Brave Crew Remembered

Posted by Digital Editor on November 30, 2007 9:00 AM

INSPIRATION continues to flow from a courageous Southport crew’s role in a Victorian lifeboat tragedy.
A chapter in a new book is devoted to the 1886 Mexico Disaster, when 13 men on the resort’s Eliza Fernley vessel perished in a brave rescue bid off Ainsdale beach.

A painting of the memorial to the Eliza Fernley’s crew in Duke Street Cemetery, by Philip Berrill

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Their Royal Happiness

Posted by Digital Editor on November 23, 2007 9:02 AM

WITH Marshside residents of all ages thronging her route, the Rose Queen in this 1940s photograph must have felt like true royalty.
Her name was Muriel Ball, and she was queen of the village’s annual summertime parade in 1945 or 1946.
One of the three taller girls in Muriel’s train was Norma Clarkson, who was aged 10 or 11 and attended Churchtown school.
Now, aged 71, she has supplied this old photograph to LookBack.
Norma remembers that the Rose Queen procession led to the field on Fylde Road, where Fleetwood Hesketh social club stands.
“We used to go on horse and cart after getting picked up from the Rose Queen’s house,” she said.
Although unsure as to who its organisers were, Norma believes it may have been Emmanuel Parish Church, on Cambridge Road, where she worshipped.
The two other older girls in Muriel’s train were Phyllis Parks and Sheila Mason, Norma’s fellow pupils at Churchtown School, which educated children aged seven to 15.
Norma’s cousin Sheila now lives in Hong Kong, and Norma still sees Phyllis in Southport “from time to time”.
But she has not kept in touch with Muriel, who lived a few doors down from her in a bungalow on Lytham Road, and was a teenager during her Rose Queen reign.
Married to Geoffrey and the mother of Paul and Lisa, Norma has stayed true to her Marshside roots and now lives in nearby Caton Close.
She worked at the Co-op store in Rufford Road, Crossens, and the factory making electrical components for Philips in Balmoral Drive.
And Norma said the Rose Queen festival was only one of a number of occasions when the Marshside community gathered together.
“We used to have walking days, when everyone got dressed up in costumes – people were in their Sunday best and boys and girls used to dress up as brides and grooms.
“We walked to Emmanuel Church and then around the village.”
Do you have memories of Marshside community events of yesteryear, such as its Rose Queen festival? If so, please share them below.

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Pitch battle as sick squad plays its heart out

Posted by Digital Editor on November 23, 2007 9:01 AM

MEMBERS of Norwood Road Juniors’ final year football team of 1957 have got in touch over the team photograph featured last month. (Oct 26).
Ian Grisdale lamented that the team’s triumph at Haig Avenue extended only to winning the Greenhall Cup – a third place trophy rather than the coveted Duddy Shield for the champions of the inter-schools contest.
“Half the lads were ill,” he said, explaining why the team of 11-year-olds had lost a crucial match.
Ian went from Norwood Road to KGV grammar and then had a career primarily in the motor trade, and he still lives in Southport.
Bob Burns was another team member who went on to KGV, followed by a career with British Telecom.
A long-time resident of Birkdale before moving to Scotland two years ago, Bob, now 61, lived in Salisbury Road in High Park as a schoolboy. He remembered that it was Paul Switzer who scored the only goal when Norwood Road beat Crossens 1-0 in the 1957 cup.
“We should have been 2-0 up by half time but Barry Campbell and John Cotton both had penalties saved by the Crossens goalkeeper,” he added.“We were never going to get any medals for it. We had to go around the team members’ families for money and send it off to get them!”.
The names of the full Norwood Road team are now known. Clockwise, starting with the back row, centre, is goalkeeper Norman Graney, Barry Johnson, Stuart Holmes, ‘Spud’ Robson, Ian Grisdale, Barry Campbell, Bobbie Burns, John Cotton, John Rigby, Tommy Wareing and Paul Switzer.

