Welcome
to our
Laws Family Register
Welcome
to our
Laws Family Register
to our
Laws Family Register
Robert Henry Laws
1828-1881
Captain of the Barque 'Woolhampton'
my paternal Great Grandfather
&
This is Robert Henry's Wife
Sarah Ann Laws, formerly Fuller
My paternal Great Grandmother
1846-1924
R I P
Gone but not forgotten,
===================
This blog
is
dedicated
to all those who have borne our illustrious
surnames LAWS and LAWES Worldwide
Page Views last month 3,100
Mail us today with your inquiries. we'd be glad to help you.
Robert Henry Laws
1828-1881
Captain of the Barque 'Woolhampton'
my paternal Great Grandfather
&
This is Robert Henry's Wife
Sarah Ann Laws, formerly Fuller
My paternal Great Grandmother
1846-1924
R I P
===================
This blog
is
dedicated
to all those who have borne our illustrious
surnames LAWS and LAWES Worldwide
Page Views last month 3,100
Mail us today with your inquiries. we'd be glad to help you.
John P Laws
The Registrar
lawsfhs@gmail.com
Introducing
our new
Facebook Group
LAWS FAMILY HISTORY WORLDWIDE and DNA
so
IF YOU ARE RESEARCHING LAWES OR LAWS
OR
BETTER STILL
ARE A
LAWES OR LAWS
COME ON IN
WE'D LOVE YOU TO JOIN US
Please, share this blog, with your friends & contacts
You can e-mail us with your questions,
email us at
lawsfhs@gmail.com
John P Laws
The Registrar
The Registrar
lawsfhs@gmail.com
Introducing
our new
Facebook Group
LAWS FAMILY HISTORY WORLDWIDE and DNA
so
IF YOU ARE RESEARCHING LAWES OR LAWS
OR
BETTER STILL
ARE A
LAWES OR LAWS
COME ON IN
WE'D LOVE YOU TO JOIN US
Please, share this blog, with your friends & contacts
You can e-mail us with your questions,
email us at
lawsfhs@gmail.com
our new
Facebook Group
LAWS FAMILY HISTORY WORLDWIDE and DNA
so
IF YOU ARE RESEARCHING LAWES OR LAWS
OR
BETTER STILL
ARE A
LAWES OR LAWS
COME ON IN
WE'D LOVE YOU TO JOIN US
You can e-mail us with your questions,
email us at
lawsfhs@gmail.com
Henry Lawes
1595-1662
Henry Lawes
1595-1662
We have excluded records of living people to protect their privacy (GDPR 2018)
We only show births before 1920 and marriages before 1940.
We have excluded records of living people to protect their privacy (GDPR 2018)
We only show births before 1920 and marriages before 1940.
We only show births before 1920 and marriages before 1940.
If you are seeking to find folk after these years you should contact the registrar.
If you are seeking to find folk after these years you should contact the registrar.
Lord, help me dig into the past and sift the sands of time, that I might find the roots that made
this family tree of mine
Lord, help me trace the ancient roads, on which our fathers trod, which led them through
so many lands, to find our present sod.
Lord help me find an ancient book or dusty manuscript, that's safely hidden now away,
in some forgotten crypt.
Lord, let it bridge the gap, that haunts my soul when I can't find, that missing link between
some name, that ends the same as mine.
