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Twelve generations of military service to the British Empire resulting, in part, with eight Victoria Crosses and One George Cross!

4/19/2015

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What a record, and with the thanks of 9 buses, and a whole lot of dedicated folks, we are reminded of a story that must be kept alive.

"Buses?" you say. Yes buses.

When thinking of buses one of my first thoughts go back to a time when my generation spent 30 minutes weekly in front of the TV. We'd be sitting their with our candy bars and waiting for the British comedy show  .."On the Buses" to start up.  It aired bewteen 1969 and 1973 and brought us the weekly antics of the cantankerous Inspector Blake. He worked for the local bus company and spent most of his shift having to deal with the antics of bus driver Stan and conductor Jack who did their best to make life difficult for their boss. Episodes can still be seen on "You Tube" and are well worth a 30 minute kickback to the old days. (After you read this blog of course.)

But the buses I want to talk about today bring us a much more serious message. Their story is to remind us to remember the tragedy of war, and as importantly, the heroic deeds of our men and women who went off to war, and family back at the homefront doing their bit to support our causes. More specifically, the nine buses of today focus on the 12 generations of service that England, and the world has received, from the famous Gloucestershire Regiment (The Rifles) of today, but known in earlier days by a few other names.


This is a story has really evolved over the past several years. In 2013 and 2014 a very large bus company... Stagecoach West ... played a significant role in helping to raise awareness...  and funds during the  October Poppy Fund drives. The company allowed its members who were serving or past military, to wear their uniforms to work on certain days. They allowed non employee military and veterans to ride free, held events and even decorated trains and buses with large poppies to keep the message alive. Today I believe one of the company buses is still in operation wearing a poppy.

And one of the masses seeing this wonderful gesture was a woman by the name of Anny Reid. Anny was, and is currently, the county Chair of the Gloucestershire Royal British Legion. And Anny liked the military. She served as a nurse briefly in the US, and in a British Hospital and then with the Royal Air Force for a few years. Actually thirty years. In 1998 her services were rewarded with the awarding of the Royal Red Cross award and also membership in the Order of the British Empire for her lifetime work.

Anny was not only aware of the Poppy Fund activities over at Stagecoach West, but also recalled the numerous mailboxes painted gold in the neighbourhood to remind citizens of the Gold medals brought home to those communities from the recent Olympics.

This most accomplished woman put 2 and 2 together and came up with 9. That's nine buses mind you!  Nine buses from Stagecoach West.

Anny wanted to see something done about the incredible history and length of service of the Gloucestershire Regiment. Being the midst of the 100th anniversary of the Great War Anny thought that this would be a great time to launch some sort of a program, and then she came up with the idea to focus of the eight hero's of the regiment that were awarded the Victoria Cross, going all the way back to 1857, and the hero of Korea War days who was awarded the George Cross.


The idea was tossed about with Nathan Griffith-Williams, Marketing Manager of Stagecoach West and Chris Chatterton, Director of the Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum. No doubt many a meeting took place with these three and plenty of others, and on 16 March their program... "Saluting the Gloucesterchire Regiment" rolled (pardon the pun) along the roads. Those rolling were nine Stagecoach West buses, each telling the story of one of the VC or GC recipients, and telling where more could be learned on each soldier.

It is ironic that the day of the event about to be told was in March, the very month that is not, but was for a very few brief years, celebrated in England as Womens History Month. Perhaps it is fitting that a woman played such a key role in the saluting of the regiment and its service and can serve to again spark the flames to bring notice to Britain that the month of celebration needs to be revisisted.
 
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About 5 weeks ago, on March 16th a parade of nine buses were escorted by several veterans, each a member of the Royal British Legion, who drove their motor-cyclists from the Regiment's Museum to the Glouster Cathedral for a formal reception, and official unveiling of the buses.

In this image a reporter is talking to the three organizers of the event. At the left is Nathan Griffith-Williams from Stagecoach West, and at the right is Chris Chatterton from the regiment's museum. To the reporter's left stands Anny Reid.


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On the side of each of the 9 buses is an image of the Victoria Cross or George Cross recipient, with the war fought in and the year of the action resulting in the award. (Shown at left and above)
The nine  recipients were awarded their medals for actions in Delhi, as noted above and also in the Batttle of the Somme in 1916, at Passchendaele in 1917, Battle of St Quentin 1918, the Balkans 1918, the Battle of Selle 1918 and in Korea in 1951.

Inside the bus there is also a very large banner, as shown at right that gives a little more information on the hero. The above soldier was a doctor and was awarded the Victoria Cross for saving many lives during the Siege of Delhi way back in 1857. His VC was the first of all nine awards being honored on the buses.

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In this image several people are riding  one of the nine buses on their way to the ceremony. You can see one of the displays hounoring one of soldiers here.

