An oral history interview with John Patrick Toman. Interview Date 06/08/13
John Toman was born in 1944. He has some brief recollections of being 5 years old and taking a journey in the sidecar of his Uncle Stephen’s motorbike, a BMW R75 with a 24hp engine. The journey, along with his brother and mother, was between Portsmouth and the New Forest along narrow and bumpy roads.
His uncle was a BBC reporter attached to the King’s Own Scottish Borderers during the war, starting in North Africa and travelling via Sicily and Italy to finish in Austria. He ended his career with the BBC in Belfast, Northern Ireland. His uncle being a Catholic and marrying a Protestant girl caused strife on both sides of the family. They moved from Ireland to the New Forest to get married.
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Interviewed by: Nick Osman
Transcription by: John Martin
Checked by: Gareth Owen
Links:
To find out more about the Prisoner of War camp at Setley see the ‘Setley Prisoner of War Camp – Overview’ article.
Key Words:
BMW R75, Portsmouth, New Forest, BBC, King’s Own Scottish Borderers
An oral history interview with Mrs Rose Daniels. Interview Date 13/07/2014
Rose Daniels was nine years of age at the beginning of the war, so most of her memories relate to her school days and what went on around her local home which was in the Fawley area. She relates being on the school field when it was machine gunned, observing bombing raids on Southampton, the plane crash at Exbury, time at school and local activities and the disruption to normal life during the build up to D-Day.
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Interviewed by: Sue Jackson
Transcription by: John Martin
Checked by: Gareth Owen
Audio Editor: Gareth Owen
An oral history interview with Roy Arnold. Interview Date 18/06/2013
Roy Arnold born 1926 in Cadnam, New Forest. Roy was still at school in Totton at the
outbreak of the WWII. After schooling he
went to work at Hampshire Carbodies in Totton where he worked in the sawmills,
specifically on the Dovetail machines making ammunition boxes and work on
wooden aircraft. His job was classified
as a reserved occupation. In 1943 aged
17, Roy volunteered for the Air Training Corps and was trained as a Pilot
Navigator Bomb aimer (PNB). He joined up
in 1944.
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Interviewed by: Sue Jackson
Transcription by: Leander Johnson
Checked by: Liz Rolf
Audio Editor: Cosmic Carrot
An oral history interview with Evelyn Ramseyer . Interview Date 17/10/13
Evelyn Ramseyer was a Wren during the war with HMS Turtle. She trained as a dispatch rider on a motorcycle and then persuaded her officers to let her swap to four wheels. She drove large lorries and other vehicles to pick up sailors from Poole Station and collect stores. She has lovely memories of being in the parades on VE Day, a very proud day for her.
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Interviewed by: Dave Larder
Transcription by: Leander Johnson
Checked by: Gareth Owen
Audio Editor: Cosmic Carrot
An oral history interview with David Bayliss. Interview Date 20/05/2014
David Bayliss was a school boy during the war, living in Woodside, Lymington at that time. He recounts his school days, the games they played and tricks that they used to get up to. He also recalls food rationing, his mother’s ingenuity and going collecting gulls’ eggs, which he doesn’t fancy eating today, and having meals with the troops at Alder Cliff, Milford on Sea. They used to collect the scrap wing tanks to make canoes. He remembers the American troops, the sky full of Horsa gliders on D-Day and VE Day celebrations.
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Interviewed by: Dave Larder
Transcription by: John Martin
Checked by: Sue Jackson
Audio Editor: Cosmic Carrot
An oral history interview with Vera Storr.
Interview Date 27/04/2013
Vera Storr was from the Manchester area. She attended Walthamstow College to do a course in radio and telecommunications. After signing the Official Secrets Act Vera was posted to Millersford where she worked in secret assembling gauges to test the blasts form exploding bombs. Staff at the Millersford site were known in the village as ‘them over the wire’ due to the secret nature of their work.
Group Photo ID sheets:
Can you help add the names to these faces? Leave a comment or get in touch.
