The Church of St. Andrew in the village of Stogursey, West Someset. For St. Andrew's Day!

In his The Buildings of England, South and West Somerset, (Penguin Books Ltd., 1958) Nikolaus Pevsner writes: "St. Andrew, Stogursey, although now a parish church, was the church of a Benedictine Priory, founded by William of Falaise c.1100 as a cell of Lonlay in Normandy.  Stogursey is the englished form of Stoke Courcy."

St. Andrew's Church in the village of Stogursey, West Somerset.

A refuge in Britain for persecuted Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi? A letter to the Daily Telegraph.

Below is the text of a letter I sent to the Daily Telegraph on 26th November.  No idea if it was published!

"Theresa May says she will put her heart and soul into making a success of her Brexit deal.  It is a great pity that she has not the heart and soul to offer refuge in this country to persecuted Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi."

The crash of RAF Liberator KH126 on the Blackdown Hills in Somerset. Those lost commemorated by a memorial in Hare Lane near Castle Neroche.

This month sees the anniversary of the tragic crash of Liberator KH126 belonging to 53 Squadron, RAF Transport Command.  At 1000 hours on 22nd November 1945 the aircraft took off in foggy weather from RAF Merryfield, a wartime airfield just north of Ilminster in South Somerset, only to crash a few miles away at Hare Lane on the Blackdown Hills near Castle Neroche.  The Liberator did not gain enough height to clear the hills which at the area of impact reach a height of 930 ft.  

On board the four-engine long-range aircraft were the 5 RAF crew members, 4 of whom were Polish, and 22 Army personnel returning to India after leave.  There were no survivors.

Three of the Polish airmen are buried in CWGC graves in Ilminster’s cemetery on the western slopes of Beacon Hill. They are Pilot Officer Stanislaw Kleybor DFC, aged 25, the navigator; Flight Lieutenant Leopold Mielecki, aged 34, the pilot; Sergeant Jan Brzezinski, aged 25, the flight engineer. 

Flying Officer Antoni Wize, the wireless operator, was the fourth Polish crew member.  He is buried in Newark-on-Trent.  The British crew member was Flying Officer Gordon Jenkins Myers, the co-pilot, who lies at rest in Armley Hill Top Cemetery, Leeds.

Ilminster's cemetery on the western slopes of Beacon Hill.  The distinctive CWGC headstones mark the final resting place of Stanislaw Kleybor, Leopold Mielecki, and Jan Brzezinski.

The view from Ilminster's cemetery toward the Blackdown Hills.  Castle Neroche is on the skyline in the centre of the picture. 

Of the Army casualties, 5 were buried in Yeovil with full military honours.  They were Major Harry William Gilbert Staunton, aged 37, and Lieutenant Peter Biles, aged 22, both of the Indian Army Medical Corps together with 3 members of the Royal Corps of Signals - Ronald Oswin Anderson aged 22, Owen Williams aged 19 and Robert Charles Anderson aged 19.  Unfortunately I could find no verifiable or detailed information for the other 17 fatalities. 

Earlier this year I visited the memorial stone which commemorates those lost in this appalling accident.  It is best to walk from the ample and well signposted Forestry Commission car park at Castle Neroche.  On leaving the car park turn left and then left again into Hare Lane, but take care as although the narrow lanes might appear to be quiet they are used by cars and milk tanker lorries.  I saw one tanker which took up the entire width of an extremely narrow stretch of Hare Lane – be aware!  The memorial is a few minutes’ walk down the lane near two gates to your right. The view from the gates gives an impression of how high on the Blackdown Hills the crash site is.  Apparently the wreckage from the Liberator was spread over fields either side of the lane.

The view from the gateway near the memorial in Hare Lane.

The memorial commemorating those lost on RAF Liberator KH126 is beside the tree on the verge of Hare Lane.  Wreaths of poppies are visible in this picture. 

The memorial commemorating those lost on RAF Liberator KH126 on 22nd November 1945.

Even though it is in such an isolated spot the memorial is obviously visited by those paying their respects as I found wreaths and poppies had been laid around it.

Update 20 March 2022.

I recently came upon a document on-line which contains newspaper articles, RAF accident reports, eyewitness statements, and a full list of the tragedy’s victims.  It is a most informative document and very well worth reading.  The link is below.

12.pdf (vanishedlives.uk)

Theresa May's Brexit preparations. Echoes of the surrender of Singapore in1942?

Prime Minister Theresa May and Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond have, to all intents and purposes, refused advice to prepare a plan for a no deal Brexit.  Such a refusal not only plays into the hands of European Union negotiators, but has ominous echoes of the surrender of Singapore in February 1942.

When Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival the British commander in Singapore was asked by Brigadier-General Ivan Simson, his chief engineer, if he could plan and prepare defences against a possible Japanese invasion of the island his answer was no “it would be bad for moral”.  No defences were built, the Japanese did indeed attack, and Percival was forced to surrender Singapore – probably the most catastrophic defeat in British military history.  

By spurning calls to prepare for a no deal Brexit the Prime Minister has trapped herself at the negotiating table.  She could be forced into a disastrous surrender on terms dictated by the European Union – just as Percival’s refusal to prepare meant surrendering on terms dictated by the Japanese.

Wonderful autumn sunshine on Remembrance Sunday in South Somerset.

