Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - Caroline_d

Pages: 1 [2] 3 4 5 ... 13
10
Hello

Gaston Caron, he featured in a small way in a previous posting, now I've decided to give him his own topic.

All I currently know at present is:

    He was Canadian, served in Wellesbourne, England during 1944. 
    He was originally a navigator on the Wellington MF509, but was replaced due to illness. 
    He survived the war as there is no mention of him on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website.
    He may have been from the the Montreal area as were some of the other crew memebers, but this has not been verified.


    Gaston is shown in the picture with the rest of the Wellington crew, his replacement was Jules Villeneuve.

    Any advice and tips on where to look is appreciated. 


    The original posting is on the link below:

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,101535.0.html








11
Armed Forces / Re: Served with canadian army
« on: Thursday 20 April 06 23:34 BST (UK)  »
Hi

I've not followed all of your postings on Roots, but here is a link for Rug Chapel, Corwen...you may have found this before..but here it is if you haven't

http://www.stayinginwales.com/siw/attrac/microsite.asp?unique_id=200

Caroline

12
Armed Forces / Re: Served with canadian army
« on: Wednesday 19 April 06 23:09 BST (UK)  »
Just a thought...but is it possible that the name in North Wales is Corwen?

I've posted a link to a map of the area...the English border is also marked for reference.

It might also be worth posting on the Welsh boards, I'm sure someone might have futher information.

Caroline

http://www.mapquest.co.uk/mq/maps/mapAddress.do

13
Thanks for all your messages but I have to pass the credit over to the team at McGills, they have worked hard on this and done a great job in tracking down the family of Bill Allison and Jules Villeneuve, and so have everyone else in here.  I had no idea that things would have got this far.  Will keep you all posted.

2 left to find...you never know...and also what became of Gaston Caron?  I guess that's another topic for another day!


Caroline

14
Photo of Jules Villeneuve

15
Hello everyone

It's been a while since an update has been posted.  The team from McGill’s have done a great job and managed to contact Mr Earl Scofield, step-brother to Jules Villeneuve.  His son has kindly supplied a photograph of Jules (the identity of the lady in the photograph is not known).  He has given permission for it be posted here. 

It is now know that the man in the original crew photograph is Gaston Caron and not Jules who replaced Caron.

Plans are in place for the visit to memorial site at Carreg Goch next month, a number of local people have also been of great help and one great source (a local mountain tour guide who knows the area well) has arranged with the Brecon Beacons National Park to help with a heavy duty vehicle so that Bill's sister can get to within half a mile of the memorial.  They have been quick to respond with their help.  At present it now seems that there will be around 11 of us visiting the site on the day.

Fingers crossed for the weather to be kind.

Regards, Caroline

16
Hello

It's been a while since there was an update, to this posting.  There have been some developments which have been summarised below.

Thanks to everyone for your help so far.

Regards
Caroline



Quote

Update on the crew of MF-509

 
At the end of October 2005 Caroline posted a request for help in identifying a photo retrieved by her grandfather from a Wellington bomber that crashed on Carreg Goch in November 1944. Since the time a number of developments have taken place, and this is a brief summary of those advances. First, three of the families of the six airmen who lost their lives have been contacted. They are the Burke family in New Brunswick, the Allison family in Quebec and the Hamel family, also in Quebec. All families were very moved by the work of this group in identifying and then contacting family members 61 years after the plane crash. The families were unaware that the crash site still existed and that a memorial had been erected there.

 
Bill Allison , one of the crewmembers, was one of seven children in his family, and the only boy. The sole remaining sister of Bill, Phyllis, will be traveling to Wales in May 2006 to visit the site and meet some of the people who have contributed. This trip would not have been possible without the work of many people on Rootschat and elsewhere and she would like to thank all of you. If you are interested in more information about this trip, please let us know by a posting. Phyllis has been in contact with both the Burke and Hamel families to share these latest developments.

 
Unfortunately the identity of the airman in the original photo is still not known. It is likely that it is not any of the crewmembers who were lost in the crash. We now know that prior to the crash the crew’s regular navigator Gaston Caron was replaced by Jules Villeneuve, So although it is Caron pictured in the crew photo, he was not aboard the plane and also survived the war. McGill University in Montreal will be doing a story in their magazine and hopefully this will produce additional information and leads, particularly if the story is picked up by the national newspapers.

 
Once again I express the thanks of the family of the airmen who now have a chance to have a more complete sense of what happened in November 1944, and also to see the care and compassion of those who worked on supplying the various pieces of the puzzle.

 
Wes (on behalf of many people)



[/size]


17
Hi

This site might be of interest to others so I thought I'd post the address.  It lists war memorials.

http://www.ukniwm.org.uk/server/show/nav.002


Regarding this particular project, I checked to see if the memorial at Carreg Goch was listed around a month ago, there was little information so I emailed asking if they would be interested to list the names of the crew and maybe a photograph etc. 

Had a reply a few days ago saying they would be interested and to send as much as possible including pictures taken by Damien of the memorial and plaque.  I'm also trying to find out when the memorial was built.  The bottom of the plaque had the name "BP Chemicals" who are based at Llandarcy, South Wales, I'm trying to find out if they have information on the date it was built etc.  It all helps to complete the listing.

Hope you all had a great Chrismas and all the best for the new year.

Regards
Caroline




18
Hello

I have an update regarding William Allison:

McGills have visited the sole remaining sibling of seven.  William was the second oldest and she is the youngest.  She has all his letters and also the same photograph of the crew with all their names listed on the back.  McGills have scanned and put the names on the picture, it is a far better quality picture then the one I originally posted.  They also add:

Quote
We hope to use the story of Bill Allison and the work of the various volunteer contributors as an example of why McGill (and other universities) should provide their records on the web. The University of Glasgow has led the way with the release of their WW1 files in 2004. We hope that the photo your grandfather found, and the subsequent interest it generated 60 years later will stand as an example of how valuable these stories are to a larger part of the population

His sister has emailed and said she is "Overwhelmed by the reverance that is shown to those men".  Her family stayed in touch with the family of Charles Hamel for a number of years and she has confirmed that the photograph is not Charles or either of his siblings, Roger and Louis.


Caroline


Pages: 1 [2] 3 4 5 ... 13