Category: Wartime Wickham
May 29, 2020|Local People | Personal memories | Second World War
Eric Tucker – An exciting boyhood
Ann Tucker was about 12 years old and was living on Hoads Hill about the time of the build up to the invasion. She remembers convoys of military vehicles going up the hill and one of the vehicles, which could have been a halftrack, caught fire and exploded showering the area with debris. Ann was…
Find Out More »May 8, 2020|Local People | People | Second World War
Ernie and Stan Woodford: Brothers separated by 5000 miles
Ernie and Stan Woodford were brothers, brought up in houses on the Winchester Road, nearly opposite Lower House, and also at the bottom of Mill Lane. Mrs. Woodford with Stan and Ernie -Toll House Winchester Road c.1933 Their father worked at Buddens Farm. They were both called up early in the War – Ernie at…
Find Out More »May 8, 2020|Local People | People | Personal memories | Second World War
Peter Merrett – working for the war effort and the A.R.P – an nearly killed by a German fighter
Peter was 20 at the outbreak of war, living in Bedford Place (now Dairymoor) with his parents. He was serving an apprenticeship in his father’s garage (Forge Garage), and in 1940 volunteered with his eldest Muriel sister for ARP duties – Peter working at night, with his sister by day, as ambulance drivers. The ARP…
Find Out More »May 8, 2020|Local People | People | Second World War | Wartime Wickham
Ron Parkins – Rookesbury Park Gardens
Ron lived through the war with his parents and sister at The Bothy, Rookesbury Park Gardens, off Hundred Acres Road. He was 12 years old in 1939, and attended secondary school in Harrison Road, Fareham, which had about 500 boys and girls from the surrounding area. He travelled to and from school by bus, run…
Find Out More »May 8, 2020|Local People | Personal memories | Second World War
Rosemary Copeland – Keeping life normal in Wartime Wickham
My father, Mr Jack Urban Froud, was the boot and shoe repairer – his shop was at the corner of Mayles Lane, in what later became the Pine Furniture Shop. He was too old to be called up but like most men of his age in Wickham was in the Home Guard, and apart from…
Find Out More »May 8, 2020|Second World War
Wickham During the War Years: 1939-1945
When we commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Victory in Europe this month, many of you will remember the war years here in Wickham. Recalling that broadcast made in 1939 announcing that our Country was at war with Germany, it was a most sobering moment. It was not long before everyone was involved in the preparation…
Find Out More »May 7, 2020|Historial Events | Second World War | Wartime Wickham
Celebrating VE Day in Wickham
Victory in Europe Day – VE Day – signified the end to nearly 6 years of war. People rejoiced in the news that Germany had surrendered and marked the victory with street parties, as did Wickham. Rationing was still severe, and so there were sandwiches – probably jam and paste – but not many cakes….
Find Out More »December 26, 2019|First World War | Knowle | Military connections
A Casualty of the Great War – E. E. Pharoah
ERNEST EDWARD PHAROAH Gunner Ernest Edward Pharoah was one of the fourteen children of George, a local farmer, and his wife Mary. Ernest worked as a cowman on his father’s farm at Whiteley Pastures before becoming an attendant at Knowle Hospital. Enlisting at Brockhurst, Gosport in November 1915, Ernest became a gunner in the Royal…
Find Out More »January 23, 2019|First World War | Local People | Naval connections | Wartime Wickham
The Battle of Coronel – The Wickham Connection
The Battle of Coronel took place on 1st November 1914 off the coast of Central Chile. Britain knew from radio messages that Germany’s East Asiatic squadron, under Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee, was trying to elude the British and Japanese ships as it sailed eastwards from the Caroline Islands across the Pacific. A British Squadron…
Find Out More »November 4, 2018|First World War | Local People | Naval connections | Wartime Wickham
The Battle of Jutland – The Wickham Connection
The Battle of Jutland, fought between 31 May and 1 June 1916, was the largest naval engagement of the Great War, involving 151 vessels of the Royal Navy Grand Fleet and 99 vessels of the German Navy’s High Seas Fleet. The battle started when Admiral Beatty succeeded in luring the German Grand Fleet into the range of the Royal Navy’s…
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