RM44 Arthur DOOLEY EX4045, killed at Achnacarry

Thanks, Nick! I was hoping it was something wonderful but assuming it probably wasn't!!

Went to the cemetery with my daughter today and found Eric's grave. Was pleasantly surprised to find that his mother and father are buried with him. After I'd removed a massive weed from it I thought it would be nice to show the entire grave seeing as my picture earlier in this post shows Eric with his parents.

What a great photo!

I'm slightly envious that you live close enough to visit family graves though - I'm 14,000km away! Was your daughter interested in the story of Eric?

Arthur is buried with his sister, baby niece and father, and a few metres away from his mother. He has a CWGC headstone but the others don't have headstones at all, so we're organising them now.

Have you been to Achnacarry? I really enjoyed walking around the area (not the estate, unfortunately) and Fort William. Have you thought about putting a memorial at Spean Bridge? There are hundreds of plaques there, and it seems to be 'the' place to commemorate Commandos. I took some photos if you'd like to see them. I definitely want to get something special made for Arthur and leave it there when I visit next. This site has the preferred memorial 'standards' up somewhere (ie measurements, materials etc).

Thanks Annie! :)

My daughter has been hearing snippets of the story as its unfolded and I've shown her the photos etc. I guess I'm lucky for the most part that my family didn't move too far out of the area, and those that did looking for work came back again. I've not been Achnacarry or Spean. This is all new learning to me. Maybe one day. It's possible my Uncle may as he has a great interest in the wars and has been around the trenches in Normandy etc. I'm sure a trip to Scotland with his caravan would be a great adventure. I've only been to Scotland once back in the 90's, went to a place near Aberdeen. Would love to see your photos of Spean! :)

My grandmother (Arthur's sister) had a postcard of this memorial on her mantelpiece for as long as my dad can remember.
The 'Tribute Garden' is in the background on the right.

Reading the memorials in the tribute area.

Memorials from families and friends.

I made a small memorial for Arthur before leaving home without knowing there was an area like this to leave it, so it was a lovely surprise to find a nice home for it.
I visited the Normandy beaches on D-Day earlier that month and took a similar one for Arthur's brother (he landed on Sword Beach with 45RM), and also left one on the battlefield where my great-grandfather died in 1918 (Givenchy, Lancs Fusiliers). I'll organise a proper one next time I visit.

Ah, they're fab pics!! :) I've just put everything thing I've found out so far into an email to my uncle. He's got someone lined up to get Eric's service record I think. Can't wait to see it! Didn't realise you'd be similar age group to me!! (I'm 43, so hope I've not offended you too much if you're much younger!! Only going off your photo! lol )

You didn't do too badly - you're only over by a decade :D
I sometimes get funny looks at genealogy events - I think they wonder where I left my grandma...

I'd be really interested to hear about Eric's service record when it arrives!

Kill me now!! Sorrrryyyyy! Lol.

Haha, not offended at all! After all, there aren't too many people in their 30s who do this stuff for fun :D

They say every family has its historian, yours is you and I'm sharing the baton with my mum at the moment, but cherry picking the bits I'm interested in. She's more interested in going back as far as she can with good evidence etc. My mum is 72 and been using ancestry for best part of 10 years now. She's pretty good. My efforts have been more about using web searches and forums, so I'm well chuffed to have found you and your post in this instance. :)

I'm the historian for my two maternal lines (dad's mum and mum's mum).
Unfortunately you have to cherry-pick a couple of lines if you want to make any progress in any great depth. Luckily other family members are interested in some of the paternal lines.

I'm personally more interested in the recent history (early to mid 1800s is usually about where I'm comfortable stopping) where there's more detail to be found and I can get a good feel for people's lives.
I'd rather go 'wide' and find out about houses, clubs, schooling, occupations, step families, in-laws, friends etc. than try to go back as far as I can. I do try to get a solid line, but the trail gets messy unless the family was particularly prominent, and I'd rather have proven links than 'maybes'. I admire your mum's tenacity going backwards and making sure she has good evidence - it's difficult!

I'm also very interested in anyone in the family who didn't have descendants, which is one of the reasons Arthur is important to me.
I use Ancestry and FindMyPast from here, but there's nothing like going into the local archives and getting access to stuff that hasn't been digitised. I should also post in more forums as you never know who's reading...

You never know indeed! Certainly a stroke of luck from my point of view!

So how do you document your findings and who will you pass it on to so it doesn't get lost again? I guess having a public tree on ancestry is one way. Been very useful in some of my mums research and in turn she's helped others. But then she's also found that some have taken her research and presented it wrongly or put it in a private tree, such as photos etc. The titles of the images are public but the pics can't be viewed but it was my mum who scanned them in from our family photos and published them. Some people take her work and won't even respond to a message mum sends for areas they are researching. Very rude in my opinion.

Annie have you seen this? All documents downloadable.

http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2411640/DOOLEY,%20ARTHUR

To be honest I don't have much up online, because I want to get things right, and you need to have a lot of evidence to prove that ancestors are who they seem to be.
Also, because I am mostly focused on more recent history, I'd rather not put things online of family members who have living descendants within a generation, because I don't think it's appropriate without their support.

Even for Arthur, I asked quite a few family members if they minded me discussing him online. Even though none of them knew him, they are the children of his brothers and sisters, so I gave them the opportunity to weigh in on that decision. Luckily, the family who got back to me were happy for me to share his story with the hope that we could collect more information and develop a greater insight into his life, in addition to sharing with others and honouring his memory.

I've seen the site you sent before, but I don't remember seeing those downloads, so thank you for that!
If you give me a couple of weeks, I'll hunt down my research on the battalion war diaries from the National Archives a couple of years ago, and pull out what I can regarding their time at Achnacarry. Please remind me though! I'm on holidays soon, so will be able to get to it then.

Totally get what your saying about living memory etc. Only my dads generation survive now so asking about former family members is difficult to get a good understanding of their lives. Certainly from my own point of view, if someone was researching me in a 100 years time, there wouldn't be much to find as I've led a pretty unremarkable life. My cousin however has done several great things like writing for National Geopgraphic etc so has a great online presence. Will remind you about the diaries if I remember! Lol.