Extracted from our database today 24th February
1702 - Marriage: Anthony LAWES-2740 (Hortarius) and Jane BRUCE-2741, Wollaton Nottinghamshire England
1739 - Baptism: William LAWS-3868, Stoke Dameral Devonshire England
1755 - Marriage: Stephen LAWS-27714 and Mary DREW-27715, Swaffham Norfolk England
1770 - Marriage: Thomas FAGGE-7941 and Elizabeth LAWS-7228, Hawkinge Kent England
1792 - Birth: George LAWS-49670, Bermondsey Surrey England
1792 - Birth: Seth LAWES-35464, Hurstbourne Prior Hampshire England
1823 - Birth: Selina LAWS-4439, Stepney Middlesex England
1839 - Burial: John LAWS-28919, Washbrook Suffolk England
1844 - Birth: Sarah Elizabeth LAWS-32933, Johnson City, Washington County Tennessee United States
1850 - Marriage: Isaac LAWS-17933 (Coal Miner) and Elizabeth LOWTON- 19724, Kelloe Durham England
1851 - Occupation: John LAWS-39515, (Master Mariner 43280)
1855 - Baptism: Charles LAWES-25164, Kirby Bedon Norfolk England
1856 - Marriage: John STONIER-30553 (Labourer & Widower) and
Ann LAWS-30554, Saint Pancras Middlesex England
1861 - Burial: William LAWS-33716, (Agent & Farmer / 2200 Acres) Torquay Devonshire England
1862 - Marriage: John James BISHOP-23778 and Harriett LAWS-23777, Portsmouth Hampshire England
1863 - Birth: Elizabeth Anne CLEGG-6966, (Woollen Weaver) Kirkcudbright Kirkcudbrightshire Scotland
(My wifes Great grand Aunt)
1865 - Birth: Mary Elizabeth CLARKE-31771, Mitcham Surrey England
1869 - Birth: Ida Isabel LAWS-17415, (Actress) Thorpe le Soken Essex England
1877 - Burial: Sarah LAWS-13216, Bowral, New South Wales Australia
1878 - Marriage: James MANN-36824 and Sarah LAWS-36823, Walworth
Surrey England
1885 - Birth: Ethel Maud WELLS-49297,
(Wife of my 1st cousin twice removed)
1885 - Baptism: Frederick Joseph LAWES-27786, Headley Hampshire England
1886 - Birth: Elizabeth LAWS-43500,
1886 - Baptism: Ethel LAWS-8485, (Schoolteacher) Hunstanton Norfolk England
1887 - Birth: Albert Penn LAWS-11053,
1888 - Birth: James Reginald Spencer LAWES-213, (Clerk & Garage Proprietor) Hastings Sussex England
1890 - Birth: Edgar Harold LAWS-8270, (Lorry Driver on RAF Station) Feltwell Norfolk England
1891 - Christen: Julianna Matilda LAWS-11659, Hingham Norfolk England
1892 - Birth: Charles CORNISH-50262, Wakefield West Yorkshire England
(My wife's Grand Uncle and 1st Cousin once removed)
1894 - Birth: Lily Beatrice LAWES-49754, (Shop Assistant Bakers & Confectioners) Bournemouth Hampshire England
1895 - Birth: Hilda Sophia LAWES-15665, Reading Berkshire England
1896 - Birth: Robert Charles William BRANT-9369, (Printer Art Paper) Tottenham Middlesex England
(My first cousin twice removed)
1898 - Death: Harriet Maria STRATFORD-253,
1901 - Baptism: Beatrice Annie LAWES-12416, Headley Hampshire England
1908 - Birth: Walter LAWS-41364, (Railway Officer) South Shields Durham England
1908 - Birth: Alfa Riddell BARTON-28499, Emery, Emery County,
Utah United States
1909 - Birth: Alfred W SCOTT-LAWS-46420, (Milk Roundsman)
1909 - Birth: Sidney F LAWES-43823, (Draughtsman Aircraft Experimental Drawing Office)
1909 - Birth: Alfred William Scott LAWS-11814, West Ham Essex England
1910 - Birth: Robert Frank LAWS-12651, (Australian Army) Leichhardt,
New South Wales Australia
1911 - Birth: Helen LAWS-24332, (Infant) Mercer County Missouri United States
1912 - Birth: Robert HENDERSON-45523,
1912 - Birth: Elizabeth Jane LAWS-35029,
1912 - Birth: Herbert William LAWS-30952, (Builders Labourer) Brentford Middlesex England
1912 - Birth: Alma Edith BLACKWELL-11036, Brownsborough, Caldwell Texas United States
1915 - Birth: Charles Cyril LAWS-35230, (Assistant Butcher)
1916 - Death: Noah Madison LAWS-13553, (Farmer) Princeton, Mercer County, Missouri United States
1916 - Burial: Julia LAWS-3502, (Spr & Neice) Kirby Bedon Norfolk England
1918 - Birth: Paul O LAWS-16410, (PFC US Army)
1931 - Marriage: James Medlin LAWS-50025 and Thelma Wanette ALLEN- 50026, Chickasha, Grady, Oklahoma, United States
1933 - Birth: Henry L LAWS-17491, (Surgeon) Columbus Mississippi