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Interviewed by: Sue Jackson
Transcription by: Liz Rolfs
Checked by: John Martin
Audio Editor: Cosmic Carrot
List of known staff names in the large group photo:
2. Mrs Hayter, (Canteen)
5. Hersey
10. Vera Storr (nee Fazackerley)
11. Maureen Weir
15. Clifford, messenger
16. Mr Swanborough, (Caretaker)
17. Mr A G Rimmer, (Scientist)
19. Barbara Smith
20. Celia Trott (nee Revell), (purged)
22. Jean Crow
23. Joyce Walker
24. Pearl Crouch, (local)
25. Cox, (local)
26. Cooper, (local)
27. Vi Trout, (Telephonist)
28. Mr C L Farror, (Deputy Superintendent)
29. Mr Roy Pilgrim, (Superintendent)
30. Mr John Rice, (Officer)
31. Betty Marshall (Higgs)
32. Pat Gyton (nee Hunt)
33. Mr Ottaway
34. Mr Hayes
35. Mr Jessop
37. Mervyn Deacon, (Industrial)
41. Huffy Houghton
44. Boy
45. George Waterman
46. Bill Simmonds, (Experimental Officer)
48. Beryl
49. Joyce Gerrish
50. Alice Burrill
51. Winnie Worsfold, (Photographic)
52. Meg Gilling, (Experimental officer)
53. Frances Williams, “higher up”
54. Joyce Walker
55. Iris Hiscock, local
60. Bill Scanlon, (Office)
61. Tom Nix, (Workman)
65. John Chadwick
66. Mr Jock Purdey
67. Isobel Hutton
68. Noah Pearce “a boss”
69. John Trott
71. Jack Batchelor
73. Ray Gyton
74. Maurice? Boyce
75. Norman Smith
77. Charlie Eels, (Driver)
78. Alec Douglas
You can find more memories of S.A.E. Millersford Experimental Works below:
Armaments Research Department – Millersford Overview
Group Photo with names – SAE Millersford – 1945
Barbara Smith – Memories of the secret work at Millersford Range
Betty McCarthy – Memories of assistant photographer at Millersford Range
John Robinson – Blast Pressure Group. Armaments Research Test Range – Millersford Range
An oral history interview with Brian Brown. Interview Date 19 to 21-12-13
Brian Brown grew up in Woolston in Southampton. His father worked for Supermarine before and during the war, flying as part of the victorious Schneider Cup Team and subsequently working with RJ Mitchell on the first Spitfire. He has memories of the Empire Air Day at Hamble, of French evacuees being lodged in his road and how he and his friends collected shrapnel. He describes the German bombing of Southampton, including the raids on the Supermarine works.
He and his friends used to cycle to the New Forest airfields and he describes the American planes they saw at Stoney Cross, Holmsley, Christchurch and Ibsley airfields. He also remembers seeing various tanks and Bren gun carriers, particularly at Wilverley Enclosure.
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Interviewed by: Dave Larder
Transcription by: John Martin
Checked by: Gareth Owen
Audio Editor: Cosmic Carrot
An oral history interview with Margaret Seeley. Interview Date 17/08/13
Margaret Seeley was a Wren in the signals office in Southampton during D-Day. She remembers the landing craft all leaving and Southampton Water becoming eerily quiet. She and another Wren were drafted to sail alongside the vessels to cheer the, mainly American, soldiers on their way during a pause when the weather was too bad for them to set sail immediately.
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Interviewed by: Sue Jackson
Transcription by: Liz Rolfs
Checked by: John Martin
Audio Editor: Cosmic Carrot
An oral history interview with Dennis Cavell. Interview Date 22/03/13
Born in 1939 Dennis was very young during the war (6 when it ended) but does have some good early memories of his own, but many are of his father, Leonard Cavell, who was in the Home Guard and employed at Redbridge Railway Works.
Some of Den’s recollections include AA guns firing, home-made bomb shelter at the bottom of the garden and during the raids his dad would give a running commentary.
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Interviewed by: David Larder
Transcription by: John Martin
Audio Editor: Gareth Owen
An oral history interview with Frederick Stephen Wright. Interview Date 13/11/12
Frederick Stephen Wright named after his two grandfathers but known as Stephen, Stephen Wright was born in September 1935 at Stanswood Farm on Cadland Estate. His father having taken the tenancy of the 240 acre mixed farm in October 1934.
At the start of the war Stephen was only five years old and it is a little difficult to remember specific events but some he can still remember, things like the bombing of Cowes on the Isle of Wight, seeing the glow in the sky from the fires and going down into the shelter in the garden which used to flood so it wasn’t very comfortable.
Stephen recalls a working farm through a difficult time with other memories of what was going on around him, and for a little boy all rather exiting.
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Interviewed by: Dave Larder
Transcription by: Leander Johnson
Audio Editor: Gareth Owen
