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I have now found more information concerning Jimmy Rowell and the civilian gallantry award nomination. I will upload it but I am not sure if it can be seen properly? perhaps Mike could make it more readable as it does have a lot of detail of the night.
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This is a transcription, I'm not certain regarding the handwritten words:
CASE 2127 James ROWELL — 51 years Special Constable 4, Dilston Terrace, Amble Special Constabulary, Northumberland — 5 years Civil Occupation — Master Butcher Previous honours — 1914- 18 War Medal; Victory Medal; General Service Medal; Special Constabulary Long Service Medal, 28. 7. 42. Attempted rescue of crew of crashed and burning aircraft at Cliff House Farm, Amble, during the night of 1st December, 1943. Recommended by – Chief Constable, Northumberland. No. 1 (Northern) Regional Commissioner recommends – George Medal dated 21. 12. 43. Documents 1. Particulars of Action 2. Statement by J. Rowell 3.Statement by Isabella E. Rowell 4. Statement by W. Robson 5. Statement by Wing Commander E.Graham 6. Statement by Sergt Hook CASE CONSIDERED BY COMMITTEE: 4th Feb., 1944 RECOMMENDATION Com? [ink stamp] 7. FEB.1944 TREASURY RECOMMENDATION??? GAZETTED 194?. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Copy of Particulars of Action About 10:30 p.m. on 1st December, 1943, Mr Rowell and his wife were playing cards in the kitchen of Cliff House Farm, with the occupants Mr and Mrs Robson (whose family of 4 girls and 1 boy, ages 9, 7, 5, 3, and 1 year in bed upstairs) when they heard an aeroplane flying low, apparently making for the R.A.F. Station at Acklington, about a mile to the South-West. They only had time to throw themselves on the floor when the house was struck, obviously by the plane, and the whole of the upper storey, together with the top 5 feet of the kitchen walls were carried away. The only part left standing was the staircase and the bottom 5 foot of the kitchen walls. As will be seen by the statements attached, the 5 children were killed, their bodies being afterwards found, seriously burned, and buried in debris beside the wreckage of the plane which crashed about 50 feet south of the house and took fire. Mr Rowell rushed out with his wife and Mr and Mrs Robson, and he, Mr Rowell, noted in the darkness, ‘something’ moving about in the flames. Mr Rowell went towards this ‘something’ and found what turned out to be the mid upper gunner, who had escaped out of the plane but whose clothing and equipment was on fire. Mr Rowell rolled the gunner on the grass and beat the flames, and got the equipment off him. Mr Rowell was informed by the gunner that there were another 6 men in the plane and in spite of it being on fire and ammunition exploding, he courageously entered the fuselage, but as the plane had broken in two, and the front part was lying at right angles to the rear part, he could not find any other person therein; the plane was burning fiercely by the time Mr Rowell got out and commenced to search for the children of Mr Robson. It was not until 1250 a.m. that the last 3 bodies the children were found. Meanwhile RAF Ambulances and different units of the Fire Brigade arrived, but the charred bodies of the other 6 occupants of the plane were found in the wreckage. To give an idea of the danger from exploding ammunition, some stacks of straw, approximately 300 yards south of the spot where the plane fell were set on fire by tracer bullets from the wreckage. |
In Mr Rowell's list of existing honours it says 'General Service Medal' - do we know what campaign that was for?
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Born nov 3rd 1892 - Amble, I am struggling to find any matching James Rowells on ancestry military records. Do you have any other databases? He would have been 22 in 1914 so it would be interesting to find out.
There is a James Rowell born Benwell, coincidently where his father was on 1891 census just before his marriage and moving to Amble, the record has no date, what do you make of it? |
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Is that the James Rowell Jnr on the Absent Voters List?
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-probable other serving siblings or relatives are John Foster Rowell and George William Rowell. |
Yes, James Rowell was Queen st and those two other Rowells mentioned are his brothers (my grandmother Beulah being a sister).They were all brought up (12 kids!!) above the Coop butchers at the time, now the coop funeral parlour.
The service papers I posted presumably are not Jimmy then? |
Can only see his medal index card, ties with the absent voters list nicely. Served initially with the Army Service Corps, transferred to the Machine Gun Corps at some point. If the information from the 1942 air crash is correct, that is he is entitled to a 'General Service Medal' then he probably served post war, which could mean his service papers might have survived but are with the MOD.
The two most common immediate post war 'General Service Medal' issues are the India General Service Medal 1908-1936 with the clasp 'Afghanistan N.W.F. 1919' and the General Service Medal 1918-62 with the clasp 'Iraq'. There are other less common clasps; for the former medal - Waziristan 1919-21 and Malabar 1921-22; and for the latter - 'S. Persia', 'Kurdistan' and 'N.W. Persia'. Interestingly quite a large number of Machine Gun Corps companies were deployed in the 1919 Afghanistan campaign, but I cannot find him on the roll for that medal, or in fact any of the other campaigns. Very frustrating. :mad: |
Many thanks for your research.
John Foster Rowell lost a finger in the Dardenelles, another Brit out there amongst the ANZACS. We have covered on another thread an apprentice of N and F Young who left for Oz in 1912 and found himself in Gallipoli a few years later. I will be taking part in this years remembrance parade with him in mind - Phillip Hall Amble Anzac buried in Alexandria |
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According to the record, Mr Rowell received an Expression of Commendation from His Majesty the King, which was to be published in the London Gazette on 4th April 1944. Ancestry has some archived copies of the London Gazette, but unfortunately not for this date, so I haven't been able to find the actual Commendation. |
Your great aunt was Evelyn, my great uncle was Jimmy Rowell (dads side)
Bill and Norah Robson were my great uncle and aunty, mums side. My mum and dad were 4 and 3 years old at the time! |
I stumbled across this while browsing today. https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.a...document/25665
It's a pdf document of the Pilot's flying log book for George Alexander Mackie, covering the period from 24 September 1943 to 17 February 1946. He flew with 214 squadron based at Chedburgh in Suffolk at the time and was on the same mission as the EH880 crew. On pages 8 and 9, there are details of the mission they undertook on the 1 December. It mentions them 'gardening' (RAF term for mine laying) in the Baltic off a place called Laeso (part of an island off the South East coast of Denmark). At 15.20 they were diverted to Acklington. Page 9 has a newspaper article cut out about the crash. |
Thanks for posting this. I have not seen that particular newspaper article before.
The Robson children are my mother's cousins. Jimmy Rowell who saved the airman's life is my dad's uncle. - John Young |
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