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Hunt to trace tragic airman

Posted by Digital Editor on November 23, 2007 9:00 AM

HISTORIANS are searching for details of a 1940s airman buried in Birkdale Cemetery.
Curators at Surrey’s Wings Museum want to track down the relatives or next of kin of Ernest Fleetwood Street Till, who served under the name of Pilot Officer EFS Travis.
PO Travis, 34, was killed in a tragic accident in June 1944 at Surrey’s Redhill Aerodrome, after he was hit when the guns of a Spitfire were fired in error.
The museum now plans to post a memorial plaque in his honour at the site and hope to include information about his life in the museum.
PO Travis listed Formby as his home and was also married to a Formby woman named Elizabeth Everard Travis.
If you can help, leave your message below and useful information will be passed to the Wings Museum.

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Memories of Remembrance

Posted by Digital Editor on November 16, 2007 9:01 AM

THE importance of Remembrance Sunday as a solemn, civic occasion is ingrained in Southport life.
Ever since the guns of the First World War fell silent at 11am on November 11, 1918, both those who fought and their families and descendants have paid tribute to all who made the supreme sacrifice in numerous conflicts.
And the Southport Visiter has always prided itself on our coverage of the commemorative services and parades held across the resort and its districts.

Local Sea Cadets take part in the parade

These photographs from the Visiter archives show both dignitaries and ordinary people paused in quiet reflection during ceremonies in Lord Street.
Among the shots from the 1990s are featured two highly respected and admired figures, both recently lost to Southport and their loved ones.
Cllr Terry Francis, who died in September after representing Kew ward for 20 years, is pictured standing at the wreath-laying ceremony at Lord Street Monument in November 1996, during his year as Mayor of Sefton.
Beside him is his wife, Valerie, who was Mayoress.

The late Terry Francis, Mayor of Sefton 1996-7, resplendent in mayoral chain and poppy

Captured wreath in hand in an image from the 1990s is the late Colonel George Appleton OBE, who lived in Shore Road and died last autumn aged 93.
Col Appleton was an active member of the local branch of the Normandy Veterans Association and had been the first member of the King’s Regiment to land in the D-Day operation of 1944.

The late Col George Appleton of Ainsdale lays a wreath at the Monument

Like Col Appleton, many of Southport’s veterans from the two world wars have now passed on.
It is interesting to see how the Visiter reported on Remembrance Day in 1964, when only two decades had passed since those D-Day landings.
Then, our reporter noted “the largest crowd for a number of years gathered at the Cenotaph in Lord Street”.
“It was pleasing to note that pedestrians and traffic, which could be seen along Lord Street, stopped and waited for the two minutes to be observed,” it was written.

Members of veterans groups gather in Southport Town Hall

That ceremony was attended by Southport’s then Conservative MP, Ian Percival, and in another ceremony in the resort the words of one local clergyman had a distinctly political tinge.
Rabbi Dr A.E. Silverstone, at the Remembrance Service of Southport’s Arnside Road Synagogue, said: “The standard of living in the world could increase perhaps tenfold, all poverty could be eliminated and starving millions could be adequately nourished if in all countries the money spent on weapons of destruction could be put to constructive purposes.”

A crowd gathers at the Lord Street Cenotaph in November 1964

Do you recognise yourself or anyone you know on these photos of past Remembrance Days? If so leave your memories below.

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Do you remember the day Vikings landed in Southport?

Posted by Digital Editor on November 16, 2007 9:00 AM

DO you remember seeing a Viking longboat tied up at the end of Southport pier?
David Hamer was a young boy when the re-enactment of a Viking landing took place in the late 1930s – and he now wants to know if anyone has any information on the event or its participants.
An alumnus of King George V School, Mr Hamer now lives in New Zealand and has a keen interest in all things to do with Southport’s historic Scandinavian visitors.
Our website, www.southportvisiter.co.uk, keeps Sandgrounders abroad up to speed with the news of their old hometown – and in Mr Hamer’s case, his relationship with the Visiter is longstanding.
His grandfather James B Sutton was works manager at the Southport Visiter in the years prior to, during and after World War Two, while father George Hamer also worked for the Visiter for many years as an electrotyper and stereotyper.
If you can help Mr Hamer in his quest to find out about the Viking landing, leave your comments below.

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A Southport Sailor Remembers

Posted by Digital Editor on November 9, 2007 9:00 AM

OLD and young alike will gather at Lord Street Monument on Sunday to pay their solemn respects to those who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country in war.

Among those paying tribute will be 83-year-old John Tomlinson who will lay the wreath on behalf of The Southport Party – of which he is a member.

