In addition to personal accounts of life as a POW from Henry Owens that we were able to upload to the site earlier this month, we've been able to upload a number of photos and stories that we've received via youcanhelp@51hd.co.uk
We were sent a very interesting story from George Laloux who was a young boy living in "Embourg Castle" near Liege at the time of the Ardennes Offensive who recalls 152 Infantry Brigade HQ (Seaforth Highlanders) were based at his home during the early part of the Ardennes Offensive. You can read this story and see a list of Officers who stayed at George's home by clicking here.
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We also have a photograph of a memorial to the fallen of the 51st Highland Division at La Roche (also during the Ardennes Offensive) which was kindly sent to us by Didier Renard. The photo can be seen in our Memorials section
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Richard Sands, who's Father served with 5th Battalian Queens Own Cameron Highlanders 1939-1946, kindly sent us a scan of a photograph his Father had of the Sergeants and Warrant Officers of the 51st (H) Reconnaissance Regiment, taken in June of 1942 before their departure to Egypt where they would join the 8th Army in preparation for the battle of El Alamein.
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Paul Witty, who's Father (Jim Witty) served in North Africa and Sicily with the 61st Anti-Tank Regiment, very kindly sent us a disc of scanned photographs of his Father's, taken during various periods of his service. We have been able to incorporate a number of these photographs into pages in our history section within - Brief History of 242 (Oban) Anti-Tank Battery
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We would like to thank Robert Owens and his family for sharing these detailed and moving memories of their Father's experience as a POW from 1940 in St. Valery to liberation in 1945.
Henry Owens' accounts include many photographs, extracts from personal letters of the time and of course, Henry Owens own words which have been compiled by Robert Owens in November 2001.
These accounts have been placed into chapters within the POW Experiences section of the site.
We hope you find these accounts, alongside those of Corp. Jack Kidd, as interesting as we did.
A series of reports and events have marked the 70th Anniversary of the capture of the 51st Highland Division at St.Valéry-en-Caux on 12 June 1940. Several radio reports were followed by coverage by STV of veterans of the surrender preparing to leave for the commemoration at St.Valéry.
On Thursday 10th June Provost Jimmy Grey of Inverness hosted a reception in the Inverness Town House to honour the veterans. Present at the reception were Mr John Matheson (5 Seaforth), Mr Peter Black (RASC), Alec Wiseman (4 Camerons), Mr Donald Ross (4 Cameron Mr Alec Mackenzie (4 Seaforth), Mr Alec Murray (5 Seaforth), Mr Neil Wilson (5 Seaforth), Mr David Ross (5 Seaforth).
On 12 June at St.Valéry veterans and families were joined at the 51st Highland Division memorial and at the cemetery for a service and wreath laying, by dignitaries from France and Scotland. These included Bruce Crawford MSP, Minister for Parliamentary Business, the Provost of Inverness, Jimmy Gray and the Commander of the 51st Scottish Brigade, Brigadier David Allfrey.
Leading the veterans was Dr. Tom Renouf, Secretary of the St Valery Veterans Association - you can read an account given by Dr. Tom Renouf (then Private Renouf) of his experience with 7 Platoon, "A" Company, 5th Black Watch during the Ardennes Campaign within the History section of our website.
A Service of Remembrance was held in the town's church, which has the stained glass window given by the people of Inverness in memory of the 51st Highland Division and the veterans were guests of honour at a civic reception.
To coincide with the Anniversary a group about 40 students and staff from the Aberdeen Universities Officer Training Corps (UOTC) were at St.Valéry to commemorate the event and take part in a battlefield tour. Their Drums and Pipes played at all the formal events. They also played in the town square where UOTC dancers did the Reel of the 51st before encouraging the locals to join in. STV and a number of papers have provided very good coverage of the events of the day. A picture of the Divisional Memorial at St. Valery has been added to the Memorials section. The photo shows wreaths laid during commemoration events - more photos of these events to come...
On the Monday the UOTC battlefield tour continued visiting various parts of the final battle around St.Valery. On the ground held by the 1st Black Watch at St.Pierre-le-Viger we were met by the Mayor who had arranged a small exhibition and refreshments. It was here that Andrew Bradford, who had taken part in Saturdays commemorations and whose late father was with the 51st Highland Division for both the capture and, having escaped, the liberation of St Valery, described how his father, then a young captain, found himself commanding two companies of the Battalion. Andrew Bradford, is the author of the book “Escape from St Valery-en-Caux.”
After other stands the tour concluded at Veules-les-Roses where, while some escaped, many more perished as they attempted to descend the sheer cliffs or waited in the sea for the ships that did not come.
To conclude, the Anniversary of St.Valéry had been properly marked. The students from Aberdeen had enjoyed memorable visit enriched by the opportunity to talk with the veterans about their individual experiences. I intend to put more on the website about the Anniversary visit and veteran experiences in the coming months but I would like conclude by thanking Lieutenant Colonel Mathew Wardner and the staff of Aberdeen Universities Officer Training Corps for all their arrangements, hosting many visitors and keeping the memory of St.Valéry alive.
Charles Grant
Website Historian
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I am delighted to report that the Trustees of the 51st Highland Division and Ross Bequest have approved an exciting program of work to improve the web site and in addition to put up more content.
This program, proposed by our Website Administrator Ian Livingstone, will be rolled out in phased development work between now and October 2010. It will include improved accessibility and navigation through the site, a slide show feature making it easier to view and access pictures, restructuring and indexing the museum to make it more user friendly and give a better search facility. You will have already noticed that Ian has made the web site more responsive and the "you can help" campaign is producing some very good material, some of which will appear on site very soon. In the meantime please keep the photographs, accounts and artifacts coming in.
Charles Grant
Website Historian
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We'd also like repeat the details of our new twitter.com/51HD feed and the follow@51HD feature which has resulted in many site visitors picking up the Radio Scotland interview on the BBC iPlayer in the week after it was broadcast.
You can follow that twitter feed and find out as and when new content becomes available - twitter.com/51HD
Or you can bookmark its RSS Feed to receive automated updates directly to your web browser (provided your web browser has an RSS reader).
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More photographs, artifacts, extracts and accounts, in addition to new content for the History section will be added to the site in a few weeks so please do check back here to see what is new.
Many thanks, once again, for all of your stories and photographs - please do keep them coming.
Ian Livingstone
Website Administrator
On behalf of the he trustees of the 51st Highland Division Trust Fund
& the Highland Division Ross Bequest Fund