United States
1934 - Death: William LAWS-7840, Camberwell Surrey England
but resided Stockwell Surrey England
1934 - Death: Cuthbert Turner LAWS-3670, (Railway Locomotive Driver)
York County Hospital North Yorkshire England
1938 - Death: Henry Hill FLAMANK-21127, (Railwayman) Salisbury Victoria Australia
1944 - Burial: John Edward LAWS-9366, (Bricklayer) Hawkinge Kent England
1947 - Death: Dora Norval LAWS-12363, Alexandria City, Virginia, United States
1951 - Burial: Hammond William LAWS-14401, (Insurance Agent) Dunedin
New Zealand
1955 - Death: Charles Sidney LAWS-38283, Southwark Surrey England
but resided at Lambeth Surrey England
1975 - Death: George Baden LAWS-31696, (Ledger Clerk - Chargehand) Gateshead Durham England
1984 - Death: Amy Constance LAWS-25885,
1985 - Death: Mabel Alice LAWS-3384, Horsford Norfolk England
1986 - Death: Charlotte Ellen WHITELING-34031, (Stenographer)
Peckham Surrey England
1990 - Death: Kambrella M LAWS-19303,
1997 - Cremation: Joan Anne LAWES-25016, Stourbridge Worcestershire England
2003 - Death: Mary Blanch REED-11913, Santa Fe, Santa Fe County,
New Mexico, United States
2014 - Death: Scott Douglas LAWS-50457, Yakima, Washington, United States
2018 - Death: Pauline Fay LAWS-39609, Thatcher, Box Elder Utah United States
MORE TOMORROW
One Man’s War – A bit about the RAF
by
John Robert Laws
1921-2008
I was seventeen when WWII began, some twenty-one years after WWI had ended. It had been becoming inevitable for some time. A year’s respite had been gained by Neville Chamberlain’s trip to Munich but that didn’t do much good in the long run. At Eleven o’clock on that sunny Sunday morning the third of September he broadcast his declaration of war against Germany. About ten minutes later the air raid sirens sounded – a false alarm but the nervous went scuttling into the newly dug Anderson shelters in their gardens.
The occupation of Poland took the German army only a few weeks and then we were into the ‘phoney war’ when very little appeared to be happening in mainland Europe. The sea war of attrition started and clothing and petrol rationing were introduced. I had been working in the city for a couple of years articled to a small firm of Chartered Accountants. Young men were being called up into the forces and all businesses suffered a degree of disruption. The firm seemed to slow down and I often had time available to go to the Students Room at the Institute to study. From time to time I travelled to provincial towns to work on audits there.
The blackout was even more noticeable in unfamiliar towns than at home but the difficulty caused by the cutting down on vehicle headlights was limited by the small number of vehicles and petrol rationing.
When the war burst into action, with the German armoured offensive that outflanked the Maginot line and led to the fall of France and the evacuation from Dunkirk, I was having a cycling holiday in Devon and Cornwall, mostly in beautiful sunshine with scarcely a motor car to be seen. Tea in the Doone Valley, as much as you could eat for a shilling and bed and breakfast for three shillings and sixpence, in a four-poster bed and the loo in the garden.
The first I saw of the real war was one sunny weekend afternoon. I was out on my own in the Hertfordshire countryside when the distant rumble of engines made me look up, and there, far above me, were formations of silvery aircraft swinging to the south where they let go their bombs on the London docks with devastating effect. This must have been early September 1940. The Battle of Britain followed and then the night bombing of London. A blackout had been in force from the beginning of the war, but London was a pretty broad target. The bombers were unopposed at first but before long the anti-aircraft were in place and then the noise was intense though somewhat comforting. If one were out at night it often seemed that the showers of shell splinters from the anti-aircraft barrage were a greater hazard than the bombs.