He has vivid memories of a conflict that he first became involved in as a 16-year-old.
It was in 1941, living in Cleveleys Road, and educated at Churchtown School, that Mr Tomlinson signed up to Crossens Home Guard.
“We mainly guarded the sewerage works off the Coastal Road,” recalled Mr Tomlinson, who lives in Tithebarn Road with his wife, Beryl.

It was on turning 18 that Mr Tomlinson’s real wartime adventures began – earning him not only United Kingdom military medals but decoration from the French and Russian allies.
He joined the Royal Navy and was a gunner on the extremely hazardous Arctic convoys between Great Britain and the northern ports of the Soviet Union, which played a crucial role in supplying the wartime ally undergoing a German onslaught.

In September 1943, Mr Tomlinson took to the seas in HMS Ashanti, a Tribal-class destroyer with a crew of 200, which guarded the merchant ships sailing to Soviet ports.
The convoys were menaced by both German U-boats and battleship cruisers.

After Christmas 1943 was celebrated with a meal of corned beef and boiled potatoes, Boxing Day saw the famous Battle of North Cape in which the fearsome 31,500 tonne German battlecruiser Scharnhorst was sunk.

But the victory was not without losses, and Mr Tomlinson remembers with poignancy how he learned of the death of comrades in the firefight.
“The ship we pulled alongside in the Russian port of Murmansk, the Norfolk, was hit and a number killed.
“We were carrying their mail home for them, as we would be back first – that could have been the last letter some of the men would write.”

In May 1944, the crew of the Ashanti sprang to action stations when the enemy was picked up on radar a few miles off the French coast.
“We hit one of the enemy destroyers and running it aground we got in close and used the small ack ack guns to finish her off,” said Mr Tomlinson.
“We turned out to sea but with the commotion and doing 25 knots we collided with one of our sister ships – nearly cutting off the bows.
“After a quick count to see if anyone had gone overboard, we headed for home.
“The following night the Athabaskan (a fellow Tribal-class destroyer) was sunk by an E-Boat (a small, fast torpedo German boat) – they had to have their revenge.”

A bout of illness prevented Mr Tomlinson taking part in the D-Day operations on the beaches of Normandy in June, 1944.
“I developed yellow jaundice and finished up in The Promenade Hospital for five weeks,” he told LookBack.
“The Ashanti seemed to be in the thick of it.
“They sank another German destroyer and finished up with three casualties – and there was me laid in bed, nice and warm.”

After demobilisation, Mr Tomlinson married Beryl in 1948.
He took on the family painting and decorating business with his younger brother Walter, and has one son, Dennis, and a granddaughter, Sarah-Marie.
Mr Tomlinson will never forget his wartime experiences, and is an active member of Southport Royal Naval Association.
And is pleased that younger generations are still pausing to remember the sacrifices of their forebears.
He said: “Last year I was coming out of one of our Trafalgar nights at the Scarisbrick Hotel and four girls stopped me.
“They asked me about my medals and one said her granddad had been telling her about the war – the interest is still there.”

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John Tomlinson's War

Posted by Digital Editor on November 9, 2007 8:59 AM

I JOINED the navy in early 1943, my papers arrived telling me to report to HMS Ganges which was a shore base training centre in Ipswich.
I arrived at HMS Ganges in the late afternoon, allotted my barrack room which held about 50 men, all about the age of 18 to 20, they came from all over the country, Scottish, South, Midlands, North.

After settling in we began our training which seemed to be square bashing, learning knots and basic seamanship. This lasted weeks, after this we had a short leave then posted to our main depot Chatham, right down on the south coast miles from home.

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Colin's quest to trace King of the voice-throwers

Posted by Digital Editor on November 2, 2007 9:01 AM

A VENTRILOQUIST is on a quest to discover more about a wartime Southport showman who inspired him to learn his art.
Colin Spencer was among the crowds of servicemen’s children in the 1940s who witnessed the awesome verbal trickery of a man he knows only by the stage name ‘Rex King’.
For Colin, the son of an Army sergeant living in Bispham Road, the impact of Rex’s performances was life-changing.
“When I saw Rex King I decided I wanted to be a ventriloquist,” said Colin, who is now writing a book on the history of the phenomenon in 20th century Britain.
Two venues where Mr Spencer witnessed Rex in full flow were Cambridge Hall in Lord Street – now Southport Arts Centre – and St Simon’s & St Jude’s Church Hall in Park Road.

