Joseph & Susanna Dye’s home in Hingham Road, Great Ellingham. Photograph taken before 1942. Courtesy of Bryan Dye At the time of the 1921 census, this delightful cottage in Hingham Road was occupied by the Dye family. The census lists 50 year old Joseph Alfred Dye with his 51 year old wife Susanna and four…
Category: World War 2
Private 5774000 Stanley Frederick Giles, 4th Bn. The Royal Norfolk Regiment
Stanley Frederick Giles (1917-1942) Courtesy Jane Sayliss Stanley Giles was 25 year old when he died as a prisoner of war in Thailand on the 14th December, 1942. Great Ellingham Born He was born in Great Ellingham on the 15th November, 1917. His parents, John and Nellie Giles, already had three children – Douglas, Winifred…
Recollections of a Home Guard
Local Defence Volunteers to Home Guards Some of us will remember the sit-com ‘Dad’s Army‘ which was based on the Home Guard in World War 2. Dad’s Army was broadcast by the BBC from 1968 through to 1977. The Home Guard consisted of local volunteers (usually men) who were generally above or below the age…
More Recollections of a Home Guard
In a separate blog, I have mentioned the existence of the Home Guard in Great Ellingham during World War 2. What follows is another event which, Claude Lebbell (then a member of the village’s Home Guard), recounted to his daughter some years later. It is in the words of Sue Fay: My father, Claude Lebbell…
Great Ellingham welcomes Evacuees during World War II
Operation Pied Piper Two days before Britain and France declared war on Nazi Germany, the government initiated Operation Pied Piper. On 1st September, 1939, over 1.5 million people including some 800,00 children were evacuated from urban areas to the countryside. A further evacuation followed in June 1940. Like many rural towns and villages, Great Ellingham…
Villagers in Contravention of World War II Blackout Regulations
Emergency Powers Just days before the outbreak of the Second World War, the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1939 came into effect. This new legislation gave the government “special powers to take almost any action necessary to carry out the war successfully.” The new powers controlled many aspects of everyday life during the war – including…
Remembering Aircraftwoman Dora May Hudson
A daughter of Blomfield and Edith Hudson, Dora May Hudson is remembered with honour in the churchyard of St James in Great Ellingham. Private 459538 Aircraftwoman 2nd class Dora Hudson was a serving member of the Women’s Auxilliary Air Force (WAAF), when she died suddenly on the 21st August, 1943 at the aged of 24….