I often used to ride my bike home from my girlfriend’s to the accompaniment of the patter of shrapnel on the rooftops. In late December the warehouse area of the city burned in a fire raid which we could see from North London. When I went to work in the city the next morning the firemen were still hard at it and I saw that the place where my father worked was just debris with the rest.
Men became liable to a call-up for the forces at gradually lower ages and Bill Bush and I decided that it wasn’t worth waiting for the call up with little choice what you did, so early in 1941, we went up to the recruiting office at Kings Cross and joined the RAF. We both got accepted as aircrew and it was not long till we had to report for training.
We were separated from the word go as Bill was recommended for a commission and I wasn’t. When it came to the crunch it finally worked out the other way around.
Training facilities were overloaded and so, after some basic training of square-bashing and arms drill, we landed up in other jobs. One started off with the rank of AC2 there was nothing lower, and the pay of pennies a day paid out fortnightly at a pay parade. I did my basic training at Skegness which was certainly bracing but there was nothing difficult about marching up and down and sticking bayonets into bags of straw.
This done I was posted to Mildenhall to work as an armourer. All I remember of it was that we took the bombs from the bomb dump to the aircraft on trolleys and rode on them around the perimeter track pulled by a tractor. The aircraft were Vickers Wellingtons of 149 Squadron and had a gun turret in the tail with four brownings which took a long ribbon of ammunition.
I wasn’t trusted to deal with this as I had no training at all as an armourer.
After a little while, I was put on a pre-EFTS (Elementary Flying Training School) course at South Cerney in Gloucestershire, I remember nothing of the course but it must have been May because the horse chestnuts were in full bloom in the park of the big house at Cirencester. Queen Mary was staying there and did some sort of inspection in the town. Being long in the leg I got put in the Guard of Honour and saw the old bird at close quarters. The only other thing of note at South Cerney was that swimming was available in a large water-filled gravel pit for a very small charge; I used to go there with two or three other keen types and swim around in the sunshine in the biggest pool we were ever likely to use. We didn’t ask how deep it was, but it was undoubtedly for confident swimmers only.
To be continued tomorrow
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Extracted from our database today 24th February
1702 - Marriage: Anthony LAWES-2740 (Hortarius) and Jane BRUCE-2741, Wollaton Nottinghamshire England
1739 - Baptism: William LAWS-3868, Stoke Dameral Devonshire England
1755 - Marriage: Stephen LAWS-27714 and Mary DREW-27715, Swaffham Norfolk England
1770 - Marriage: Thomas FAGGE-7941 and Elizabeth LAWS-7228, Hawkinge Kent England
1792 - Birth: George LAWS-49670, Bermondsey Surrey England
1792 - Birth: Seth LAWES-35464, Hurstbourne Prior Hampshire England
1823 - Birth: Selina LAWS-4439, Stepney Middlesex England
1839 - Burial: John LAWS-28919, Washbrook Suffolk England
1844 - Birth: Sarah Elizabeth LAWS-32933, Johnson City, Washington County Tennessee United States
1850 - Marriage: Isaac LAWS-17933 (Coal Miner) and Elizabeth LOWTON- 19724, Kelloe Durham England
1851 - Occupation: John LAWS-39515, (Master Mariner 43280)
1855 - Baptism: Charles LAWES-25164, Kirby Bedon Norfolk England