On each of the buses pamphlets are distributed telling the story of all nine recipients in a little more detail. Each also contains a coupon for entry to the regiment's museum at half price. Hopefully the rider will take advantage of the offer to learn even more about the regiment's very long and historic service and possibly even see some of the artifacts associated with the recipients as well.


Shown here are the pamphlets....

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The buses will operate on regular routes, 5 in Gloucester, 2 in Chettenham and 2 in Ross-on-Wye and the company tells me that there are no plans for an end date in the program. In other words, they are expected to be left in regular use. They will also be used for special trips to the schools of the areas concerned to bring the stories of the regiment and its heroes to the classrooms.
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Above you see the buses lined up outside the  regiment's museum at right, and on left as they travels through the streets to the cathedral under escort of the Royal British Legion's veteran riders. The actual procession can be seen on the internet by going to... 
 
http://article.wn.com/view/2015/03/17/Gloucestershire_soldier_stories_shared_on_bus_posters/

A great many digitaries attended and participated in the event. Lt. General Tim Evans, CBE, DSO, is shown above at the ribbon cutting ceremony. The general  serves as the Assistant  Colonel Commodant of the Rifles.  He is shown beside The Mayor of Gloucester. On the right is the museum's director Chris Chatterton and he is chatting with  a fellow dignitary who's name, believe it or not... is "Liberty" She is one of the students from the Medowside Primary School who attended the ceremony. And as you see, had the piviledge of officially opening the events of the day.

Many veterans of the Korean War and other battles, serving military and officials from the Royal British Legion, the bus company and museum and other organzations also attended. Of note were nurse Margaret Purves and Major Peter Norton.

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When Margaret was only 14 years old in Wales, she played a major role in saving a boy scout and his leader. Their troop was off on some sort of an adventure on a small island close to Cardiff. The only entry was a causeway at low tide. The troop got stuck as the tide rolled in. All escape but two. They had to dive into the very cold and fast moving waves. Their calls for help were heard by Margaret and a 13 year old boy.  Both removed most of their outer clothing and dived in to rescue the two. Both scouts survived.

But not so for the male rescuer. King George VI invited Margaret to Buckingham Palace and presented her with the Albert Medal for risking her life to save the boys. The family of the boy who lost his life in the attempt was awarded the same medal posthumously. Many years Margaret's medal was upgraded to the George Cross. Today and for many years she has been the only woman alive to hold such an honour. She proudly wears her medals on her pink coat above.

Beside her is retired veteran Major Peter Norton. A few years back, near Bagdad Major Norton was the 2nd in command of a US team in search of improvised explosive devices. Norton was severely wounded when a  victim operated devise was set off. Despite terrible wounds that cost him his left leg and much of his arm, he refused to be evacuated until the area was clear of other devices and continued to lead until the area was cleared. For this he was later awareded also with the George Cross. In addition, as some of his team members were members of the FBI, he was recomended for... and received the FBI's Star in 2009.

Today Norton has the incredible honour of serving  as the Chairman of the Victoria Cross and George Cross Association
.

Above at the right are several dignitaries standing with the colours of the Royal British Legion. The bus behind appears to be the one dedicated to Herbert T. Reade who's image appears above.

And next Sunday I will tell you why you need to know more about Herbert.
Bart

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Britain continues to honour war heroes from around the world.

4/12/2015

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Several blogs in this space over past few months and more have told of the British Paving Stones being erected and unveiled in many parts of the world.  The program mentioned was a part of a bigger program to bring our thoughts again to those who went off to war, and came home with the word-wide recognized, and envied, Victoria Cross.

Blogs told of the first thoughts to limit the efforts to just those born in the Britain and Ireland, and further to limit these memorial stones to just those earned during the Great War. Public outcry demanded recognition not only of VC recipients from all wars, but also those not born in Britian. They were heard... and even better... listened to. The revisited plans now have all being recognized... but the non WWl recipients will be done at a later date. The WWl recipient markers are going ahead, but these now also incude those recipients from 19 other countries of the world. Past blogs also told of the 19 plaques, listing  numerous names, having now been sent abroad. Before Christmas one had been unveiled at Washington DC. Within days a second was unveiled at Ottawa. Both being unveiled by HRH Princess Anne, her husband and other dignitaries. 

But the program did not stop there!

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Above are two images of the National Memorial Arboretum located not far from London at Staffordshire. Dedicated by HRH Queen Elizaveth ll back in 2007 it honours the lost service men and women covering over 50 different wars and actions since WW11. The property is spread over over some 150 acres, and  is home for over 75 different memorials. The above war memorial is where over 15,000 names of the lost men and women are engraved on the inside walls of this massive structure spanning 43 meters at its diameter.

