Remaining pages of the "Dedication of the Commando Battle Honours Flag" April 1961.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 27/10/2008 00:53:28

Hi

The copies of these pages have been scanned in sequence so that they can be printed back to back ie U1 & U2 {previous message} - U3 & U4 to actually produce a finished copy in booklet form, should you wish to include it in your own collection. On Loan from Teresa Fitzgerald daughter of Eddy Fitzgerald No1 Commando.

Cheers

Andy

Ive got one of those for 1971 ,Andy ..went with my mother to Westminster Abbey . The Queen Mother and Lord Mountbatten were there

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 14/10/2008 00:35:10

Hi Stephen

This particular copy actually belongs to the daughter of another member of my dads Commando unit who has very kindly loaned me loads of docs, which I have already uploaded on to this site. It is actually quite an interesting story of how I made contact with her, her name is Teresa Fitzgerald and her father Eddy Fitzgerald put an advert in the Liverpool Echo in 1984 asking for a number of former members of No1 to contact him at his home address, one of the names mentioned was that of my father Cpl H Maines.
My mother actually cut out the advert and put it away, I remember seeing it at the time but stupidly never acted on it. I found the advert at the begining of this year and decided to take a chance by writing a letter to the address in the advert without I must say any really hope of receiving a reply. Sadly Eddy died in 1996, however his daughter still lives there with her two sons and she very kindly responded to my letter. She also identified her father as one of the figures in the French raid photo that I have uploaded on to this site, he is actually the tall figure standing at the top of the Landing craft with a jersey tied about his neck. My father is the one just below him seated in the landing craft, bare headed and looking up.
Just shows that it is always worth persuing any lead however apparently vague, for example in the Sep 1945 jungle book that I have on loan from Teresa there is a mention in No5's Troop notes of the name Sergeant Major Crutchly. Now when I was a kid I remeber my father telling me that the father of another familly that lived on the same estate as us, who's name was Crutchly was also in the Commandos. The Crutchly familly had three sons the youngest being five years older than myself and as far as I am aware they still live in the area as I occaisionally see them. Of course with the lesson I have learned from my own experiece of following leads, I will definately approach them if ever I see one of them again to see if they have any info, photos etc that can be uploaded on to this site that may be of help to some one else.
In fact the origial photo of one the group shots of 3 Troop {No1) that appears in this particular issue of the "Third Jungle Book" has just been uploaded on to this site by the grandson of another member of 3 Troop {John Strain}. The tall figure at the right hand side of this group is none other than Eddy Fitzgerald, a fact that was unknown to Teresa as the photo as it appears in the jungle book is very small and poor quality.

Cheers and thanks for the reply
Andy