My Grandfather.

[woodsetton]

Let me apologise first if this is not the correct place for me to post this or if I should not be posting this at all but I'm rather stumped as to how I can get the information I want any other way!

This is a long shot and I'm sure you get posts like this all the time But I'm trying to find people who knew my grandfather, Fred Reeves. He was an officer (2nd Lieutenant I believe) in the 190 Railway Operating Company of the Royal Engineers and I have just been reading his memoirs which have shown I have very little idea about his life!

He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant on 27th August 1943 and was then posted to Movement and transport in Suez.
 
At the end of his memoirs he writes this:

"In 1947, I attended a re-union of the Suez Association but afterwards lost touch. I think it must have packed up. Not so the 190 Railway Operating Company which, every November, still holds a reunion in Derby of its former officers and sergeants, and every two years a re-union of the whole company (or what's left of it) at the Victory Services Club in London. Every year we get fewer but memories still bing the rest of us together and hopefully this will go on until, like all old soldiers, we all just fade away."

If you know nothing about him or the company he belonged to then I apologise for wasting your time. If you have, I would appreciate a reply.


Thank you.

Lucy Reeves.

[DeeBoneham]

Definitely the right place to start....
Have you found the following site:
http://www.remuseum.org.uk/
They have an association who you could also contact:
http://www.reahq.org.uk/
Suez Veterans Association:
http://www.suezveteransassociation.org.uk/ (never know they may have pics of him at their meetings!

Hope this helps 
Please let us know what you find out.
Dee

[Poppy B]

Very interesting to read about your Grandfather. My Grandfather (Joseph Plaster) was also in the 190 Railway Operating Company in PAIFORCE and finished the war instructing on locos at the Longmoor Military Railway. Although I haven't applied for his service records yet and so don't really know the details of his postings, when we travelled from Australia to the UK a few years back I visited the TNA in Kew and photographed all the 190 ROC War Diaries (took a couple of days but it was worth it). Although he wasn't an officer, he was mentioned numerous times for being on mess duty, having his boots repaired, dental appts etc etc and the most intriguing of all being required to give evidence to a Court of Enquiry on Fri 16 Jan 1942 in Ahwaz into the cause of the derailment of Engine WD 41/62!! I would dearly love to get hold of the record of that Court of Enquiry. Predating his service in Persia I found a list of the names of 44 men of his Coy (including his) who were evacuated from St Naizaire and arrived back in the UK on 21 Jan 1940 - one of the last groups out before the Germans arrived and only a couple of days after the Lancastria had been sunk with such tragic loss of life. So I guess I'm saying that you could learn more about your grandfather's experiences from the war diaries too.

[Wild_265]

Hi, I am struggling somewhat to use this site perhaps as effectively as it can be and I would have rather sent you a direct message however I cannot seem to do so. I am researching my Grandfather who served in the 190 Raolway Operating Company and was posted in Persia and Italy in ww2. I would like to reach out to you so we can perhaps share our findings. I know you have not been active on this site for a few years and I am unlikely to get a response but it is worth a try.

Also to the person who responded and has the images of the war diaries, I am intent on finding these records and attaining copies myself so if you could share these images with me I would be very grateful.