Budleigh Past and Present

Continued from  1 November 1944 LIEUTENANT HARRY ROYSTON BARTLETT (1924-44)   41 Commando, Royal Marines https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2020/09/ww2-757-brave-royal-marine-wounded-at.html     The badge of 518 Squadron.   Its motto in Gaelic was ‘Tha An Iuchair Againn-Ne’, translated as ‘We hold the key’   Image credit: www.valka.cz   Rennie’s name does not appear on Budleigh Salterton’s War Memorial. However his Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) record tells us not only that he was a member of 518 Squadron, giving his Service Number as 1381426, but that his wife Mary Grace was from the town. Quite apart from that link with Budleigh, Rennie’s story reveals a fascinating and little known aspect of the Royal Air Force’s operations that he and his fellow-airmen in 518 Squadron carried out on an almost daily basis during WW2. In fact the Squadron’s activities were so little known that at least one wartime history r...

Continued from 14 March 1942 – ‘A born leader of men’: MAJOR GENERAL LANCELOT ERNEST DENNYS MC and Bar (1890-1942) 1st Punjab Regiment, Indian Army           https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2020/11/ww2-7514-born-leader-of-men-major.html     El Alamein War Cemetery  Image credit: Commonwealth War Graves Commission John’s name does not appear on Budleigh Salterton’s War Memorial, but the Commonwealth War Graves Commission records tell us that he was the son of Henry Herbert Parks Seabrook, and of Dorothy Seabrook, of Budleigh Salterton, and that he is commemorated in the El Alamein War Cemetery.         St Mary the Virgin parish church, Broomfield, Essex, seen from the west.   Image credit: John Salmon/Wikipedia I searched hard for local mentions of John’s family without success. Finally, via Google, I found myself reading about various Seabrooks in an online history of the villag...

Continued from 17 January 1942 - A casualty of the Arctic Convoys: PETTY OFFICER SIDNEY GERALD HAYWARD (1919-42)  https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2020/10/ww2-7511-casualty-of-arctic-convoys.html       Budleigh Salterton War Memorial at the junction of Coastguard Road and Salting Hill Deryk’s name is included on the Budleigh Salterton War Memorial, and according to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission his parents were from the town. However the only connection with Budleigh that I have found is that his great-aunt Miss Ethel Laidman lived at 4 The Lawn.   An advertisement for Twiss Engineering which in 1919 consolidated with J.B. Saunders & Co and Laing Wharton Ltd as engineers, manufacturers and contractors of electricity transmission lines   Image credit: www.gracesguide.co.uk A family link with Devon was established when Deryk’s great-grandfather, John Brewer Saunders, born in Monmouth in 1833, settled in Newton Abbot. In...