1856 - Marriage: John STONIER-30553 (Labourer & Widower) and
Ann LAWS-30554, Saint Pancras Middlesex England
1861 - Burial: William LAWS-33716, (Agent & Farmer / 2200 Acres) Torquay Devonshire England
1862 - Marriage: John James BISHOP-23778 and Harriett LAWS-23777, Portsmouth Hampshire England
1863 - Birth: Elizabeth Anne CLEGG-6966, (Woollen Weaver) Kirkcudbright Kirkcudbrightshire Scotland
(My wifes Great grand Aunt)
1865 - Birth: Mary Elizabeth CLARKE-31771, Mitcham Surrey England
1869 - Birth: Ida Isabel LAWS-17415, (Actress) Thorpe le Soken Essex England
1877 - Burial: Sarah LAWS-13216, Bowral, New South Wales Australia
1878 - Marriage: James MANN-36824 and Sarah LAWS-36823, Walworth
Surrey England
1885 - Birth: Ethel Maud WELLS-49297,
(Wife of my 1st cousin twice removed)
1885 - Baptism: Frederick Joseph LAWES-27786, Headley Hampshire England
1886 - Birth: Elizabeth LAWS-43500,
1886 - Baptism: Ethel LAWS-8485, (Schoolteacher) Hunstanton Norfolk England
1887 - Birth: Albert Penn LAWS-11053,
1888 - Birth: James Reginald Spencer LAWES-213, (Clerk & Garage Proprietor) Hastings Sussex England
1890 - Birth: Edgar Harold LAWS-8270, (Lorry Driver on RAF Station) Feltwell Norfolk England
1891 - Christen: Julianna Matilda LAWS-11659, Hingham Norfolk England
1892 - Birth: Charles CORNISH-50262, Wakefield West Yorkshire England
(My wife's Grand Uncle and 1st Cousin once removed)
1894 - Birth: Lily Beatrice LAWES-49754, (Shop Assistant Bakers & Confectioners) Bournemouth Hampshire England
1895 - Birth: Hilda Sophia LAWES-15665, Reading Berkshire England
1896 - Birth: Robert Charles William BRANT-9369, (Printer Art Paper) Tottenham Middlesex England
(My first cousin twice removed)
1898 - Death: Harriet Maria STRATFORD-253,
1901 - Baptism: Beatrice Annie LAWES-12416, Headley Hampshire England
1908 - Birth: Walter LAWS-41364, (Railway Officer) South Shields Durham England
1908 - Birth: Alfa Riddell BARTON-28499, Emery, Emery County,
Utah United States
1909 - Birth: Alfred W SCOTT-LAWS-46420, (Milk Roundsman)
1909 - Birth: Sidney F LAWES-43823, (Draughtsman Aircraft Experimental Drawing Office)
1909 - Birth: Alfred William Scott LAWS-11814, West Ham Essex England
1910 - Birth: Robert Frank LAWS-12651, (Australian Army) Leichhardt,
New South Wales Australia
1911 - Birth: Helen LAWS-24332, (Infant) Mercer County Missouri United States
1912 - Birth: Robert HENDERSON-45523,
1912 - Birth: Elizabeth Jane LAWS-35029,
1912 - Birth: Herbert William LAWS-30952, (Builders Labourer) Brentford Middlesex England
1912 - Birth: Alma Edith BLACKWELL-11036, Brownsborough, Caldwell Texas United States
1915 - Birth: Charles Cyril LAWS-35230, (Assistant Butcher)
1916 - Death: Noah Madison LAWS-13553, (Farmer) Princeton, Mercer County, Missouri United States
1916 - Burial: Julia LAWS-3502, (Spr & Neice) Kirby Bedon Norfolk England
1918 - Birth: Paul O LAWS-16410, (PFC US Army)
1931 - Marriage: James Medlin LAWS-50025 and Thelma Wanette ALLEN- 50026, Chickasha, Grady, Oklahoma, United States
1933 - Birth: Henry L LAWS-17491, (Surgeon) Columbus Mississippi
United States
1934 - Death: William LAWS-7840, Camberwell Surrey England
but resided Stockwell Surrey England
1934 - Death: Cuthbert Turner LAWS-3670, (Railway Locomotive Driver)
York County Hospital North Yorkshire England
1938 - Death: Henry Hill FLAMANK-21127, (Railwayman) Salisbury Victoria Australia
1944 - Burial: John Edward LAWS-9366, (Bricklayer) Hawkinge Kent England
1947 - Death: Dora Norval LAWS-12363, Alexandria City, Virginia, United States
1951 - Burial: Hammond William LAWS-14401, (Insurance Agent) Dunedin
