would relate that war involved long periods of boredom. From my mother I learnt that he, alongside her, were posted to a factory where maintenance was carried out on the tanks. On one occasion intelligence had determined that the factory was vulnerable to German bombing, so my father organised the demolition by explosives of the factory chimney to make it less recognizable from the air.
Strategic withdrawal was the main action for this army and as a child I gleaned from my father that an army in retreat was not a picnic. He related that there were people being shot for lacking discipline in retreat. Relating this story to an ex-British Army regular he said - in the first war yes, but not in the second world war. All I can do is relate what I heard him say. As an engineer he was in the rear party in retreat, blowing up bridges and other installations to slow the advancing Germans. They retreated to St Nazaire where Harry was again ordered to stay back to fill up the harbour with the abandoned vehicles used in the retreat. He was the last to leave and left the port on a motorcycle. He had been given money and was able to pay for passage to the UK on a fishing boat. The fisherman were suspicious that they would be impounded if they put into a port, so they landed Harry on an isolated beach.
On return to the UK Harry discovered that his new love’s family lived in a large house. The story goes that he joined the British Indian army as the pay was better and would enable him to afford his unfolding future. It is my belief that in the retreat many of Harry’s unit members were lost, probably on the Lancastria, a troopship sunk in St Nazaire bay with the loss of approximately 4000. The army realized that he would be of greater use in the far east than in a re-hash with the Germans.
He sailed for India and became established with the British Indian Army in Rawlpindi. He was then posted to staff college in Quetta, Pakistan. Before boarding the train he was instructed to phone HQ at each stop as the situation was deteriorating. He never arrived to start the course and instead was deployed to Malaya to command a unit of the Royal Indian Army Ordinance Corps - primarily staffed by Indian troops. He was in the jungle to face up to the advancing Japanese army. Comments gleaned from my mother were that he learnt to feel safer during the night - ‘the only time he ever felt safe’; and that there were problems with communications. This latter information has been well documented in analysis of the reasons why Singapore fell.
With the fall of Singapore Harry passed the next three and a half years as a prisoner of war in Changi POW camp. My father was an excellent bridge player. The story I was brought up on, was that he made up a bridge foursome together with a senior British officer, and that this officer did not want to break up the bridge foursome - so my father was not sent to work on the Burma-Siam railway. ‘He played bridge to save his life’. A more realistic explanation I think is that he was not sent to work on the railway because he was an only son of a widowed mother. My father explained to me that it was the task of the senior British officer of the camp to select people to meet the demand for workers on the railway. The casualty rate on the railway was much higher than in the camp. The Japanese worked people to death - similar to the German concentration camps.
For the first year of captivity, officers were not required to do manual work. After that he was put to work digging and growing potatoes. Apparently this helped him survive as some of the more lenient guards would allow them to eat the roots, which are of course similarly nutritious to a potato. He would have been severely disciplined for taking a potato. Also during captivity he traded his watch with a guard for some ducks. Enterprise is necessary to survive the POW experience.
After liberation he was returned to India and apparently reunited with his non-field kit. Upon return to the United Kingdom he was admitted to the royal naval hospital in Greenwich to recover from a large boil caused by years of malnutrition. He was also suffering from the after-effects of Malaria. While in hospital he learnt watch repair as a hobby, a form of therapy. He was demobilized from the army and moved forwards with life working as an engineer, marriage and raising children. He died in 1975 at the age of 58. He worked a full working life up until he was given a year off for medical reasons six weeks prior to his death. It is believed that his demise at a fairly young age was partly caused by consequences of his wartime service. I also believe that he worked fully to the last in large part because that is what his fallen comrades had done in the Japanese POW camps, and it was his way of maintaining solidarity. Twenty-five years after his death my mother was given a lump sum by the British Government as compensation. Survivors are annoyed that the Japanese government has not paid compensation, has not admitted responsibility of any kind, or offered any apology. Harry now has a grandson named Harry.
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Pvt. Joseph Buckley . United States Army 60th CAC D Battery Coast Artillery Corps from California POW Camp Fukuoka 17 in Japan
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3rd Officer. Pamela Phoebe Buckley . Womens Royal Naval Service HMS Lanka
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Rifleman Robert Charles Buckley . Army King's Royal Rifle Corps (d.23rd February 1945) During the second World War the Allied and German soldiers, who were killed in Goirle, Noord Brabant, the Netherlands and in the neighbourhood, were buried at the Roman Catholic cemetery from the parish St. Jan in Goirle.
After the war the remains of the German soldiers were reburied in Ysselsteijn (near Venray) and most of the allied soldiers were reburied in Bergen op Zoom (War Cemetery and Canadian War Cemetery) and in Leopoldsburg (Belgium, War Cemetery).
At this moment there are 27 Allied graves in Goirle. Every year we commemorate the victims of World War II, both soldiers and civilians. We know their names, but who were the persons behind the names? What were their lives before they died? Where did they come from? How did they die? Under what circumstances?
