Budleigh Past and Present

Continued from 19 Dec 1941   Sacrificed for the sake of Enigma? ABLE SEAMAN FRANKLIN BRISTOW (1913-41)   https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2020/12/ww2-75-19-december-1941-sacrificed-for.html     In May 2013, Sidney Hayward’s niece Maria Hatt applied for the Arctic Star on behalf of her uncle, having heard about a new medal which was being issued posthumously for those who had lost their lives during WW2  in the Arctic Convoys. Well over a year later, she received the medal. She researched Sidney’s story, and presented a copy of her work to Fairlynch Museum. What follows is largely based on Maria’s research      It was, wrote British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in his book The Second World War, ‘the worst journey in the world’. Two years into the Second World War, the Soviet Union was under enormous pressure and in need of supplies. When Germany invaded on 22 June 1941, the Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin, asked for help ...

Fairlynch Museum was glad to be able to help out one of our sister museums in Devon when the fragment of flag shown here was lent for an exhibition at Topsham. A model of HMS Terror on display at Topsham Museum  The item is cherished as a possible relic from HMS Terror, the bomb vessel constructed for the Royal Navy by the Topsham shipbuilder Robert Davy. Some of my American readers who know their history will recognize the name of this vessel as belong to one of th ose ships which took part in the unhappy Anglo-American conflict of 1812-14. It was during that war that the White House was burned down by the British.  HMS Terror, under her captain, John Sheridan, took part in various actions against the Americans including the bombardment of Stonington, Connecticut in August 1814, and the Battle of Baltimore the following month.  HMS Terror th...