New Zealand
1955 - Death: Charles Sidney LAWS-38283, Southwark Surrey England
but resided at Lambeth Surrey England
1975 - Death: George Baden LAWS-31696, (Ledger Clerk - Chargehand) Gateshead Durham England
1984 - Death: Amy Constance LAWS-25885,
1985 - Death: Mabel Alice LAWS-3384, Horsford Norfolk England
1986 - Death: Charlotte Ellen WHITELING-34031, (Stenographer)
Peckham Surrey England
1990 - Death: Kambrella M LAWS-19303,
1997 - Cremation: Joan Anne LAWES-25016, Stourbridge Worcestershire England
2003 - Death: Mary Blanch REED-11913, Santa Fe, Santa Fe County,
New Mexico, United States
2014 - Death: Scott Douglas LAWS-50457, Yakima, Washington, United States
2018 - Death: Pauline Fay LAWS-39609, Thatcher, Box Elder Utah United States
1739 - Baptism: William LAWS-3868, Stoke Dameral Devonshire England
1755 - Marriage: Stephen LAWS-27714 and Mary DREW-27715, Swaffham Norfolk England
1770 - Marriage: Thomas FAGGE-7941 and Elizabeth LAWS-7228, Hawkinge Kent England
1792 - Birth: George LAWS-49670, Bermondsey Surrey England
1792 - Birth: Seth LAWES-35464, Hurstbourne Prior Hampshire England
1823 - Birth: Selina LAWS-4439, Stepney Middlesex England
1839 - Burial: John LAWS-28919, Washbrook Suffolk England
1844 - Birth: Sarah Elizabeth LAWS-32933, Johnson City, Washington County Tennessee United States
1850 - Marriage: Isaac LAWS-17933 (Coal Miner) and Elizabeth LOWTON- 19724, Kelloe Durham England
1851 - Occupation: John LAWS-39515, (Master Mariner 43280)
1855 - Baptism: Charles LAWES-25164, Kirby Bedon Norfolk England
1856 - Marriage: John STONIER-30553 (Labourer & Widower) and
Ann LAWS-30554, Saint Pancras Middlesex England
1861 - Burial: William LAWS-33716, (Agent & Farmer / 2200 Acres) Torquay Devonshire England
1862 - Marriage: John James BISHOP-23778 and Harriett LAWS-23777, Portsmouth Hampshire England
1863 - Birth: Elizabeth Anne CLEGG-6966, (Woollen Weaver) Kirkcudbright Kirkcudbrightshire Scotland
(My wifes Great grand Aunt)
1865 - Birth: Mary Elizabeth CLARKE-31771, Mitcham Surrey England
1869 - Birth: Ida Isabel LAWS-17415, (Actress) Thorpe le Soken Essex England
1877 - Burial: Sarah LAWS-13216, Bowral, New South Wales Australia
1878 - Marriage: James MANN-36824 and Sarah LAWS-36823, Walworth
Surrey England
1885 - Birth: Ethel Maud WELLS-49297,
(Wife of my 1st cousin twice removed)
1885 - Baptism: Frederick Joseph LAWES-27786, Headley Hampshire England
1886 - Birth: Elizabeth LAWS-43500,
1886 - Baptism: Ethel LAWS-8485, (Schoolteacher) Hunstanton Norfolk England
1887 - Birth: Albert Penn LAWS-11053,
1888 - Birth: James Reginald Spencer LAWES-213, (Clerk & Garage Proprietor) Hastings Sussex England
1890 - Birth: Edgar Harold LAWS-8270, (Lorry Driver on RAF Station) Feltwell Norfolk England
1891 - Christen: Julianna Matilda LAWS-11659, Hingham Norfolk England
1892 - Birth: Charles CORNISH-50262, Wakefield West Yorkshire England
(My wife's Grand Uncle and 1st Cousin once removed)
1894 - Birth: Lily Beatrice LAWES-49754, (Shop Assistant Bakers & Confectioners) Bournemouth Hampshire England
1895 - Birth: Hilda Sophia LAWES-15665, Reading Berkshire England
1896 - Birth: Robert Charles William BRANT-9369, (Printer Art Paper) Tottenham Middlesex England
(My first cousin twice removed)
1898 - Death: Harriet Maria STRATFORD-253,
1901 - Baptism: Beatrice Annie LAWES-12416, Headley Hampshire England
1908 - Birth: Walter LAWS-41364, (Railway Officer) South Shields Durham England
1908 - Birth: Alfa Riddell BARTON-28499, Emery, Emery County,
Utah United States
1909 - Birth: Alfred W SCOTT-LAWS-46420, (Milk Roundsman)