It is my intention to give the victims a face, to write and keep the story behind the gravestones because we always will remember the soldier who died for our liberty. We can forget names, but not faces. I will try to write down all their stories for the next generation so they will know who was commemorated.
Maybe someone can help me in this matter. Send me a letter or an e-mail with additional information, a photograph or a copy of any personal document, which I can use for The Memory Book or a website.
Rifleman Robert Charles Buckley of the King's Royal Rifle Corps died the 23rd February 1945, age 25.
Thank you in advance for your help
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TSH Buckley . British Army TSH Buckley served with the British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch. Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.
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Cpl. Wilfred Buckley . British Army Royal Armoured Corps Cpl.Wilfred Buckley served with the Royal Armoured Corps British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch. Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.
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Dvr. William Buckley . British Army Royal Army Service Corps from Coventry My Dad, William Buckley was a driver in the RASC 1942 until 1947, then again during the Suez crisis. I don't have much information about the time he served as he was very quiet about what happened. I do know he served in Sicily, Italy and far East. He was awarded the general service medal, Italy star, Palestine 1945-48 and Arabian peninsula. Although we don't have his papers and medals due to Dad marring a second time and his wife disposing of them, the MOD sent me this information when I contacted them. I would love to find out some information if any one can help me.
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F/O G. C. Bucknell . Royal Australian Air Force 97 Squadron
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Flight Sergeant Ronald George Edwin Buckner . RAF VR 10 Squadron (d.20th December 1943) My husband's father, F/O Kenneth Seymour Lear, served in WW2 and flew in a Halifax bomber. We were told by my husband's mother, who is now deceased, that her husband was stationed at Marston Moor. I am trying to find out any history for him as he was reported missing in action and I think in the end declared dead on the 20th December 1943. My husband, like so many born during the war, never knew his father. We don't even have any photos of him. How can I find out if he was stationed at Marston Moor and if he was, if anyone has any pictures of him. He did also go to Canada for training. Can anyone help? We also don't have a date of birth for him but know he was 20 when he died.
Information from lostbombers.co.uk:
Halifax HX164, Operation Frankfurt, airborne 1637 20th December 1943 from RAF Melbourne. Cause of loss not established. Crashed near Dahlen, where those killed were buried. Their graves are now located in the Rheinberg War Cemetery. F/L Whitmarsh gained an Immediate DFM, Gazetted 31Aug43 for his outstanding airmanship during a raid that same month to Mannheim.
Flight Lieutenant Alan Walter Whitmarsh DFM KIA
Sergeant Peter Mill Hayes KIA
Pilot Officer Cyril Priest KIA
Flight Offficer J.R.Kinney RCAF PoW (confined in hospital due injuries)
Flying Officer Kenneth Seymour Lear KIA
Flight Sergeant Ronald George Edwin Buckner KIA
Sgt M.H.Britton KIA
Sgt K.R.Norton KIA
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Flight Sergeant Ronald George Edwin Buckner . RAF VR 10 Squadron (d.20th December 1943) My husband's father, F/O Kenneth Seymour Lear, served in WW2 and flew in a Halifax bomber. We were told by my husband's mother, who is now deceased, that her husband was stationed at Marston Moor. I am trying to find out any history for him as he was reported missing in action and I think in the end declared dead on the 20th December 1943. My husband, like so many born during the war, never knew his father. We don't even have any photos of him. How can I find out if he was stationed at Marston Moor and if he was, if anyone has any pictures of him. He did also go to Canada for training. Can anyone help? We also don't have a date of birth for him but know he was 20 when he died.
Information from lostbombers.co.uk:
Halifax HX164, Operation Frankfurt, airborne 1637 20th December 1943 from RAF Melbourne. Cause of loss not established. Crashed near Dahlen, where those killed were buried. Their graves are now located in the Rheinberg War Cemetery. F/L Whitmarsh gained an Immediate DFM, Gazetted 31Aug43 for his outstanding airmanship during a raid that same month to Mannheim.
Flight Lieutenant Alan Walter Whitmarsh DFM KIA
Sergeant Peter Mill Hayes KIA
Pilot Officer Cyril Priest KIA
Flight Offficer J.R.Kinney RCAF PoW (confined in hospital due injuries)
Flying Officer Kenneth Seymour Lear KIA
Flight Sergeant Ronald George Edwin Buckner KIA
Sgt M.H.Britton KIA
Sgt K.R.Norton KIA
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A Budd . British Army 144th Regiment Royal Armoured Corps A Budd served with the 144th Regiment Royal Armoured Corps British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch. Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.
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Fireman Adam Budd . Merchant Navy SS Fort Sakisdac (d.6th June 1944) Fireman Budd was buried in the Gamboa British Cemetery in Brazil.
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