Waterfall Family Research

After the decision by the military tribunal in February 1940, Sidney was not called up for military service until the 16 th  May 1940, when he had to report to Becketts Park College in Leeds for a special intensive course of training in technical subjects which lasted two months.  In his first letter home, the day after he arrived, Sidney described to his parents what the camp was like.  He wrote: Well I arrived safely here about 2.20pm yesterday and   so far   I have nothing to grumble at.  We have spent most of the time having our kit doled out.   They give a room to four chappies and of m room-mates one comes from Birmingham and the other two are from Northampton. I should think there were about 300 or so of us arrived yesterday.    Becketts Park is a very nice place, but of course it is not as nice as Lyndhurst, and it has ample sports facilities having its own football and crickets pitches, tennis courts, gymnasi...

Over the next few months, I am going to transcribe some of the letters and post cards that my grandfather Sidney Waterfall sent to his parents and siblings while he in the Royal Army Medical Corps during World War 2. When the war started, Sidney did not immediately sign up, as he had registered as a conscientious objector.  At the local tribunal, held in Leeds on the 27th February 1940, Sidney stated My objection is based on religious grounds. I am a birthright member of the Society of Friends. I have regularly attended Quaker Meetings since I was about seven years old. I was educated at the Friends School at Ackworth, Nr. Pontefract, Yorkshire, and i have been a member of the Skipton meeting all my life. I wish to state, however, that I am quite willing to undertake non-combatant duties. The result of the tribunal was that Sidney should be put in the R.A.M.C. The photo below is of Sidney in his uniform in about 1940.  

The following list of names are from the walls of the Pinkus Synagogue in Prague, Czech Republic.  Some of these people are siblings to my great grandfather Rudolf Frankenbusch, who spent the war in the UK.  Others I do not know who they are, but they will still be remembered today. Name Date of Birth Date of Death Alfred Emile Marie Eduard Franeisk Jiri Josef Hermia Karel Maria Karel Adela Milan Jiri Ota Villem Edita Gisella Tomas Hana Marie Olga Valorie Kurk 6/8/1890 16/4/1885 25/1/1884 10/2/1866 3/7/1905 15/11/1941 15/11/1875 10/4/1881 1/9/1873 2/1/1884 26/3/1884 7/10/1887 16/7/1909 16/7/1920 17/9/1874 19/9/1915 21/9/1905 9/6/1899 25/11/1940 31/8/1917 6/8/1894 5/8/1878 11/5/1882 20/5/1903 19/10/1942 18/5/1944 5/9/1942 18/5/1944 18/5/1944 31/10/1941 31/10/1941 6/9/1943 6/9/1943 18/12/1943 6/9/1943 23/3/1943 1/1...

During the Second World War, my grandfather, Sidney Waterfall, who at the time was a birthright Quaker joined the Army in a non combatant role.  He was a private in the Royal Army Medical Corps and was stationed in Britain until January 1941, when he and the rest of his corps left for the Alexandria in Egypt. Sidney was only in Egypt for about a month, before he was sent to Crete on the 19th April 1941 to prepare for the defence of Crete from the Germans.  The battle for Crete started on the 20th May with early airborne landings (Ref: Anthony Beevor; Crete: The Battle and the Resistance; London; 1991; p.102).  When the British Army realised that Crete was a lost cause, they called for the evacuation of troop back to Egypt. Sidney was one of 5,000 troops that was left behind on the island after the British surrendered Crete to the Germans.  Sidney then became a prisoner of war and he was initially held in a transit camp for five months before being moved to a perm...

In 1999, I made my first visit to Vienna and before I went I was given a photo and address of the building in which my grandmother Ilse, her mother Hulda, and her grandmother Gisela lived in. The address is Blechturmgasse, 16/8 (Bellesage at the corner), Vienna. When I visited, I had a look to see if the building was still there.  I can't be sure if it is the same building, but if it's not, then it is very close.

#genealogyphotoaday Day 02, a day late I know, but this is a photo of my grandmother, Ilse Fransiska Felisitas Frankenbusch.  She was born on the 9th November 1915 in Dolní Polubný, Czechoslovakia and died on the 28th August 1994 in Steeton, Yorkshire, England.  Here she is during WW2 in the ATS uniform.  The photo was taken in about 1944.

Amy Johnson Crow in an email yesterday, posted her memories of 9/11 and mentioned that we should all write about our memories of that day, so here goes. I was living in central London at that time and working as a children's nurse at Great Ormond Street Hospital.  I had been on a study day that day and when it had finished, I had returned a book to a shop as it had not been printed properly.  When I got back to my flat I put on the tv, and all that was on was pictures of the first tower after it had been it. I phoned a friend and asked her if she was watching the tv and she said she was as well and we couldn't believe what we were seeing, especially when the second plane flew in to the second tower. We both watched the towers collapsing and realising that the world no longer seemed a safe place. I also thought of a patient, whose father spent a lot of time working in NY, hoping that he was alright. I can't remember if he was in NY at the time, but I do remember that he...