Saturday, October 07, 2017

DEAD AIRMAN'S NAME SHOULD BE ADDED TO BRIGG MONUMENT WAR MEMORIAL, COUNCIL TOLD


An airman who died a tragic death in Brigg during the Second World War should  have his name added to the Roll of Honour on the Monument war memorial, town councillors were told at their latest meeting.
Brigg resident Ken Harrison used the Public Question Time part of the meeting to make the plea.
He revealed that an Australian flight sergeant parachuted from his Lancaster bomber but came down in a pond in the town and drowned.
At earlier meetings, Ken called for the name of Sister Andrews, a nurse who lived in Wrawby, to be added to one of the plaques on the Monument.
She was killed while serving in the First World War.
Brigg Town Council has noted Ken's suggestions for consideration.
Next year the Monument is to be refurbished ahead of the 100th anniversary of the guns falling silent in 1918.
Brigg's war memorial is a grade two listed structure.
Read more about Sister Andrews and the council's refurbishment of the Monument through this link...

PICTURED: Two of the Roll of Honour plaques at the Monument war memorial in Brigg.


 
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1 comment:

  1. Ken Harrison7 October 2017 at 01:05

    Neither Sister Ellen Andrews - KIA 21st March 1918 and Flt Sgt Roy John Rogers's names appear on any public war memorial, such as the memorial in Brigg.
    Army Surgical Sister Andrews is buried in a war grave in France, while Flt Sgt Rogers is buried in a Commonwealth War Grave Commission grave in the RAAF section of Cambridge City Cemetery.
    Sister Andrews was KIA during an aerial bombing raid on a Red Cross train: Flt Sgt Rogers, 23 years old, was killed after safely bailing out of his on-fire Lancaster over Brigg.
    Unfortunately, he drowned in a clay-pit pond near Smithy Pound - presumably held underwater by his heavy sheep-skin flying suit and his parachute.
    Local folk, including a bank manager named Briggs and two brothers of the family who owned the pond, attempted to rescue him....while the scene also attracted a number of other spectators.
    The Lanc crashed near Manton - killing two other crew members....3 bailed out and survived.

    nb 1. The pond was filled in some time after the war.
    2. As a trained nurse, Sister Ellen Andrews enlisted in the Army Nursing Service and immediately volunteered for overseas service by September 1914. She was awarded the Royal Red Cross (equivalent to an OBE) during an investiture at Buckingham Palace for valuable war service, by the king in the Autumn of 1916.
    While Brigg's War Memorial remembers Ww1 names of both thr fallen of Brigg and a number from outlying villages, Sister Ellen Andrews name is conspicous by its absence.


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