1909 - Birth: Sidney F LAWES-43823, (Draughtsman Aircraft Experimental Drawing Office)
1909 - Birth: Alfred William Scott LAWS-11814, West Ham Essex England
1910 - Birth: Robert Frank LAWS-12651, (Australian Army) Leichhardt,
New South Wales Australia
1911 - Birth: Helen LAWS-24332, (Infant) Mercer County Missouri United States
1912 - Birth: Robert HENDERSON-45523,
1912 - Birth: Elizabeth Jane LAWS-35029,
1912 - Birth: Herbert William LAWS-30952, (Builders Labourer) Brentford Middlesex England
1912 - Birth: Alma Edith BLACKWELL-11036, Brownsborough, Caldwell Texas United States
1915 - Birth: Charles Cyril LAWS-35230, (Assistant Butcher)
1916 - Death: Noah Madison LAWS-13553, (Farmer) Princeton, Mercer County, Missouri United States
1916 - Burial: Julia LAWS-3502, (Spr & Neice) Kirby Bedon Norfolk England
1918 - Birth: Paul O LAWS-16410, (PFC US Army)
1931 - Marriage: James Medlin LAWS-50025 and Thelma Wanette ALLEN- 50026, Chickasha, Grady, Oklahoma, United States
1933 - Birth: Henry L LAWS-17491, (Surgeon) Columbus Mississippi
United States
1934 - Death: William LAWS-7840, Camberwell Surrey England
but resided Stockwell Surrey England
1934 - Death: Cuthbert Turner LAWS-3670, (Railway Locomotive Driver)
York County Hospital North Yorkshire England
1938 - Death: Henry Hill FLAMANK-21127, (Railwayman) Salisbury Victoria Australia
1944 - Burial: John Edward LAWS-9366, (Bricklayer) Hawkinge Kent England
1947 - Death: Dora Norval LAWS-12363, Alexandria City, Virginia, United States
1951 - Burial: Hammond William LAWS-14401, (Insurance Agent) Dunedin
New Zealand
1955 - Death: Charles Sidney LAWS-38283, Southwark Surrey England
but resided at Lambeth Surrey England
1975 - Death: George Baden LAWS-31696, (Ledger Clerk - Chargehand) Gateshead Durham England
1984 - Death: Amy Constance LAWS-25885,
1985 - Death: Mabel Alice LAWS-3384, Horsford Norfolk England
1986 - Death: Charlotte Ellen WHITELING-34031, (Stenographer)
Peckham Surrey England
1990 - Death: Kambrella M LAWS-19303,
1997 - Cremation: Joan Anne LAWES-25016, Stourbridge Worcestershire England
2003 - Death: Mary Blanch REED-11913, Santa Fe, Santa Fe County,
New Mexico, United States
2014 - Death: Scott Douglas LAWS-50457, Yakima, Washington, United States
2018 - Death: Pauline Fay LAWS-39609, Thatcher, Box Elder Utah United States
MORE TOMORROW
One Man’s War – A bit about the RAF
by
John Robert Laws
1921-2008
I was seventeen when WWII began, some twenty-one years after WWI had ended. It had been becoming inevitable for some time. A year’s respite had been gained by Neville Chamberlain’s trip to Munich but that didn’t do much good in the long run. At Eleven o’clock on that sunny Sunday morning the third of September he broadcast his declaration of war against Germany. About ten minutes later the air raid sirens sounded – a false alarm but the nervous went scuttling into the newly dug Anderson shelters in their gardens.
The occupation of Poland took the German army only a few weeks and then we were into the ‘phoney war’ when very little appeared to be happening in mainland Europe. The sea war of attrition started and clothing and petrol rationing were introduced. I had been working in the city for a couple of years articled to a small firm of Chartered Accountants. Young men were being called up into the forces and all businesses suffered a degree of disruption. The firm seemed to slow down and I often had time available to go to the Students Room at the Institute to study. From time to time I travelled to provincial towns to work on audits there.