Cambridge Hall in Lord Street (now Southport Arts Centre), where Colin Spencer saw ‘Rex King’ perform during World War Two Postcard image by Tom Heath

“Rex did a military routine where he was an officer and the doll was a private,” remembered Colin, who attended St Simon’s & St Jude’s, Norwood Road and Meols Cop schools.
“He also used to do a trick where he cried water from the doll’s eyes, which used to spray all over people in the front row.
“It was great fun.”
Colin knew little about Rex – other than that during the day he was a transport inspector for Southport Corporation.

Colin’s self-made doll, Winston Dawg

“His stage name was a clever play on words, of course, with ‘rex’ being Latin for king,” he said.
One anecdote that did the rounds about Rex was that he was reprimanded by his employers after tricking passengers aboard his tram that it had knocked down a pedestrian. He lifted up the trapdoor in the downstairs deck and used his ventriloquism to make out he was having a conversation with an injured person – everyone was in shock,” said Colin.

Cambridge Hall in Lord Street (now Southport Arts Centre), where Colin Spencer saw ‘Rex King’ perform during World War Two Postcard image by Tom Heath

During those war years Colin himself cut his teeth as a performer, adding speaking without moving his lips alongside his repertoire of conjuring tricks.
Entertainment ran in the family – his mother Elsie had played piano accompaniment to the silent movies shown at the Tivoli Cinema (later the Queen’s) in Devonshire Road.
But the young Colin had not originally seemed a natural showman.
He said: “I was a small, shy boy, who wouldn’t talk to anybody. My mum took me to see the doctor who asked her what I was interested in. She said I was always messing around with bits of conjuring tricks.”
The result of that GP visit was that Colin was taken by his mother to Liverpool to be bought a box of tricks.
Things progressed from there – aged 11 he won a talent contest in Cambridge Hall and appeared in a 1944 edition of the Southport Visiter for his part in a charity show that raised £10 for military families.
At age 17 Colin left Southport for Wirral, pursuing a performing career that eventually led to appearances on the C4 soap Brookside and Carla Lane’s highly-successful BBC comedy Bread.

Ventriloquist Colin Spencer with his doll Sydney Watts – whose head was made by the great doll-maker Len Insull and was a 21st birthday gift to Colin from his parents

But he has since returned to the resort for shows at Southport Floral Hall with his wife Kate – his performances entertaining children there marking a full-circle from his own wartime experiences.
If you know anything about ‘Rex King’ or other local ventriloquists of the past century, call Colin Spencer on 01352-740519 or email cee.kay@virgin.net; or alternatively call LookBack on 01704- 398287 or email robert.alcock@southportvisiter.co.uk

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Do you know what happened to Scarisbricks?

Posted by Digital Editor on November 1, 2007 9:00 AM

Jack and Nellie Scarisbrick, from Southport, on their wedding day in the early 1940s

WHAT happened to the happy wartime couple in this old photograph?
The bride and groom were Jack and Nellie Scarisbrick, who came from Southport.
But since the early 1940s, this picture of their nuptials has been among the belongings of the late Gertrude Cross, of Shropshire.
The link is that Jack, a Royal Engineer, was billeted with Mrs Cross at her home in the village of Hook-a-Gate, near Shrewsbury, during the early years of the Second World War.
It was during those years, when Jack worked as a signalman on the old Potts railway line – which had been commandeered by the Army – that he tied the knot with Nellie.
Jean Duckett, Mrs Cross’s daughter, has faint memories of Jack and another soldier staying at her home when she was eight or nine years old.
“Nellie used to come and stay, and I remember Jack giving up his bed upstairs for her,” said Mrs Duckett, now aged 76.
“I remember he was a good pianist and was a church organist before being called up.”
Mrs Cross died in 1995 aged 91, and Mrs Duckett wants the original of this photograph to return to the Scarisbricks, or their family.
She believes Jack may have been among the men evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk in 1940 and said: “I just wondered if he had survived the war”.
Are you a relation of Jack and Nellie Scarisbrick? If so, call LookBack on 01704-398287 or email robert.alcock@southportvisiter.co.uk If you think you can help, you can also call Jean Duckett on 01743-247483.

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