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November 2025
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
Phil Hadley
5 days ago8 min read
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October 2025
This month I would like to highlight two recent developments that show Cornwall continues to remember those who served during the Second...
Phil Hadley
Oct 25 min read
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September 2025
Major Digby Tatham-Warter refuses to take the German surrender at Arnhem Bridge September 1944 The month of September sees a raft of...
Phil Hadley
Sep 210 min read
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August 2025
Trelawney Place Hayle VJ Street Party Japanese surrender party on USS Missouri This month sees the commemoration of the 80 th...
Phil Hadley
Aug 57 min read
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July 2025
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...
Phil Hadley
Jul 15 min read
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June 2025
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...
Phil Hadley
Jun 24 min read
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May 2025
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...
Phil Hadley
May 145 min read
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April 2025
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...
Phil Hadley
Apr 24 min read
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March 2025
Falmouth Inner Harbour 1937 On Saturday 22nd February 1941 as the streets were full of afternoon shoppers Falmouth suffered an air raid...
Phil Hadley
Mar 25 min read
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February 2025
Lanhydrock House wedding Cecil George Archer and Evelyn Doreen Lytton 9 Sept 1942 It has long been said that February with its...
Phil Hadley
Feb 412 min read
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January 2025
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...
Phil Hadley
Jan 311 min read
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December 2024
The Penzance Wherrytown bus to St Ives taken in the autumn of 1943 by Staff Sergeant Robert Astrella of 7th Photographic Reconnaissance...
Phil Hadley
Dec 2, 20247 min read
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November 2024
When the threat of war was looming large in 1938 the Air Ministry decided it needed an airfield in the strategically important Cornish...
Phil Hadley
Nov 2, 20249 min read
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October 2024
The Jews have had a long-standing connection with Cornwall. Many came in the 18th century arriving in ports like Fowey and Falmouth. In...
Phil Hadley
Oct 2, 20248 min read
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Summer is Ended
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...
Phil Hadley
Sep 6, 20244 min read
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The Blitz Before The Blitz Part Two
Wednesday 10th July 1940 was a beautiful summer’s day. At Falmouth Cemetery mourners and civic officials had gathered for the funeral of...
Phil Hadley
Aug 1, 202411 min read
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The Blitz Before The Blitz!
July 2024 While many people who know something about World War Two could tell you that ‘The Blitz’ started on Saturday 7th September 1940...
Phil Hadley
Jul 3, 202412 min read
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June 2024
D-Day was coming. The invasion would be soon. Everyone knew that, even the Germans, but no one knew when or where. In Cornwall the signs...
Phil Hadley
Jun 7, 20247 min read
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May 2024
Many with an awareness of the events of D-Day 1944 have a knowledge of the movement of the soldiers from their camps, through marshalling...
Phil Hadley
May 3, 20249 min read
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April 2024
It’s April already. Easter has been and gone. British Summer Time has started even if the summer weather hasn’t. D-Day 80 in June will...
Phil Hadley
Apr 1, 20245 min read
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