The blackout was even more noticeable in unfamiliar towns than at home but the difficulty caused by the cutting down on vehicle headlights was limited by the small number of vehicles and petrol rationing.
When the war burst into action, with the German armoured offensive that outflanked the Maginot line and led to the fall of France and the evacuation from Dunkirk, I was having a cycling holiday in Devon and Cornwall, mostly in beautiful sunshine with scarcely a motor car to be seen. Tea in the Doone Valley, as much as you could eat for a shilling and bed and breakfast for three shillings and sixpence, in a four-poster bed and the loo in the garden.
The first I saw of the real war was one sunny weekend afternoon. I was out on my own in the Hertfordshire countryside when the distant rumble of engines made me look up, and there, far above me, were formations of silvery aircraft swinging to the south where they let go their bombs on the London docks with devastating effect. This must have been early September 1940. The Battle of Britain followed and then the night bombing of London. A blackout had been in force from the beginning of the war, but London was a pretty broad target. The bombers were unopposed at first but before long the anti-aircraft were in place and then the noise was intense though somewhat comforting. If one were out at night it often seemed that the showers of shell splinters from the anti-aircraft barrage were a greater hazard than the bombs.
I often used to ride my bike home from my girlfriend’s to the accompaniment of the patter of shrapnel on the rooftops. In late December the warehouse area of the city burned in a fire raid which we could see from North London. When I went to work in the city the next morning the firemen were still hard at it and I saw that the place where my father worked was just debris with the rest.
Men became liable to a call-up for the forces at gradually lower ages and Bill Bush and I decided that it wasn’t worth waiting for the call up with little choice what you did, so early in 1941, we went up to the recruiting office at Kings Cross and joined the RAF. We both got accepted as aircrew and it was not long till we had to report for training.
We were separated from the word go as Bill was recommended for a commission and I wasn’t. When it came to the crunch it finally worked out the other way around.
Training facilities were overloaded and so, after some basic training of square-bashing and arms drill, we landed up in other jobs. One started off with the rank of AC2 there was nothing lower, and the pay of pennies a day paid out fortnightly at a pay parade. I did my basic training at Skegness which was certainly bracing but there was nothing difficult about marching up and down and sticking bayonets into bags of straw.
This done I was posted to Mildenhall to work as an armourer. All I remember of it was that we took the bombs from the bomb dump to the aircraft on trolleys and rode on them around the perimeter track pulled by a tractor. The aircraft were Vickers Wellingtons of 149 Squadron and had a gun turret in the tail with four brownings which took a long ribbon of ammunition.
I wasn’t trusted to deal with this as I had no training at all as an armourer.
After a little while, I was put on a pre-EFTS (Elementary Flying Training School) course at South Cerney in Gloucestershire, I remember nothing of the course but it must have been May because the horse chestnuts were in full bloom in the park of the big house at Cirencester. Queen Mary was staying there and did some sort of inspection in the town. Being long in the leg I got put in the Guard of Honour and saw the old bird at close quarters. The only other thing of note at South Cerney was that swimming was available in a large water-filled gravel pit for a very small charge; I used to go there with two or three other keen types and swim around in the sunshine in the biggest pool we were ever likely to use. We didn’t ask how deep it was, but it was undoubtedly for confident swimmers only.
To be continued tomorrow
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Sharon Nicola LAWS
2008 Olympics Cyclist
Environmental adviser for Rio Tinto Zinc
1974-2017
R I P
The content provided on this site is not guaranteed to be error-free
It is always advised that you consult original records.
======================================================
Sharon Nicola LAWS
2008 Olympics Cyclist
Environmental adviser for Rio Tinto Zinc
1974-2017
R I P
The content provided on this site is not guaranteed to be error-free
It is always advised that you consult original records.
======================================================
======================================================
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www.cheesee-peasee.com
"This organization recognizes:-
The United Nations' International Decade for People of
African Descent 2015-2024
We reach out to all regardless of race, colour, creed, or orientation.
Remember - We are all one family
Remember - We are all one family
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