It would be here that those being remembered would be expanded to honor the VC recipients of WWl who were non British born.
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While the British government had already sent off 19 plaques in honour of those  not British born, to their home countries, the government had also chosen to recognize these true war heroes in England as well. They would create an individual paving stone for each of these 145 men and erect all in one place. And that place would be in the forground of the above National Memorial Arboretum.

Picture here is Lance Sergeant Johnson Beharry, proudly wearing his Victoria Cross. (On left of the 4 medals as you view the picture.) Back in May of 2004 his actions, while then a Private in Iraq, earned him a VC, which was awarded on 18 March 2005.

His Victoria Cross was the first issued that was not posthumous, since back in 1969 when Keith Payne received his VC. (Keith's name is not new to regular readers of these blogs.) Beharry is about to unveil the title stone for the 145 others also about to be dedicated at the memorial. The date was March 5th, just over a month ago. It was exactly 13 days less than a decade ago that Beharry was awarded his VC. Prime Minister David Cameron looks on as the stone is being unveiled. Dignitaries from several countries attended, including representation from both Canada and the United States.

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Here is an image of the title stone for the 145 men awarded the VC in WWl and Prime Minister Cameron placing a wreath on one of these stones.

The stone's design was selected after a national contest was held earlier, (and covered in another blog). You can use the site search engine to read more on this.


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A pathway of these memorial paving stones lies parallel to the walkway up to the Arboretum. In this image are the stones for 15 recipients. I was fascinated to find this image on the net as there are not many. In this one I noted that at the upper left, second in is the stone honoring the Indian recipient Chatta Singh. This hero earned his VC in 1916 for braving enemy shells and shots for hours at a place now know as Iraq. One of the fellows he saved had several wounds and Singh had to use his body to protect the injured soldier for almost five hours. The wounded man was and officer and medical doctor to boot. Both men survived and Singh came away with a VC. Just days later the officer he saved went on to show his own incredible heroism and would later also be awarded the VC. He too also went out repeatedly to treat and bring in the wounded. And had he not been saved days earlier, needless to say, he would not have himself become the hero that he did.

And folks, that officer was John Sinton, a Captain at the time and a much later Brigadiere General. And a man who was born in Victoria BC Canada. His story was told in several earlier blogs here as well. Sinton became the only man IN THE WORLD entitled to use the initials VC and FRS after his name. Search this site to read more on his incredible story.

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Here are the 145 stones lining the pathway up to the National Memorial in mid ground in the image. Several more images of paving stones are shown to the right. Note the one in the upper right for Lt. Colonel Philip Bent, a VC recipient for bravery in action in Belgium in 1917. He was leading a charge when the 26 year old acting Colonel of his regiment was shot down and killed. He was born at Halifax Nova Scotia.

A museum in England most interested in Colonel Bent was one of the forerunners of groups pushing the government to re-examine the original narrower program of honoring recipients, as above mentioned.

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Here is a shot of all of the 145 markers for those not born in Britain that were awarded the Victoria Cross. Note the title marker in the foreground.

Past blogs have also told that over 400 individual markers are being unveiled across Britain. Each is supposed to be unveiled on the 100th anniversary of the very day when the deed was perfomed resulting in the VC being awarded. If you click here....   

http://communities.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/index.html?appid=0b2f67b7d3d842d9920171e4c10318ec

you will get to the above map of England. By clicking on the purple star you will be taken to a site that tells the story of the 145 stones above noted. About 50 have been unveiled so far.  If you click on any one of the red dots you will be taken to the name of a VC recipient from that area  of the map where a stone was unveiled in 2014 and get a brief description of the hero's deed. By clicking on "more information" you will be taken to another window giving even more info on the man and often a very large and impressive photo of the soldier. The blue dots will take you to the stones unveiled this year. The map is said to be one that will continue to be updated as more stones are unveiled.

One of these to be unveiled in May is for Sergeant Major Frederick Hall, one of three VC recipients who lived on what was once called Pine Street in Winnipeg. Now of course it is known in their honour, as Valour Road. 

By clicking on the red dot (Hmmmm!)  just slightly above and to the left of London on the map you should end up telling a little about fellow Canadian Cecil Kinross, a man born in Britain but later relocating to Western Canada. His actions in Passchendaele in 1917 earned him the VC. His stone ought not to have been unveiled till 2017, but for some reason was done earlier.

Next Sunday I will bring you yet more info on how a British company is honouring several Victoria Cross recipients... including one from Canada.

Hope to see you then.
Bart


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Happy Easter

4/5/2015

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I am taking a short Easter break and will return next Sunday.
Cheers till then
Bart


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    Author;
    Bart Armstrong, C.D.,
    Recipient, Sovereign's Medal for Volunteers 

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