Messages posted by: NIC

Hi Bill,
May I suggest you try one of the groups on Facebook?

There are a few that Flicka or someone who knows of him may be members of...

https://www.facebook.com/groups/6030683278/

https://www.facebook.com/RMAOPS/

https://www.facebook.com/BootneckDITS/?eid=ARBpBout7bUhEaROivlTcRkK028o_bSUXT30l0HuFyetz3lujDO_CkN7jNQFts9wxyDgQbHF9ZsonXJG" target="_new" rel="nofollow"> https://www.facebook.com/BootneckDITS/?eid=ARBpBout7bUhEaROivlTcRkK028o_bSUXT30l0HuFyetz3lujDO_CkN7jNQFts9wxyDgQbHF9ZsonXJG

Good luck,

Nick

This has been a fascinating thread not least because, having tracked down Gordon Leven - the nephew of John Lang - he revealed he has an older brother, who has photos and documents of John Lang...
The older brother, John Leven, then got in touch and told us there was a younger sister too...

Dave Waite's initial query on the forum and my searches and findings have reignited an interest in John Lang for his nephews and niece.

We now have photos of John - one when he was at school and another of him, in civvies walking with his aunt in Bridlington, when he was probably on leave from the Army...

In turn, I have hunted down a photo of John Lang's grave in Sidon War Cemetery in The Lebanese Republic .

Dave Waite now has information and images which should him to identify John Lang on some of the many team photos the school has, and for the School to add John Lang to the exhibition to commemorate its alumni who fell during the War

Thanks to everyone involved in this one...

Nick

Hi Jo,

Good news! I've just been contacted by Karen Eldridge who can put you in contact with Leonard's sister!

I've sent her email to you by PM.

In the meantime she has identified Leonard on a couple of photos in our Gallery...

http://gallery.commandoveterans.org/cdoGallery/v/units/2/2+Troop/CNV00005.jpg.html

Leonard is on this and an almost identical group photo of 2 Troop, No.2 Cdo.
I have enlarged him for you as separate files - attached...

Nick

Hi Dave,

I have more news - Gordon actually has an older brother, John Leven, who has all the information on John Lang...
I sent Gordon all the info you sent and he is delighted and has passed it on to his brother...

Getting exciting now...

Nick

Hi Dave,

Thank you for sharing your information with us...

I do have some good news - I have made contact with John Lang's nephew - Gordon, the son of Elizabeth (Ella) Leven...
He tells me that he has a fair bit of information regarding his late uncle and seems happy to share it with us.

May I share what you have told us with him?
Do you want me to pass your email address to him?

Nick

Hi Dave,

A newspaper clipping for you

Nick

Hi Guy,

Thanks for that information which ties in with what I've been given.

Many thanks,

Nick

Dave,

Things have progressed - the members of the Mount Kembla group have been very helpful and I have found out that John Lang has a nephew living in Australia.
I am in the process of trying to contact him - but I doubt if he has anything to add...
However, I was clutching at straws when I contacted the Mt Kemble group and they gave me enough to build a family tree and a timeline - hope it is of use to you...

Nick

Hi Dave,

Working on the information on John Lang's CWGC record, I have made contact with a historical group in Mount Kembla, New South Wales to see if I could get any info on John's father & stepmother...

We've been able to find that James and Charlotte Lang were living in Kembla from 1939 as they appear in that year's electoral roll as living on 20 Cordeaux Road Mt Kembla, James is listed as a shiftman, They are absent on the 1936 electoral roll. In the 1944 Electoral roll they are living at 22 James Street Mt Kembla. James however dies at his home by July 1944 (parents listed as John and Jean Lang in NSW Births Deaths and Marriages index), leaving his second wife Charlotte and a daughter behind. The newspaper lists him as a deputy at Mt Kembla Mine.
Charlotte Douglas Lang died 1969, in Parramatta, her parents listed as John and Mary. I had no luck finding a birth record for Charlotte or marriage record for Charlotte and John on NSW BDM index.

Nick

Hi Dave,
Do you have any information regarding John's parents, James and Mary Watt Stirling Lang?
Or his stepmother?
Or why he was living with his grandparents?

Nick

Hi Dave,

Welcome to the Website & Forums and thank you for contacting us.
We have very little on L/Cpl John Lang other than his full service number and parent regiment - which I suspect you already know if you've been in contact with Ian McHarg.
Unfortunately, we don't have any photos of John Lang that we know of - there are photos in the No.11 Cdo Album in the Gallery of commandos whom we haven't been able to name/identify...

The only thing I can offer is a link to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website and their record of John Lang - I do like the inscription on his gravestone...

https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2188461/lang,-john/

I applaud Sir John Nelthorpe School intentions of creating a permanent display to commemorate John Lang and all the other alumni who fell in WWII - thank you.

May I also ask, if you do manage to find a photo of L/Cpl John Lang, would we be able to have a copy so we upload it to our unique Gallery where he can be remembered among his colleagues, brothers-in arms and friends...

Nick

Hi Graham,
I'm grasping at straws here but the only thing I can think of is that WO Douglas Johnson was taken ill on the journey to or from India and was taken into Alexandra where he died in hospital...
Certainly reinforcements were still being sent out at the time - reinforcements from the UK arrived on 22 April.
Some of the wounded were sent back, depending on their injuries, as they would recover better in the UK!
Plus the Age Group demob parties were being sent back.
WO Johnson was 40 when he died so there is the possibility that he was sailing home to be demobbed and died from some pernicious disease...

Nick

Hi Spook,

The 'dagger insignia' on the front of the helmet is certainly not of that period - The colours are wrong and the design of the fighting knife is wrong and is often seen on reproduction patches...

On 2nd November 1944, Major General Sturges, GOC SS Group made a request that Commandos were allowed to wear a distinctive formation patch that was unique to The Commandos as more and more soldiers, sailors and airmen were qualified to wear the Combined Ops patch.

The suggested design was the Commando Dagger (Commando Qualification badge). General Sturges emphasised that there was no desire to change the colour of the patch of Red on Blue.
The application was approved...

Attached is the actual design that was submitted and is now filed in the War Diaries in The National Archives at Kew.

Nick

The RM used after the name usually indicates that the person was an officer in the Royal Marine.
One person has added 'ex 48th' - presumably he was in 48 RM Commando...
48 RM Cdo was disbanded in January 1946
The banknote is signed and dated by at least three people (Crawford, Elizabeth & Natt ?) on 3rd April 1946 so after the War had ended
I can only presume the Elizabeth & Heidi were locally employed office workers/interpreters or similar...

The Reichsmark continued as the currency in Germany until June 1948

Nick

Cat,
I knew, from the start, you'd get hooked... :D

Nick