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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Oxfordshire => Topic started by: percy porter on Wednesday 09 January 13 04:00 GMT (UK)
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I have a great deal of information about the above and a number of photgraphs I have collected from a variety of sources but most were taken by or in the posession of my father during the ten years he worked there.
I have a photo taken during the latter years of the firms existance and it is about to appear in an aviation publication here in NZ and I am trying (again) to track down decendents of those pictured.........
they are Les Keen, Gladys Horne, Harold Payne, Joan Souch and Jack Osborne.
I do know that Les Keen passed away some years ago and I supect that the others may well have too. At this stage I do not know if Gladys or Joan were married, if they were then that makes life even more difficult and to cap it all of most of the employees were directed to the Witney area during the war and would have returned to there original home towns late 1945, early 1946 so any relation are most likely not still in the area.
To quote the King of Siam- "tis a puzzlement"
Alan NZ
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Alan - out of curiosity I Googled "Joan Souch" as I thought it was an unusual name. One of the first results was 192.com which lists 6 Joan Souch - they take info from the electoral roll (post 2002 there's been an opt out) and phone books. One of their results was in Witney. Looking at online directory enquiries there is still a listing:
http://www.thephonebook.bt.com/publisha.content/en/search/residential/search.publisha?Surname=souch&Location=witney&x=0&y=0
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You might find the BAE Systems Heritage Archive at Farnborough would be able to help. They might also be able to arrange for messages to be placed in company newsletters. They might also be grateful for copies of your photos.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-19970788
See:
http://www.baesystems.com/our-company-rgb/heritage?_afrLoop=4339348298462000&_afrWindowMode=0&_afrWindowId=jkjikq0nv_1&baeSessionId=vwy3QtLb3VF9Rz4CKvR3rMz3JfKp0zn5dG565hQRwjQkQP2PktVN!-853594562
(apologies: ShrinkLink says it's not working)
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Thanks both of you for your response and comments, the J Souch in Witney looks a likely prospect as the address would appear to be a retirement complex. I have friends still in Witney and will see if they can make contact.
Also of interest is the BAE Heritage centre, they have copies of the bulk of the information that I have as my father passed that onto them in the 80s', earlier approaches to them when the archival material was held at Hatfield was unsucessful, I will however make further approaches.
Regards
Alan NZ
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Hi Alan
What a great offer you are making. I was at school in Witney with several members of the Souch family and as another member on here has said they are still in the town.
You may also like to try via the Oxfordshire Family History Society who have a very wide network of members and associated contacts/ - thats assuming you haven't all ready?
www.ofhs.org.uk but they also post on here so they may get in touch anyway.
Cheers
NDRFT
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I take my hat off to you for attempting to pass on the history off the de Havilland
Having worked on airfields accross the earth , I have always admired the graceful design of the aircraft,
and even when I was a youngster having made a few de Havilland models...
to further this little comment my dad was RAF and the street he grew up on in Bournemouth Hants was Havilland....
I do wish u would create a website or do an article somewhere though outlining all u have so the originals are not just stuck in an archive somewheres.....
fast
:)
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Thanks for those two recent posts.
I have in fact created an offline website with details of the history of the de Havilland site in Witney. It is very much a case of 'work in progress' as I am not conversant with all technicalities of web design so am having to use MS Publisher which those in the know say is not the best of resources.
You can find a bit of detail about my dads involvement with "Dads Army" here...............
http://www.staffshomeguard.co.uk/DotherReminiscences47Witneystaffshg.htm
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My Dad Leslie Stuart Schultz (called Stuart) was a shop steward here during the war-does anyone have any record of him?
Robert Shields (*)
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Was he at Witney and do you know what years he was there ?
Regards
Alan
My Dad Leslie Stuart Schultz (called Stuart) was a shop steward here during the war-does anyone have any record of him?
Robert Shields (*)
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Well he was there in 1943 I think until the end of the war-he was the shop steward for the wings department working on Spitfires and Hurricanes. I remember he had a silver mug presented to him by the De Havilland Shop stewards and workers-sadly stolen in a burglary.
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Hi,
Just found your trail.
I am working on a project to locate and photographically recors sites across the UK that have had a military connection during the 20th Century. Enter the words 'Jeremy Flack Advertiser' into google to see some info about the project.
I visited Witney recently and photographed a number of the building. Does a plan exist for when it was de Havillands. Do you have any photos showing aircraft being worked on or in storage. One of the building I was told had been specially designed by Barnes Wallace - do you have any info?
Look forward to hearing from you.
Regards
Jeremy