Messages posted by: Dave Waite

That's fantastic news Nic, thanks for all your work. By all means share what I have posted about John's time at school, and my email address. Hopefully we will be able to add to your archive.

Wow! Thanks Nic and Guy for all your work, which helps to explain John's circumstances as a child. If there is a relative in Australia that would be fantastic, since there doesn't seem to be any family in this area. It's such a shame that I missed the chance to contact his sister. The Scottish connection clears up my confusion over why he ended up in 11 Commando.

I have spent some time reading through the school magazines for John's time at Brigg Grammar. There is quite a lot of information, but since you have added so much to his family background it seems only right to add it here to help build the picture.

John started at Brigg Grammar in September 1929, making him aged 8. This was the same year that his sister and future stepmother emigrated to Australia. Tong is a reasonably common name in this area: I can't find any trace of Charlotte's birth, but there are a number of candidates for James' grandparents. Other boys who started at the same time included Thomas Kell, who drowned while serving with the RAF in Calcutta, and John Sykes, killed in action soon after D-Day serving with the East Yorks.

In November 1929 the school had a visit from Field Marshal Sir William Robertson, Chief of the Imperial General staff at the end of WW1 and the first soldier to rise from private to Field Marshal. The magazine describes his visit as the greatest day in the school's history.

On sports day 1931 John won the Div. E high jump, clearing 3' 7". The following year he came second in the Div D high jump.

By 1933 John had learnt to swim in the school pool (outdoors and unheated, so good preparation for his time with the Commandos!). He managed 3 lengths, which was noted as an achievement when 60% of the boys couldn't swim at all. Also on the list was John Tierney, who managed half a mile. After sharing the same pool, Lang and Tierney now share the same cemetery at Sidon. (Tierney was a gunner in the Essex Yeomanry, dying in July 1942). Lang also came second in the junior 'Neat Dive' and won the 'Long Plunge'.

By July 1935 John Lang had joined the school scout troop, 2nd Brigg. He was in Wolf patrol. The patrol leader was James Barber, who would be shot down and killed by Italian fighters during an air raid on Tobruk in June 1940. In the swimming competition that year Lang came 3rd in the senior Neat Dive, and was placed 3rd in the high jump at sports day.

In July 1936 there is a note that his house (Ancholme) struggled in the swimming relay because they were without Lang for three of the four races. Illness perhaps?

March 1937 saw Lang playing the character 'General Mustachio' in a school play. The review describes his character as 'inarticulate', possibly deliberately so. By the summer he is described as a strong swimmer, instructing the other boys. He also won the shot putt on sports day with a distance of 32' 3".

In the summer of 1938 John was swimming and athletics captain for Ancholme House. He won the shot putt again, with a new record of 35' 8" and came 2nd in the 3 lengths swimming race. He is listed in December of 1938 as having passed the Cambridge School Certificate. Confusingly this is also recorded for December 1939, where it also adds that he received the School Certificate of Special Merit.

In the April 1939 magazine there is a report from the 2nd Brigg scout troop noting the loss of Patrol Leaders G Longbottom and J Lang and Second P King, who left at the end of last term. All three would be dead within four years; Lang at the Litani River in June 1941, George Longbottom shot down in January 1943 flying a Spitfire in Tunisia and Peter King shot down in a Lancaster raid over Berlin in November the same year.

The magazine for July 1940 lists a large number of former pupils serving in the military. John Lang is recorded as being in the Notts SRY (Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry). This was a cavalry unit, still equipped with horses, and was a popular choice for the Briggensians. The information must have been out of date though, because the SRY were not present at Dunkirk. Perhaps he signed on with the yeomanry and was then transferred to Royal Armoured Corps when it became clear that tanks were of more use than horses when facing the Germans.

The final reference to John before his death comes in December 1940 where he is again listed among former pupils serving in the armed forces, but unusually there is no regiment alongside the name. It says that he visited the school in the autumn term, which must have been in a period of leave from the training camp on Arran.

John's death is recorded very briefly in 1941, with the simple comment that he had been killed in Crete. I assume that it took some time for the true details to emerge. He was the ninth former pupil to die (some in action, some by accident) and the magazine commented that the war had been going on for two years now, with no end in sight. There is a sense that they were trying to carry on as normal, because it was too painful to dwell on those who had fallen. In the following years another 41 names would be added to the memorial.

Many thanks for your swift response Nick. We will keep looking. We have school photos from the time, but unfortunately not named. He'll be in there somewhere, but one of nearly a hundred. Hopefully we can find relatives still living locally.

Good morning. Does anyone have information about lcpl John Lang? He was a former student of Brigg Grammar school (now Sir John Nelthorpe school) in Brigg, Lincs.
While at school he lived with his grandparents, and regularly played table tennis in a room above the pub owned by a classmate. I have read Ian McHarg's 'Litani River' which refers to his death in 1941, and Ian was kind enough to share his source as being the book written by Geoffrey Keyes' sister.
The school would like to create a permanent display about John Lang and other WW2 casualties in time for the VE Day anniversary next year. If anyone can add to his story, especially if there is a picture, we would be extremely grateful.
Many thanks.