Remembrance...

We will not forget.

Garrowby Hill, Cot Nab Farm, East Yorkshire.

Today I had the great pleasure of being chauffeur to Uncle Jim, he isn't a blood Uncle, he was a very close friend of my Mum and Dad (they -Jim and Dad- used to go off to the Jolly Farmers at Leavening for a pint or two a few years ago -Dad died in 1967!)

I grew up with Jim's daughter, Janet, we were close friends.

I remember we -Janet, Jackie, Karen and me- used to play in the lilac bushes by the side of the beck. I remember, to my horror, that we had heard -or where told- that to become blood sisters you had to cut your wrists and put them together with your friends to share blood and so become sisters.

OUCH !!!!!

How pleased am I that we didn't have a sharp enough knife!


I will get to visit Janet again soon I hope, time slides away whilst we are all being busy living.

Uncle Jim made me laugh lots, he had so many memories to share as we drove down Worsendale and then Snake/Dogleg lane.

Take time to share a moment with the old guys...they are FAB.

In the photo... right to left, Jim Sissons, me, Julie and Alun Emlyn-Jones.

On the 7th day of February 1944 a fatal accident occurred at the top of Garrowby Hill, East Yorkshire.
Halifax Bomber DK 192 from 1663 Conversion Unit, Rufforth came to grief in thick fog just beyond Cot Nab Farm, the first people on the scene where Mr Jim Sissons of Bishop WIlton, WLA Miss Ruth Tunley and Mr Ted Cook both of Painsthorpe Farm, quick to respond to the accident where the Bishop Wilton fire brigade... Mr Bill Loft and Mr Herris Fisher !
All on board the flight lost their lives, as did Arthur Kirby who happened to be driving his milk truck along the road at the time of the crash..
This memorial was placed here thanks to Mr Alun Emlyn-Jones of Cardiff, he was due to be on this fateful flight. Mr Emlyn-Jones, then a flight sergeant bomb aimer, he missed the flight -on his 21st birthday- because he was in hospital recovering from appendicitis. After much searching and thanks to a piece in the local newspapers Alun met with various people who new of the accident and this culminated in the placing of this memorial stone
At noon on Wednesday the 8th of May 1996 this memorial was unveiled, every year since then Alun and his lovely wife Julie have driven from Wales to East Yorkshire to remember these men -and of course every other person that has lost thier lives fighting for our country and our freedom.
Today we particularly remembered those on board said flight:
1042582 Flt Sgt Stanley Bright, aged 22, pilot.
1577088 Sgt Kenneth Smith, aged 22, wireless operator.
1796160 Sgt John Frederick Nelson, aged 21, engineer.
151321 F/O John Kingsley Meyler, aged 25, navigator.
1822095 Sgt Peter Gordon McDonald, aged 19, air gunner.
1866190 Sgt Sydney James Booker, aged 19, air gunner.
130663 Flt Lt Alfred John Shirley Hodgson DFC, aged 29, pilot instructor.
Mr Arthur Wood Kirby of Hessle aged 39, truck driver.

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM