Eeek!!!

[Shona]

Just went on to the CWGC website and there, on the home page, is a pic of my OH reading the information panels at the Tower Hill war memorial in London!

Can't recall any pics being taken when we visited recently. I'm really quite stunned.

Anything like that happen to anyone else?

[tenterfieldjulie]

They obviously recognize a star when they see one Shona ...

[Mary from Italy]

Goodness, he's going to be astonished when he sees it :)

[kiterunner]

Wow! He will be surprised!

I'm glad to see that the information panels cover WW1 as well as WW2. Although Wikipedia etc say that Merchant Navy Day commemorates those who died in both wars and since, media coverage only ever seems to focus on WW2. (My g-grandfather's ship was sunk in WW1 and he is among the dead listed at Tower Hill.)

[Shona]

I called him at work to tell him - hoots of laughter!

You are so right about WW1 - it's almost a forgotten history. One memorial in Grimsby has 700 names of trawlernen and merchant seamen who lost their lives. More men lost their lives at sea than in the trenches.

[Shona]

...and those RN Volunteer Reserve records are going to keep be very busy!

[Michael]

Anything like that happen to anyone else?

I'd got back from my year in Strasbourg and was, as usual, working on campus over the summer. One day I went down to the sports centre, picked up a copy of the brochure which was to be distributed to new students providing information about opportunities to participate in sport at the university... and immediately saw my own mugshot on the centre pages, despite being, shall we say, not one of the most athletic people around. It was the section on sport volunteering - there was an annual sports day at which children from various primary schools in the city got the chance to use the university facilities, under the supervision of student volunteers. I coached the kids at long jump - which they loved, but the thought of which would have given my old PE teacher a heart attack.

[Glen TK]

I've spent quite a bit of time on the CWGC site recently looking into airmen and civilians who died as a result of aircraft crashes in Lincoln, it's only a week or two away from the 70th anniversary of the Lancaster crashing in Highfield Ave, just 10 days later another aircraft came down on Brant Road and the year before two collided and crashed on Canwick Hill. Highfield was the worst though as the civilian deaths included children, just one crewman survived, the rear gunner, still in his turret which detached from the aircraft on impact and finished up in a garden.

[Shona]

There were a number of crashes near where I live, Glen - I think Killingholme and Goxhill were two of the biggest airfields. It's poignant to see the memorials, often tucked away at the edge of a field down an isolated lane.

Where was the Highfield Avenue crash? There are a lot of Highfield Avenues around.

[Glen TK]

22, 24, 25 and 27 Highfield Ave, Swanpool in Lincoln. It was a training flight, the crew came down on some houses and destroyed them, they were rebuilt as bungalows and still there now, pretty easy to find on google streetview. One of the youngsters who died was 3 years old though the oldest crew casualty was only 23 which is no age at all.

Three of the crew are buried in Notts, one in Sutton in Ashflield, one in Mansfield and one in Newark. The remainder are buried in different parts of the UK.