A view of Fowey harbour in May 2020 Several readers of my first novel “No Small Stir” have made the comment to me: “I can just imagine spies operating in Cornwall. It all fits the place so well.” Spies operating in Cornwall is not something I have made up. While Johann and his particular antics are creations of my imagination, there were a number of wartime spies who were arrested in Cornwall. None were particularly successful, perhaps due in part to the vigilance of people l

Bodmin A30 23 Jan 1945 snow As I write this in early January a Met Office weather warning for snow and ice is in place. The local news outlet Cornwall Live has posted an article claiming snow has fallen this afternoon across large parts of the county including the town where I live. Having been out and about both this afternoon and this evening I can assure you my town saw no snow! They also posted this submitted image claiming it to be taken in the moorland village of Minion

Scarne Camp, Launceston, in 1947 The World War Two generation are fast disappearing from amongst us. The vast majority of those who remain were children during the war and when I speak to them about wartime Christmases then one year in particular stands out – 1943. The reason: that was the year many of them remember being treated to a party by the American troops stationed in Cornwall prior to D-Day six months later. They have memories of food they hadn’t seen for years like

The Helford River SOE base and anchorage Necessity is the mother of invention or so the saying goes. It was certainly true that there were enormous advancements and developments in the scientific and technological realms during the Second World War in everything from medicines, radar and sonar, wireless communication, aircraft, ship and military vehicle design, life-saving gadgets right up to the harnessing of fission and fusion to make the atomic bombs. Thus it is exciting t

This month I would like to highlight two recent developments that show Cornwall continues to remember those who served during the Second...

Major Digby Tatham-Warter refuses to take the German surrender at Arnhem Bridge September 1944 The month of September sees a raft of...

Trelawney Place Hayle VJ Street Party Japanese surrender party on USS Missouri This month sees the commemoration of the 80 th...

One of the amazing and intriguing men of World War Two that I had the privilege to meet through my father’s work as a Christian...

Sisters Susan and Sally look at photos of their mother and her school evacuated to Gorran Haven One of the highlights for me of the...

Beryl Then and Now Many of us are familiar with the impact World War Two made on some of the major cities of our land whether that be...

AES Perranporth seen in 1959 One of the short passages in my second novel ‘A Place And A Name’ that arouses much curiosity is the brief...

Falmouth Inner Harbour 1937 On Saturday 22nd February 1941 as the streets were full of afternoon shoppers Falmouth suffered an air raid...

Lanhydrock House wedding Cecil George Archer and Evelyn Doreen Lytton 9 Sept 1942 It has long been said that February with its...

An ATS girl shares a New Year toast with a soldier I don’t know how 2024 treated you and whether you’ll look back on the year with fond...

The Penzance Wherrytown bus to St Ives taken in the autumn of 1943 by Staff Sergeant Robert Astrella of 7th Photographic Reconnaissance...

When the threat of war was looming large in 1938 the Air Ministry decided it needed an airfield in the strategically important Cornish...

The Jews have had a long-standing connection with Cornwall. Many came in the 18th century arriving in ports like Fowey and Falmouth. In...

Summer has ended, and while harvest is not yet passed, as the rain pours down outside it is perhaps time to reflect on a summer of...

Wednesday 10th July 1940 was a beautiful summer’s day. At Falmouth Cemetery mourners and civic officials had gathered for the funeral of...

July 2024 While many people who know something about World War Two could tell you that ‘The Blitz’ started on Saturday 7th September 1940...