Budleigh Past and Present

  Continued from 8 June 1940 Victim of a cover-up? Lieutenant Cyril Howlett (1913-40)  https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2020/11/ww275-8-june-1940-victim-of-cover-up.html   It wasn't easy to find out more about J.W. Cooper, especially as the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website, where the deaths of so many victims of WW2 are recorded, made no mention of Budleigh. And the Devon Heritage website, oddly, lists him as ‘Not yet confirmed’. So, many thanks to Facebook’s Budleigh – Past and Present group member Jan Farrant for helping to identify him. James William Cooper had strong local roots.  He was born in Budleigh Salterton in 1920 to William James Cooper and May Cooper, and was the eldest of seven children. I’ve been told that the family were living in Boyne Road. So it is possible that his siblings are still alive and in this area, and might even be able to provide a photo of James. James William’s father was born in Sidmouth in 1894, served in W...

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 ...