ALY MORRISON'S "BUTTERFLY" ADVENTURES IN THE WORLD OF WARGAMES AND TOY SOLDIERS

Sunday, 10 November 2019

Remembrance Day...

Last year I posted some pictures of family members from my fathers side...
This year my brother sent me some images of my family from my mothers side...


Centre right Tommy Wardrope ... My Great Grandfather.




The oldest picture is of my Great Grandfather who was a long serving soldier in The Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders... Some 30 years under the colours as my dear old mother would say...I am told that our family history with the Argyle's goes back further than this but I have yet to find any hard evidence...
It appears that my Grandmother was actually born in Stirling Castle...
At the start of The Great War my Great Grandfather caught  pleurisy and was not allowed to go to France... Apparently he was livid...
Instead he was forced to stay at home and train others...
He rose to the rank of Colour Sergeant


Far left... Edward Wardrope... My Great Uncle.


My Great Uncle Ted... Also an Argyle and Sutherland Highlander...
I am told rose to the rank of Gunnery Sergeant at Stirling Castle..


Frederick Wardrope... My Grand Uncle


Grand Uncle Fred... My Grandmothers youngest brother...
I know very little about this man... My grandmother talked very little about her siblings and with my mothers increasing age and diminishing mental capacity I am not sure what I will be able to find out...
There are many websites that can give you the raw data.. Births...Marriages... Deaths... but sadly they do not preserve the stories and anecdotes...


My Grandfather.


My Grandfather... Peter Robertson... Royal Scots Fusiliers.
Sadly My Grandfather Died when I was eight years old...
He of course survived the Great War... He went on to work down the coal mines but after an injury started to drive buses for Wallace Arnold( A British tour company) in the 1930's and served in the Home Guard in WW2...


Robert Wardrope... Handsome devil.


Bobby Wardrope... My mothers Cousin... so my Cousin... Once? Twice? Removed???
A tall and very handsome man... Clearly I missed out on this genetic line...
I remember him as a very debonair gentleman and career soldier... My mother used to go all a flutter at the mention of his name... He I am told was married four times... the old devil.


Uncle Ian.


My Uncle Ian... My mothers older brother...
Sergeant RAF... He flew Hurricanes toward the end of WW2...
He trained in Canada and eventually emigrated there in the 1950's...


Dad.


My Dad...
Royal Army Medical Corps...
I think he was really glad that none of us followed the family traditions of joining the army, going down the pit or working for Carron Ironworks (the company that manufactured Carronades in the Napoleonic Wars)...


A slightly poignant post... I know...


They all survived...


Lest we forget...


All the best   Aly



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30 comments:

  1. John J10 November 2019 at 22:08

    Respect

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  2. Matt Crump10 November 2019 at 22:51

    Thanks for sharing Aly quite some family history and tradition.

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  3. Phil Robinson11 November 2019 at 00:02

    Most interesting Aly, you are lucky to be able to put this piece of your family's history together to share.

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    1. Aly Morrison11 November 2019 at 00:36

      Thank you Phil...
      My little brother has been a great help in finding out all this information...

      All the best. Aly

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  4. The Jolly Broom Man11 November 2019 at 00:24

    What a wonderful bunch. You are so lucky to have those photographs. My Grandad was in the Argyle's during WW2 having transferred from the Staffords following officer training. My uncle also flew hurricanes near the wars end, over Burma, but all I have of his are his flying log books.

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    1. Aly Morrison11 November 2019 at 00:43

      It’s quite touching looking at these old photos...
      The ones of my great-grandfather are over a hundred years old... they reflect a different world from what we know now...
      Everybody loves a Spitfire pilot... but the Hurricane was the work horse of the RAF

      All the best. Aly

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  5. Mark Strachan11 November 2019 at 05:03

    Great post Aly. Our family was lucky too. My maternal grandfather and great uncles all served in the Great War and all survived. My fathers family served with the Canadians in the European theatre - him his two brothers, both my uncles from his side and both his sisters (as nurses) served and all came home although one uncle suffered shell shock after being in a tank that was hit and had a rough time in later life.

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    1. Aly Morrison11 November 2019 at 08:45

      Thank you Mark...
      I am interested in finding out a bit more about my family’s military history...as I have said I would prefer it to be anecdotal rather than just a list of dates... though this may be difficult... my mother is 93 and there are not that many of her peers still alive...
      Hopefully we will find a few more images over the next year....

      All the best. Aly

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  6. David11 November 2019 at 08:07

    An interesting post Aly. The photos are very evocative of the period too, as you say, a lost world.

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    1. Aly Morrison11 November 2019 at 08:49

      Thank you David....
      It is rather sobering to look at someones features in a photograph that you are familiar with and then realise that it was taken in the turn of the 20th century.
      A window into the past indeed.

      All the best. Aly

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  7. marinergrim11 November 2019 at 08:19

    A nice piece of work and history. We will never forget them.

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  8. Sidney Roundwood11 November 2019 at 17:42

    What a wonderful post!! Thank you so much for sharing all these photographs, Aly. We will remember them all, and will never forget them.

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  9. MSFoy12 November 2019 at 10:21

    Excellent post Aly - I'm glad they all survived the wars - I bet they had some grim times though. Great to see the photos. That's the thing that's missing from earlier wars - as soon as there are photos, you're dealing with real people. Funny that.

