RootsChat.Com

Found that he died in October 2009 in Scotland; so I could get his Will or Probate and find details on there I suppose. This is a Red Letter Day for me. I feel so Uplifted. Thank You So Much for the information you passed onto me.

I was happy that he stayed with the sport he loved - as a Scout for Scotland after his playing ceased on the field.  And 89 that's a good innings. I hope he was happy with his life and the way it continued after he left Middlesbrough.   Just have to find Letty...I hope she's still with us on this mortal coil.   Thanks again.

I am searching for My first 'BEST FRIEND' IN SCHOOL - 'LETTY' Mc CREA, (Spelling in both cases suspect and may be wrong:  We were at St. Philomena's R.C. School, Ayresome Street, Middlesbrough. We started school together, aged 5.

I believe her father was a Footballer playing for Middlesbrough; and he got a transfer to Falkirk (?) round about 1952/3 before the Easter Holidays. We exchanged Easter eggs on our last day. Mine  to her, was a small cream egg. Hers to me, was a beautiful egg filled with expensive, assorted chocolates and wrapped with a gorgeous yellow satin ribbon, placed in an ornamented box to protect it. I felt like Royalty, even though my heart was broken at our parting.

We promised to write, but believe my letters were never posted; and I never received any letters from Scotland.... We didn't get pocket money, until we were working.... so I had to trust that my letters would be sent!  We weren't encouraged to mix, have friends or invite them into our home; or, we allowed to call and enter their homes, so I assume  my letters were never sent; and if any came to me....would never have been given to me, lest it encouraged me to 'waste time and money on paper, envelopes and stamps!'

I would love to know how her life panned out, and what she got up to over the years. Our parting had a big effect on me.

I was DOREEN Mc CALLAN, we had been in Mrs. Harrison's; Baby Class!  Miss Cott's - Abacus training which I never understood!;  Mrs. Ferguson's and Mrs. Hesselhurst's Classes - expecting a baby when we had her for our needlework classes.   Other teachers were Miss Maggie Hughes; Rose- Ann Hughes - Music teacher; Mr. Ferguson; Mr. Passman the 11 Plus teacher; Mr. Gribbon  The Junior Head was a Nun - Sister Augustine; Senion Head was Nun -  Sister Mary with the 'Butterfly Wimples' and Dark long Garb. Our school backed onto Ayresome Park, Middlesbrough Football Ground.

Her kind, friendship to me in those early years at school, have always been recalled with smiles, happy memories, and never forgotton.

Many, many thanks to you SUPERSTARS. You've answered at lot of questions in super quick time.  Communications and clarifications were not at the top of the family's list whilst growing up in the 40's and 50's. "Children should be seen and not heard2 "Don't ask questions., just do as you are told!" I think they must have thought we never overheard bits of information and kept them locked in the storage files of our minds over the years. The truth was there...but wrapped up in fabrics of lies and misinformation.

It has taken the brain power of you good folk to unravel the final pieces of this part of my Jigsaw.
THANK YOU SO MUCH.

It's helped make my life so much more relevent and interesting for my branch of the tree that I was grafted onto; and from where I came from.   Keep on digging into our pasts, so we can make sense of life, it's meaning and the people we meet on our journey through life.

You are doing a Grand Job. May your God, bless you all and keep you safe.

D.o.b. 1910 Died 1978 in Londonderry. He was in the Army prior to WW11. Served in a number of regiments. Evacuated at Dunkirk in the rearguard pickups I believe.

Had his appendix taken out during the war.

Posted up at Berwick Upon Tweed early 1944. Demobbed in Sept 1st 1944 (injured?)  I don't know his regiments or Service No. Married Mary Elizabeth Murtagh and have 4 children (?) 3 girls  youngest Bernadette  and 1 boy Philip.  Worked in Post Office after the war in Derry. 

He was in Operation Chariot in March 1942. 

Would love to know more about Harry's War., and Remembrance groups of this raid and stories of the Forces taking part in this daring amphibian raid in 1942.

Harry was Friends with Sgt. David Hume Finnie in Parachute Regiment who was in Operation Biting in Bruneval in Feb 27/28Th 1942 - don't think they were both these operations together; but were friends in the N.E. England at some time.   Worked as crane driver after the war in Construction I believe. Married twice. 1 daughter Enid.  Lived in Gateshead.

Been in touch with Friends of Bruneval Remembrance Group in France, writing up details of soldiers capturing the radar equipment and operatives in daring raid in 1942.

i am trying to fill in the missing years of Maud Elizabeth Whitfield (D.O.B. 03/09/1906)  from leaving school, but particularly, after the end of WW1 1918 -  up to 1937.               She disappeared off the radar, after leaving school, until she Married Patrick Mc Callan in Middlesbrough, N. Yorkshire in April, 1938.

She had a Single sister Florence Edith Whitfield who died of cancer in Wakefield Jan 1924.
Father - Albert Whitfield, died in Auckland 1931. aged 72.
Mother Mary Jane Whitfield (nee Peel) died in Auckland about 1931 - aged 67? "Choked on fish bone?" family tale (!) not proven.

There was an older brother Herbert Alfred Whitfield  (1886 -1974) SERVING IN England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland  in WW1;  He Lived in  Wylam Street, Middlesbrough; LATER in Chiswick East; and  in Middlesex whom Maude E. Whitfield may have stayed with for a while. Herbert Alfred Whitefield later moved to 168 Bath Road, Hounslow, Middlesex  in 1958.  Herbert Alfred (known as ALF, was a Civil Servant), died in Darlington.

Maud Elizabeth Whitfield,  "Had a fear of Workhouses and The Police"., She had an older sister Annie Whitfield - a trained cook and (single). Her financee died in WW1. She died in Winterton Mental Hospital, Sedgefield  (previous workhouse?)  approx 1968. She never married. Annie looked after two single brothers until they married -Plus a nephew - until they eventually left the Home in St. Johns Road, Shildon in late 1950's/early 60's. None of the family would accept responsibility for Annie , after she had been living on her own for years and lonely....

Can anyone throw any light on tracing the missing years of Maud Elizabeth Whitfield please?
Did she any more children before she married the Irishman? Did she spend time in prison or Workhouse? Where did she work?  All help and advice gratefully appreciated.
So many questions and no answers.