18th November 2012

November 18, 2012

Following on our proposal to use the Town Railway Station as the alternative venue to the Hospital Annexe we regret that the CDC was unable to grant permission on the grounds of “Health and Safety”!   This was not a surprise as the interior of the building has been neglected for years.    Our Trustees however are grateful for the support given and efforts made by the Cirencester Town Council, including a number of Councillors who also serve on the CDC, officers of the CDC, and other organisation and individuals in the town. 

Happily thanks to these efforts we are on the point of signing a lease on space within the Cottages, known as No 23 Sheep Street, until recently occupied by Cirencester Volunteer Bureau.  Before this they housed the administration department of the Memorial Hospital. This means that the two sections of the exhibition and other facilities remain within the site of the Hospital making it relatively easy to move between the air raid shelter and the Home Front exhibition in the cottages .   Also it means that all being well we will not have to transport the contents of the annexe very far.  It will also give us opportunity to take stock of all the artefacts within the collection and to reorganise both sections of the exhibition.

As an added boost, although financing our activities is a constant problem, we recently received a very generous grant from The Bingham Library Trustees which will do much to help with setting up the new premises.    

AGM report and response to “An Unwelcome Early Christmas Present” as previously reported :

The LMHA Trustees held the AGM on Monday 8th October and  a copy the Annual Report for 2011-2012 is attached.

Following the AGM an emergency meeting took place to discuss the approach to the Cotswold District Council [CDC] over the notice to quit the Hospital Annexe.

The following attached document  which outlines a request for us to use space within the Old Cirencester Town Station was drawn up as a result of the meeting and  sent to the CDC.

Proposal to CDC.pdf 

Copies have also been sent to the Town Council and other interested bodies and individuals.  As yet we know only that the CDC Chief Executive has passed it down the line to the CDC Legal Department, but there has been no reply yet from the Council as a body. All others contacted so far, have given a very positive response to our proposal including Earl Bathurst and a number of Town Councillors who also serve on the CDC.

“An Unwelcome Early Christmas Present”

On 25th September we received a telephone call from a representative of the Cotswold District Council to inform us that a decision has been made by the Council that means that soon we will be given three months to vacate our exhibition and storage facilities in the Memorial Hospital Annexe, which we have occupied for the past 5 years.  All the other tenants of the hospital building are also to be given notice.  As yet we are not aware of the proposed fate of the building but we were told that the Air Raid Shelter and its exhibition are not at risk.

Obviously this is the worst Christmas present we have to look forward to and the task of finding alternative premises is an urgent priority.  In our collection we have well over 1000 items from 23 Kilner jars of wartime bottled fruit, to a large pre-war mangle, to say nothing of various desks, storage cabinets and the loan boxes we send out to schools.   If there is anyone out there who can help please don’t hesitate to get in touch! 

 A generous gift and poignant reminder

Recently we received a very interesting addition to the Association’s collection from Glen Moreman, Operations manager of the Cotswold Airport the former RAF Kemble.  The donation consist of an hydraulic pump from a German JU 88 Bomber.  Although he informed us that he is unable to prove it, he has it that the pump came from a bomber which had a place in one of Kemble’s notable wartime incident.

Living Memory Historical Association Alec Bird

Pilot Officer Charles Alec Bird

At 14.25 (2.25pm) on  Thursday July 25th 1940 employees at RAF Kemble watched as RAF Pilot Officer Charles Alec Bird, known as Alec, attached to No. 4 Ferry Pool and member of the Station’s Defence Flight climbed into Hurricane P3271 an early version of this fighter aircraft.   This was to engage enemy aircraft which had been located in the vicinity.    Evidently the Hurricane took some time to start from cold before it took off.  From a vantage point on the roof of one of the grass covered blister hangars on the main ‘A’ Site one witness watched as a German Junkers Ju88 bomber came into view.   He then watched as the Hurricane which had gainep qMl����Lw}ynOTw�attack from the stern.  Above the drone of the enemies engines came the sound of cannon fire then the Hurricane appeared to make contact with the rear of its prey.  There have been other accounts of this incident recorded which vary in detail and include the intervention of a second British fighter, a Spitfire based at nearby RAF Aston Down.   However this witness recalled that from his angle of observation the Hurricane never passed the rear of the Ju88, instead moments later the German was heading in a steep spiralling dive, parachutes coming away from it along with pieces of wreckage.  The German pilot recalled that one of the gunners, Uffz. Theiner, shouted out a warning of fighter attack and seconds later the aircraft staggered, as if struck by a giant hand As for the Hurricane, it too came down in an uncontrolled spin to be destroyed as it hit the ground with the pilot still on board.   All but one of the German crew, Uffz. Theiner, survived. Their aircraft crashed in fields near Oakridge Lynch.

Researches show that Pilot Officer Bird may have had a premonition of his death.  Only the day before he had been shopping in Cheltenham with his wife, whom he had married on the day war broke out.   In the town he bought a book containing a poem entitled “Wings”.   The last verse of the poem read: 


 “ My son has wings, for as the plane dived deep,
    His spirit, free within the realms of space,
    On new-found wings flew with a swifter sweep,
    Fearless and laughing, to the throne of Grace.”

Alec crossed out “My son” and substituted “He” asking his wife to have this carved on his grave-stone.  She honoured this sad request and the verse is on his gravestone in the churchyard of St John the Baptist’s Church, Adel in Yorkshire, where he was laid to rest. Uffz. Theiner who was also killed when his parachute failed to open, was the one who could have confirmed the manner of Alec Bird’s attack.   The other three survivors Uffz. Dorner, Uffz. Hugelschafer and Gefr. Treue were all captured in the Oakridge area.   Had Theiner survived Alec Bird might well have received the recognition he deserved for what appeared to many to be an act of self sacrifice in ramming the enemy aircraft.  Details of the capture of the German crew can be found in “Wings Over Gloucestershire” by John Rennison (ISBN 0951404709)


Identification plates on the pump