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    1. Aly Morrison12 November 2019 at 20:48

      Thank you Tony...
      As we all (should) know all war is grim... but my lot seems to have avoided the worst of things...
      Tommy was frustrated and disappointed to be unfit when the ‘big one’ happened...
      Bobby made the most of his uniform and looks...
      My grandfather’s grim times happened when he went back d own the mines and they fell in on top of him... he would probably been better looked after if he had been on the Western Front when he was injured...
      The strange thing when looking at old photos is how familiar everyone is Freddy looks so much like my Grandmother... and my own daughter also reminds me of my
      Grandmother... there is an unbroken genetic link through the generations which I always find surprising when I see it...
      You are of course correct... the photo is so much more ... real...

      All the best. Aly

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  10. Curis12 November 2019 at 18:43

    Fascinating to see all your relatives through the armed conflicts. You can see the same smile pop up a few times on their various faces.

    I find having members caught up in all the various wars really makes a great starting point for reading about the history and exploring the period with wargaming!

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    1. Aly Morrison12 November 2019 at 20:52

      You are of course correct Chris...
      My own interest in the Great War stems from seeing images of my relatives in uniform...

      All the best. Aly

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  11. Pan Janek18 November 2019 at 09:34

    It is great that you have all this memorabilia and information.
    We are not so lucky, as almost all of the things got lost over the wars. The only thing I know about my family during WW1 is that one of my great grandfathers served on an Austro-Hungarian submarine, and another one served and hardly survived the Polish-Soviet War in 1919-20. From WW2 all the information is highly anecdotal and some of the stories sound as fantasy. Both of my grandfathers, and their brothers served in the Polish underground and didn't want to speak about it even till the 1990's, as they believed we were still under the Soviet occupation (and actually we did...). The only memorabilia we have is the personal ID, that my grandfather's brother had on his chest when being killed by a German shrapnel on the 5th day of Warsaw Uprising in 1944 (https://iv.pl/image/GrbTD7p).

    Best wishes,
    Jan

    P.S. It was great to meet you and play with you last week! :-)

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    1. Aly Morrison20 November 2019 at 08:38

      Hi Jan...
      It was good to meet you too...
      I hope you had a safe and uneventful journey home.
      I would be very intrigued and interested if I found out that there were submariners in my family... one doesn’t immediately think of Austria having submarines.
      I am lucky to have some photos and memorabilia but even the anecdotal information that goes with these can be a bit confusing.
      I know we also have some Polish memorabilia from WW2... My Mother and Grandmother helped run the tea room in Falkirk ice rink where many men from the 1st Polish Armoured Division and Free Air Force used to go... both units were stationed near by... At the end of the war they were given pieces of ‘war art’ jewellery made out of brass from bullet cartridges and a photo journal of the the armoured division’s journey through Europe... I must try and get some images of these...

      All the best. Aly

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    2. Pan Janek20 November 2019 at 10:17

      Yes, the return was great, and I hope we will play again!

      You got me thinking about my great grandfather and the submarine :-) I called my mom, and she said that she forgot to tell me that she recently got in contact with an unknown relative from Chech Republic who had photos of her grandfather in he Austro Hungarian navy uniform! :D From it we can see that he served as torpedoist on SMS Balaton (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Balaton) - which was a destroyer not a submarine. Everybody was saying he served on a submarine, but maybe it was the thinking that if torpedoist, then definitely submarine.. But maybe on both? Definitely bloody intriguing and strange coincidence that we found it just now!

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    3. Pan Janek20 November 2019 at 10:22

      https://imgbbb.com/images/2019/11/20/Edward-Brunner-ml.-SMS-BALATON-1.jpg
      https://imgbbb.com/images/2019/11/20/Edward-Brunner-ml.-SMS-BALATON-2.jpg
      https://imgbbb.com/images/2019/11/20/Edward-Brunner1916.jpg

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    4. Pan Janek20 November 2019 at 14:43

      and as to Austro-Hungarian submarines, they had a quite a number, which indeed is surprizing, when you think of the today's boundaries - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Austro-Hungarian_U-boats

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    5. Aly Morrison21 November 2019 at 08:13

      What an excellent discovery Jan...
      Not only putting a face to your great grandfather but also being able to read about his vessel...
      Hopefully this is just the start and you will be able to find out more...

      All the best. Aly

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    6. Pan Janek21 November 2019 at 17:15


      And I did! (Sorry for spamming ;-) ) Just found he also served on S.M.U. - Seiner Majestät Unterseeboot 11 and at ceratain moment stationed at Gulf von Cattaro. On one of the photos he has a UB badge, and there is an existing postcard with a returning address SMU 11 Gulf von Catarro! Fascinating!
      Thanks for your post as it pushed me to searching! ;-)

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    7. Aly Morrison21 November 2019 at 20:07

      No worries mate...

      Your not spamming...
      I am glad your finding out more about your family...

      All the bit. Aly

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  12. Ed M26 November 2019 at 23:21

    Coming late to this thread, but feel compelled to comment even so. What a splendid family lineage and legacy of service. Thanks for sharing this personal history with us.

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    1. Aly Morrison27 November 2019 at 10:04

      Thank you Ed...it was a pleasure.
      My grandmother once told my mother that as a baby she was rocked to sleep by a Crimean war veteran... unfortunately this is all she told her... I am going to try and find out if this was a relative ... which would be very interesting.

      All the best. Aly

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