An ongoing project to honour those who fought in the Great War ...........by Martin Logan

WW1 100 ANNIVERSARY MCT EMPLOYEES

Brass memorial plaque

My name is Martin Logan and I worked on Manchester Buses from 1977 until retirement in 2014, 34 years at Princess Road Bus Depot, then 3 years at Sharston Bus Depot until March 2014.

I was always conscious of the Memorial Plaque on the outer wall of Princess Road Bus Depot. However as time went on I started to look more closely at it and I then began to wonder who were they, these men whose names were inscribed on this piece of bronze

Since 2008 I have made contact with the relatives of Herbert Berry, George Leonard Collins and William Starkey who died on the 1st July 1916.

To date I have found info on 295 of the 310  names inscribed on the Memorial Plaque. In researching I have found many errors in spelling of names and incorrect Service Numbers / Regiment. This could be the reason why I am having difficulty in accessing information on the remaining 15 names.

James Gilmour, Charlotte Starkey and Martin Logan*

Can U help

Heald W – Guard – Rifleman - 8th Battalion Rifle Brigade
Jones B – Car Cleaner – Royal Naval Division
Lamb G (George) – Labourer – 21st Battalion Manchester
Locklin J - Car Cleaner – Private – National Reserve
Mangnall T (Thomas) – Car Cleaner –6th Batt Loyal Nth Lancashire
McCullough E (Edward) – Driver – Royal Garrison Artillery
McNamara A – Driver – 160837 Gunner – Royal Field Artillery
Partington E – Trolley Boy – 53rd Y.S. Battalion Liverpool
Robinson J – Platelayer – 3/8 Battalion Manchester
Robinson JH – Clerk – Kings Own Royal Lancaster
Smith Arthur – Linesman – Royal Engineers
Smith Harold John – Guard – 23rd Battalion Royal Fusiliers
Smith Wm – Clerk – 6th Battalion Manchester
Taylor W – Trolley Boy – Manchester
Wolstenhulme R – Despatcher – 51st Training Reserve Battalion

Please contact me martin.logan@btinternet.com / 07985490124

Martin Logan © July 2016

Pictures; brass memorial plaque, and  from Manchester Cathedral Friday 1st July 2016.
Left is James Gilmour, relative of Herbert Berry. Centre is Charlotte Starkey, relative of William Starkey who died on the 1st July 1916 and Martin Logan from the collection of Martin Logan

Discovering our great uncle Roger did end up in British Columbia

Now here is a lesson on always believing the family stories and by extension reading the records.

Extract from his army records, 1919

Our great uncle Roger was migrated by Middlemore in 1914 on behalf of the Derby Guardians, worked on
three farms in NS and NB and ran away to enlist in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1915.

He did his time on the Western Front and was demobbed in January 1919 in St John NB.

So far so good.  I knew that he had settled in BC.

Revelstoke railway station, 1915

But British Columbia is a big place and despite a few leads it and a bit of leg work it all proved a damp squid.

And here comes that simple observation.............. always go back to the records and look again and again.

Which is what our Marisa did and she turned up the intriguing address of the B&B Department, Canadian Pacific Railway, Revelstoke, British Columbia.

Now I have no idea what a B&B Department was, or where in Revel stoke he worked.  But that as they say is just a matter of time.

If we are lucky the employee’s records may still exist or better still like some of the British railway companies will have been posted online.

MacKenzie Avenue, Revelstoke, 2003

There may also be municipal records relating to his stay in the town and who knows just possibly someone who has a connection to a James Rogers whose given name was Roger Hall, and whose birth address was Birmingham despite his stated one of Derby.

All of very intriguing and of course very promising leading me yet again to say always believe the family stories however unbelievable and check those records.

Location; Revelstoke, British Columbia

Picture; detail of the army records of James Rogers, courtesy of the Library and Archive Canada, Library and Archives Canada, http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/first-world-war/first-world-war-1914-1918-cef/Pages/item.aspx?IdNumber=317382  Railway station in Revelstoke, British Columbia, Canada - 1915 from  Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Milton McFarland in the Public Domain and MacKenzie Avenue, Revelstoke,2003, Author waferboard, this file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Stories from the United States air force

Members of the Women's Army Corps, 1943-45

In the midst of the centenaries surrounding the Great War I missed the news that the records of those United States airmen stationed in Britain during the last war been made available on line.

The collection at  went live on May 19 and is a fascinating  archive which is

"a unique collection of over 30,000 images of original photographs, letters, memoirs and other documents, the Second Air Division Digital Archive documents the wartime experiences of Second Air Division personnel and their relationships with British people in their 'home from home' in Norfolk and beyond during World War Two.

