OneGuyFromBarlick

This post could have gone in What Attracted Your Attention but as it may expand depending on events I thought it best to start a topic to hold potential results.

We had a topic on the old site which developed regarding mine and Nolics dads service and experiences during WWII in the Duke of Wellington's Regiment. Some may remember that my dad was posted to Iceland in 1940 as part of the BEF to garrison the island and stop it falling into German hands. I posted a number of photographs from dads albums of his time in Iceland and some snippets from the diary for 1941 that he kept. The topic was lost when the old site crashed.

Just by chance I came across a blog site on the internet today maintained by Roddy Fox who has been investigating his dad's service in the Dukes. Roddy is based in South Africa. Like me he has visited Iceland and traced the sites where his Father served. One of the sections of his blog shows a picture of his dad Alfred Fox with a group at a field kitchen in Iceland. When I pulled the page up I noticed that my dad was shown in the picture as well. Looking at the others in the group I thought I could spot a few of the lads who were on a picture that I put up on the old site of my dad and his mates outside a hut. My dad has annotated the picture as "Dead End Kids" Seltjarnarnes - 1940. I'm fairly sure that Roddy's dad Alfred is in the picture as well so it looks like they shared a billet.

Here is the blog page with the group photo on. My dad is right in the middle with the helmet on:

SUN DOWNER BLOG - Alfred Fox, Iceland 1940-42, first connections

And here is my dads photo of "The Dead End Kids"



My dad, Pte John Lambert is second from the left on the front row.

I have contacted Roddy via the blog and he has replied. We are going to check each of our dads albums for more pictures which may feature each other. I enquired where his dad was from as he eludes to a photo of his mum in his blog and mentions Skipton. His mum was indeed from Skipton and his dad from Gargrave so there is a very good chance that Alfred and my dad were probably mates. I'll send him the pictures and the entries from one of my dads notebooks which shows his postings. He lists them all with dates from call up to demob, It may help Roddy to add a bit more meat to the bones of his dads service. Alfred looks very young in the photo's I would have put him no older than 18 but he is actually a year older than my dad and if the pictures are around 1940 he would have been 23 years of age.

Amazing what you find by accident. I'll post any more developments in the exchange here.

The power of tinternetwebthingy.......

I contacted Roddy and sent him my dads stuff which he is quite pleased with as it coincides with some of his notes from his dad. He has give me permission to use any of his photo's so for ease rather than having to go into the blog I will add the one that attracted my attention in the first place.




Roddy's dad Alfred is shown on the right of the picture at the front. My dad is the one in the middle with the helmet on. I'm sure I can see some of the other lads from my dads "Dead End Kids" photo in my earlier post.

The Briitish Garrison in Iceland was established in a collection if Nissan huts and ancillary buildings. As the Duke's are a Yorkshire regiment the various camps were named after local towns. Alfred's and my dads initially was "Skipton Camp". After some investigation Roddy came across an aerial photo of the camp.



This allowed him to locate its position within Reykjavik by the large building shown on the periphery of the frame. This is still in existence and was shown in a photo that Arthur had of the regimental band on parade. When Roddy visited Iceland he confirmed that it was the same building so could place the site of the adjacent camp.

In 1941, the Yorkshire Post visited the lads from the Dukes and produced a feature of Skipton Camp. My dad retained a copy of this which I have scanned and is attached for download here:
The site was cleared after the war and now features the magnificent Hallgrímskirkja which dominates the area.



When we visited Iceland we stayed in the Leif Erikson hotel which looks out on this building. It was easy to find our way back to our hotel as it dominates the skyline. We had no idea when we visited that this was the site of my dads former camp. I have walked in even more of his footsteps than I realised and is a nice bit of extra information to add to my research into my dads service.

My dad recorded all his postings in a small pocket book, I have sent this to Roddy so he can compare it with what he knows of his dads movements over the time they were deployed in that theatre. He is currently reviewing what I have sent him and he said he will forward anything he has which may include my dad.

Ian drew my attention to these posts and I think I've found a picture of my dad in the Garrison In Iceland. pdf on p12 he is the trooper to the far right of the bren gun crew. Nolic

I received further email from Roddy Fox on Saturday. He has made further entries to his blog and found a resolution to a small mystery with one of the photographs his Dad took during the war. It's regarding the cargo ship "Sonja Maersk" which ran aground in Reykjavik harbour in late February 1941. Roddy could find no reference to this episode when he visited Iceland but posted the images on his blog. This prompted another individual in Canada to contact him as his Father, Joseph Henry Usher was serving on the ship.

Here is Alfreds photo of the Sonja Maersk



Alfreds notes on the back of his photo



My Dads diary entries for the end of February confirm the weather conditions at the time.

More photographs and my Dad's diary extracts on Roddy's Sun Downer Blog.

Sun Downer Blog - Sonja Maersk runs aground: a small mystery solved

Three people who now know a little more of their Fathers service exploits during the war.

Really interesting Ian.

Amazing how far you can get with research if you persevere and have patience.....