Stephen Abbott's story

The following is a transcript of a digital recording of an in-person interview with the contributor. "My Granddad's name was Stephen Robert Abbott, but he would be known as Bob or Robert. He shared stories personally with myself and my father, Granville. Here's one of his kind of memorial clocks, which was made by one of his comrades. There's only about five or six of these and listed on the clock is where he served. Jim Howden, he was from Birmingham, he made five or six of these clocks. So we believe there may be a few others. He made them at the end of the War, in a captured German sea-plan... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Their Finest Hour Project Team
Dokumenttyp: Text
Erscheinungsdatum: 2024
Schlagwörter: British history / European history (excl. British / classical Greek and Roman) / International history / Their Finest Hour / World War Two / Aeroplane / Africa / African / Aircraft / Airplane / Animal / Animals / Armed Forces / Armies / Army / Asia / Asian / Battle of Dunkirk / Battle of Europe / Belgian / Belgium / Britain / British / British Army / British Empire / British Raj / Child / Childhood / Children / Civilian / Civilians / Commonwealth / Documentation / Dunkerque / Dunkirk / Eastern Front / Education / Egypt / Egyptian / Empire / Employment / Europe / European / Factories / Factory / Fire Arm / Firearm / Food / France
Sprache: unknown
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-28523002
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
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Link(s) : https://doi.org/10.25446/oxford.25933723.v1

The following is a transcript of a digital recording of an in-person interview with the contributor. "My Granddad's name was Stephen Robert Abbott, but he would be known as Bob or Robert. He shared stories personally with myself and my father, Granville. Here's one of his kind of memorial clocks, which was made by one of his comrades. There's only about five or six of these and listed on the clock is where he served. Jim Howden, he was from Birmingham, he made five or six of these clocks. So we believe there may be a few others. He made them at the end of the War, in a captured German sea-plane factory on a lake. And we believe that the brass is probably the gun shells and the centre of the clock is off the German sea-plane. Bob died when he was 97 years old on the 21st of March in 2010. Myself, my father and my auntie we were by his bedside. So he talked to me about his memories. And sometimes I did ask very delicately. He would never just share them. It was only at the very end that we heard some very harrowing stories. I've got his dog tags here. His regimental number [is] 8104781047. His regiment is actually on the clock as well, and we do have all his enlistment documents as well. He was in the 5th Y Division of the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC). There's two letters as well that we have where I don't have them here, but I have the very fragile, they're very faded, so absolutely carefully. We've got a lot of other documentation as well as medals that we need to photograph. And lots of photographs of Bob from his time in the Army and, by the truck as well. My Granddad would be fixing the trucks that were breaking down, that were going to the front line. He drove in an old London Bread van. A lot of his stuff has already gone to the Imperial War Museum, London. When Bob was based in Egypt at the rest camp in Cairo, they set up a cycling team called the Buckshee Wheelers, which was still going until just recently, because the members are now passing away. We used to go to their reunions in Alcester, in the ...