Air cres 453rd Bomb Group

It is a personal and commemorative collection which contains photographs, diaries, letters, memoirs, and other documents donated to the Second Air Division Memorial Library's archive which is held at the Norfolk Record Office, England.

The digitization of these records has been made possible through a generous donation from the legacy of Bernard Newmark, a veteran of the 458th Bomb Group (Horsham St Faith) made through the Second Air Division Memorial Trust.”* 

Flying Officer Robert S Alexander

Pictures; Members of the Women’s Army Corps, who were based at Ketteringham Hall, enjoying some leisure time, 194301945, Norfolk Record Office, MC 371/814,Kenton Morris’ crew  photograph, 453rd Bomb Group based at Old Buckenham, March 1944. Norfolk Record Office, MC 371/882/39/2,Flying Officer Robert S. Alexander of the 359th Fighter Group based at East Wretham, 1943-1944. Norfolk Record Office, MC 376/287, Spectators at a rodeo at Carrow Road football ground in Norwich, organised by Second Air Division headquarters, 7 Aug 1943. Norfolk Record Office, MC 376/336, courtesy of The Second Air Division Digital Archive,
Location; Norfolk and East Anglia,  www.2ndair.org.uk/digitalarchive

Spectators at a rodeo

*The Second Air Division Digital Archive, www.2ndair.org.uk/digitalarchive

Pictures from an Eltham bus ........ nu 4 the big crane has gone

The top deck of a London bus has to be a pretty neat way of seeing the world below.

And when it is the same bus at about the same time every day then you have got yourself a project.

All you need is a camera and the patience each week to record the same spot.

It helps if there is a major new development underway like the one at Grove Market and the rest as they say is Larissa Hamment’s “Pictures from an Eltham bus.”*

And here is the latest taken today taken “this morning, the crane went last week, slowly coming along, the high street pavements are being re-done, widened & re paved, it's chaos up there at the moment.”





Location, Eltham High Street, Eltham, London




Picture; July 2016 from the work at Grove Market, from the collection of Larissa Hamment

*Pictures from an Eltham bus, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Pictures%20from%20an%20Eltham%20Bus

Celebrating our waterways

It is easy sometimes to forget just how much open water there is close to the centres of the twin cities.

We may not be Venice and while there are those who make claims about the water ways of Birmingham I remain impressed by what we have.

And something of all that was caught in 2014 by Andy Robertson who was down by Pomona Docks.

I like the way he matched all that open water with scenes of our industrial past and the fast growing new sky line.

And in almost all the pictures he shot there is the Betham Tower which is both hated and loved in equal measure.

But there also is the clock tower of the Town Hall, jumbled up with the railway viaducts and the new build on the Salford Manchester boundary.

Now I am not alone in rediscovering the docks and there have been, and are plans for the redevelopment of the area, all of which I suspect means that Andy’s pictures will soon be as much a  record of a vanished scene as those made almost a century ago.



Pictures; Pomona Docks, November 2014, from the collection of Andy Robertson

That fountain in Albert Square

Now I have to say that I can’t remember the fountain returning to Albert Square.

It was designed by Thomas Worthington and erected in the square for the old Queens Golden Jubilee in 1897.

There will be someone who can tell me when it vanished from Albert Square.

I don’t remember it there when I first discovered the square back in 1969 as a young student up from London and bored with the college library I took off across the city exploring my new home.

Nor as I said can I remember it giuing back which was in 1997.

Location; Albert Square, Manchester

Picture; the fountain Albert Square, 2006, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Looking out from Salford nu 1 .................. and an apology

Now there is nothing more embarrassing than discovering you have got a story so wrong. 

But it happens even though on this one I should have known better.  

The story featured the Imperial War Museum North, and carried the caption “In celebration of the new Salford ......... nu1 the Imperial War Museum North.”

And quick as a flash both George and Bill pointed out that actually “the Imperial War Museum is in Stretford, Trafford, on Trafford Wharf, you have to cross the Ship Canal from Salford to get to it. We have little enough in Stretford to boast about as it is and would like our boundaries left as they are. Not in Salford, in Stretford.”

This is not the first time I have muddied the boundaries and for that I fully apologise and in future will look at the map rather than make lazy assumptions.

But underlying the mistake and the corrections is the positive one that people do go to the trouble of pointing out where I went wrong.

So the old story has been pulled which is quite correct and this one has been substituted.............. should really have passed O level Geography.

Location Salford looking out to Trafford Wharf.

Picture; the Imperial War Museum North 2016 from the collection of Andrew Simpson