Lieutenant A. H. Tett, a Canadian who served in The Boer War and The Great War. At rest at St. John and All Saints Church in the Somerset village of Kingstone.

Arthur Hopkins Tett, born on the 22 August 1882, was from Kingston, Ontario. A banker by profession he married Bessie Bruce Tett and they had one son, John Kearns Tett.

Arthur Tett served as a Lieutenant with the 3^rd Canadian Mounted Rifles during the Boer War in South Africa.

He volunteered for service in World War One and, again holding the rank of Lieutenant, embarked from Halifax in Canada on 29 April 1917 and arrived in England on 7 May 1917 thereupon being assigned to the 5^th Canadian Reserve Battalion based at West Sandling in Kent.

On 29 July Lieutenant Tett was admitted to the Westcliff Canadian Eye and Ear Hospital in Folkestone with a breathing problem caused by polypi in his left nostril, a condition which had originally occurred in Ontario 2 years earlier.  The polypi were removed under local anaesthetic and having been given the all clear he was subsequently discharged on the 18 August with 2 weeks convalescent leave.

While on leave he was admitted to Taunton Military Hospital where he died of Pneumococcal Meningitis on 26 August 1917. He is at rest in the churchyard of St. John and All Saints in the South Somerset village of Kingstone near Ilminster.

 Lt. Arthur Hopkins Tett from Kingston, Ontario, Canada at rest in the churchyard of St. John and All Saints in the South Somerset village of Kingstone. 

John Kearns Tett, son of the above, joined the RCAF in July 1940, subsequently becoming a Pilot Officer.  In April 1941 he joined 103 Squadron RAF equipped with the Vickers Wellington bomber.  The squadron was serving in No.1 Group of Bomber Command flying from RAF Newton near Nottingham.  While returning from a raid on Hamburg in July 1941 Tett’s Wellington was forced to ditch in the North Sea.  He and his crew spent 13 hours in a dinghy until rescued.  Tett was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross on 22 June 1943 and in due course repatriated to Canada.

John Tett re-joined the RCAF in 1952 with the rank of Wing Commander charged with establishing the development of fitness, sport and recreation within the service.  After a successful career he left the RCAF in 1965 and became Director of Parks and Recreation for the principality of Kingston.  Sadly, he drowned in August 1974 when his canoe overturned during a storm on Devil Lake in Frontenac Provincial Park north of Kingston.

The Church of St. John and All Saints in the South Somerset village of Kingstone.

Also in the churchyard at Kingstone is a memorial stone commemorating Squadron Leader Sinclair ‘Tif’ O’Connor Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Force Cross, Air Force Medal, who served with RAF Bomber Command’s 49 Squadron during Operation Grapple – the testing of hydrogen bombs.

On 11 September 1958, while holding the rank of Flight Lieutenant, he was pilot and captain of the Vickers Valiant jet bomber (XD827) which dropped a hydrogen bomb on Christmas Island in the Pacific during Operation Grapple Z.

The memorial stone records Sinclair O’Connor’s birth on 26-5-1922 and death on 21-3-2013.

The memorial stone commemorating Sinclair O'Connor DFC, AFC, AFM in the churchyard of St. John and All Saints in the South Somerset village of Kingstone.   

Canada Day and a visit to Wolford Chapel in Devonshire, final resting place of John Graves Simcoe the first Lieutenant Governer of Upper Canada.

Today is Canada Day and the 150th anniversary of the enactment of the British North America Act which united three colonies into a single country called Canada.  Yesterday I thought it appropriate to cross the county border into Devonshire and visit Wolford Chapel near Honiton, it being the family chapel and final resting place of John Graves Simcoe, first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada.   

A drive down the A30 took me to Honiton where the signs point you to Dunkeswell in the beautiful Blackdown Hills.  Wolford Chapel is only 3.7 miles from the A30, but the entrance to the narrow tree-lined track leading to the Chapel is in a wooded and shady dip in the road – it is easily missed.  You have gone too far if you reach Dunkeswell!

Wolford Chapel, near Honiton, in Devonshire.

The Chapel, being a memorial to Simcoe, was gifted to the people of the Canadian Province of Ontario by Sir Geoffrey Harmsworth in 1966, hence the Canadian flag flying in the depths of the Blackdowns. 

The plaque beside Wolford Chapel noting the gift to the people of Ontario.

A plaque inside the Chapel states: “Lieut.General John Graves Simcoe 1752-1806.  Born in Cotterstock, Northamptonshire, Simcoe entered the army in 1770, and during the American Revolution commanded the 1st American Regiment (Queens Rangers).  In 1791 he was appointed the first Lieutenant-Governor of the newly-formed Province of Upper Canada.  During his energetic administration, he improved communications, encouraged immigration and founded York (Toronto).  In 1796 he returned to Wolford, purchased in 1784, and during 1797 was Governor and Military Commander in British-occupied St. Domingo (Haiti).  He commanded the Western Military District, 1801-1806, when England was threatened with French invasion.  Appointed Commander-in-Chief of India in 1806, Simcoe died before taking up that post, and with his wife is buried in this chapel.”

Inside Wolford Chapel the Simcoe family chapel and final resting place of John Graves Simcoe.

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography describes Simcoe as: “. . . an inspiring soldier and brilliant tactician, an affable and loyal comrade, and a lifelong student of history and writer of verse, but he was too great a projector, and his ambition outran the uncertain health that plagued him from early manhood.  He was buried on the 4 November 1806 in the chapel at Wolford Lodge.”*

A Canadian view of Simcoe’s life and career can be found here:

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/john-graves-simcoe/

*J. A. Houlding, ‘Simcoe, John Graves (1752–1806)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/25554, accessed 30 June 2017]

HMS/FFL MIMOSA. The 75th anniversary of the sinking of the only Bristol-built warship lost during World War 2.

As a Bristolian of 60 years now living in Somerset I suggest we in the West of England should take time to remember the 69 crewmen (63 Free French and 6 British) of the only Bristol-built warship lost of the 21 which were completed in the city during World War 2.  This month sees the 75th anniversary of the loss of the Flower class corvette HMS MIMOSA.

The corvette was built by Charles Hill & Sons in their Albion dockyard and launched in January 1941, subsequently being transferred to the Free French Navy as the FFL MIMOSA.  Most of the French crew were from the French island of St. Pierre and Miquelon situated at the entrance to Fortune Bay off the coast of Newfoundland.   Their courage and determination to continue to fight after the defeat of France helped keep our vital convoy routes open.

Sadly the ship was torpedoed and sunk on the 9th of June 1942 by U124 while escorting convoy ONS-100 across the North Atlantic.  Only 4 French sailors survived.  They were rescued by the Canadian destroyer HMCS ASSINIBOINE.

We should not forget.