Blue skies and autumn sunshine on Remembrance Sunday in South Somerset

Blue skies and sunshine on Remembrance Sunday in South Somerset.

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Field-Marshal Lord Harding of Petherton. Commemorated at Taunton Castle's Museum of Somerset.

A few weeks ago while wandering around the centre of Taunton I came across the Museum of Somerset in Taunton Castle.  Tucked away in the entrance courtyard is a modest bust commemorating Field-Marshal Lord Harding of Petherton, someone I had vaguely heard of due to his connection with the Somerset Light Infantry, but other than that I knew little about him.  I decided to do some research.

The commemorative bust of Lord Harding of Petherton in the courtyard of Taunton Castle's Museum of Somerset.

Allan Francis Harding was born at Rock House in South Petherton, Somerset, on 10th February 1896.  His father Francis Ebenezer Harding was a clerk to a local firm of solicitors and his mother was Elizabeth Ellen Harding (nee Anstice).  Both parents came from large families - Francis was one of eight children and Elizabeth Anstice one of thirteen.  The Hardings and the Anstices were descended from yeoman farmers and tradesmen who had lived in and around South Petherton for hundreds of years. 

The plaque on the wall of Rock House.  

Rock House in South Petherton, South Somerset, birthplace of Field-Marshal Lord Harding. 

At the age of 10 Harding went to Ilminster Grammar School, leaving at the age of 15 to work as a boy clerk at the Post Office Savings Bank in London.  Many of his colleagues were in the Territorial Army and they encouraged him to join them.  Harding applied for a commission and became a Second-Lieutenant in the 1/11 Battalion of the London Regiment, a battalion of the 2nd (London) Territorial Division, in May 1914.

After the outbreak of World War One Harding’s battalion became part of the 54th (East Anglian) Division.  In July 1915 it embarked for Gallipoli to act as a reinforcing division.  Harding first saw action on 15th August when he was wounded in an attack on Turkish positions.  After the withdrawal from Gallipoli he remained in the Middle East, participating in General Sir Edmund Allenby’s victorious campaign against the Turks in Egypt and Palestine.  He ended the war in command of a battalion.

After the First World War Harding served in Britain and India.  While home on leave from India in 1926 he fulfilled a promise to visit a fellow officer’s mother who lived in the Somerset village of Long Ashton near Bristol.  There he met her daughter Mary, the step-daughter of Charles Harrington Fry of the famous chocolate manufacturing family, and married her the following year when his battalion returned to England.

The autumn of 1940 found Harding in the Middle East where he joined the staff of General Sir Archibald Wavell and was involved in the planning and execution of Operation Compass the offensive which led to General Richard O’Connor’s crushing victory over the Italians in the Western Desert.

At the end of March 1941 Field-Marshal Erwin Rommel launched a counter-attack with his newly arrived German forces which led to the capture of several British commanders including General O’Connor and his successor Lieutenant-General Philip Neame.  Harding took command, stabilized the situation and, with the Australian Major-General L.J. Morshead, organized the defence of Tobruk.

During Operation Crusader, which ended in a victory over Rommel’s forces on Christmas Eve 1941, Harding was Brigadier General Staff, to Lieutenant-General A.R. Godwin-Austin commanding 13 Corps.

On 21st January 1942 Rommel counterattacked and by 6th February the British had lost all the gains made by Crusader.  Godwin-Austin asked to be relieved of command as he had fallen out with his superiors over tactics.  Harding, who admired and supported his commander, left 13 Corps to become Director of Military Training at GHQ Cairo.

Harding took command of the 7th Armoured Division on the 17th September 1942 in time for the Second Battle of El Alamein.  Four months later, while in pursuit of Rommel’s forces on the road to Tripoli, he was badly injured when a shell exploded in front of his command tank as he stood atop it spotting for his artillery.  His wounds were very serious and he was evacuated back to England with his future on active service in doubt. 

While making a remarkable recovery, Harding bought a 130 acre farm with dilapidated farmhouse near Nether Compton in Dorsetshire.  He and his wife and son moved in in time for Christmas 1943.  So complete was his return to fitness that he was offered the post of Chief of Staff to General Sir Harold Alexander commander of the 15th Army Group, sometimes known as Allied Armies in Italy.  On New Year’s Day 1944 he flew from an airfield in North Devonshire to take up his new post in the Mediterranean.  Harding served on Alexander’s staff until March 6th 1945 when he was given command of 13 Corps, and was in that post when the fighting in Italy ended.

During his time in Italy Harding was knighted by King George VI.  He chose to be known as Sir John Harding, John being the name he had used throughout his time in the Army.

After the Second World War Harding’s appointments included, Commander-in-Chief Far East, Command of the British army of the Rhine, Chief of the Imperial General Staff from 1952 to 1955, and Governor of Cyprus 1955 to 1957.  In November 1953 he had been made Field-Marshal. 

On retirement he accepted several directorships including that of Plesseys, the telecommunications equipment manufacturer, of which he became chairman in 1967.  He was also the first chairman of the Horserace Betting Levy Board.

Lord Harding died at his home in Nether Compton on 20th January 1989.    

Sources: 

Harding, John (Allan Francis) first Baron Harding of Petherton. (ODNB) https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/40129

Harding of Petherton, Field-Marshal, Michael Carver (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1978).

Dilemmas of the Desert War, Michael Carver (B.T. Batsford Ltd, 1986).