Maureen Dunlop de Popp R.I.P.

Another incredible and unsung heroine has died. Maureen Dunlop de Popp was an aviatrix par excellence. During the Second World War she was one of a pioneering group of women who flew the latest fighter and bomber aircraft with the Air Transport Auxiliary. The Telegraph obituary notes:

"With all ATA pilots flying the same aircraft and facing the same risks, Sir Stafford Cripps arranged that the female pilots should receive equal pay with their male colleagues and this small group of women rightly considered themselves as pioneers of sex equality. Many, including Maureen Dunlop, wished that they could have flown in combat, but this was considered a step too far and was forbidden. 'I thought it was the only fair thing,' she remarked. 'Why should only men be killed?'

She was one of 164 female pilots and, during her 3 years with the ATA, she flew 38 different types of aircraft, among them the Spitfire, Mustang, Typhoon and the Wellington bomber."

The rest of the obituary may be found here.

There are and were so many unknown female flyers. Most people may have heard of Amelia Earhart. Some might have heard of Amy Johnson. I know my friend Emily's mother Carla. However, the only way interest in their lives might be engendered is if a major tv network created a smash hit series based on their lives. Any takers?

A New Year and Finally a New Post

First of all, a couple of obituaries I had meant to post:

It's only 50 or so years ago (ok, 56) since racial segregation was outlawed in American schools. Jefferson Thomas, who died last month, was one of the Little Rock Nine, the first black students to test the federal government's desire and ability to enforce the new law. The Telegraph reports

"Jefferson Allison Thomas, the youngest of seven children, was born on September 19 1942 in Little Rock. He was keen to attend Central High because he wanted a better education than the one available at the local all-black school, which had second-rate facilities and hand-me-down equipment. Central, by contrast, had science laboratories, modern textbooks and an impressive record of college placements."

There was a happy ending and there were some unhappy endings. Thomas was one of the three of the Nine that graduated from high school. However,

"Thomas said his role in the integration of Central High "destroyed the family base," and recalled that his father had been sacked from his sales job because of the controversy. Callers threatened Jefferson Thomas, friends cut him dead and strangers threw missiles at his house. Thomas senior scraped by as a handyman and, the day after his son's graduation, moved the family to California."

The rest of the article is here.

In contrast to the story of oppression and discrimination related above, I was struck by the story of Michael Burn, who also died last month. He started out as an admirer of the Nazis, and even got to meet Hitler. He became disenchanted after a visit to the KZ at Dachau. In 1942, he was captured during a mission to prevent the biggest German battleship - the Tirpitz - from leaving port. Originally held prisoner in a concentration camp, he was moved to Colditz, where he received Red Cross parcels from Ella van Heemstra, better known as the mother of Audrey Hepburn. After liberation he received a Military Cross. The Telegraph notes:

"(After the war) he helped save Audrey Hepburn's life, by sending food parcels to her in occupied Holland where she was critically ill in hospital, and where she and her mother were subsisting on tulip bulbs. Burn also sent them hundreds of cartons of cigarettes, which commanded high prices on the black market. The money raised from their sale bought Audrey Hepburn supplies of the new drug penicillin, which were crucial in her recovery from an infection brought on by malnutrition."

What else can I tell you? He wrote a novel and a play and poetry as well as ghost-writing books and working as a newspaper reporter. He got a degree in Social Sciences from Oxford University. He ran a mussel-farming co-operative in North Wales. He hung out with the Cambridge spies. He spent the last years of his life living on the Portmeirion estate. And there is so much more ... read it here. Certainly a very full life, but also interesting to me because of the way he changed over time, especially politically. It is possible.

Colonel Mike Osborn RIP

On the other hand, I usually complain about the unusually large amount of obituaries of World War Two veterans. The following, however, caught my eye. Mike Osborn witnessed the capture and death of the evil Heinrich Himmler:

"Osborn's counterpart in Intelligence, Lt-Col "Spud" Murphy, insisted that Himmler remove his SS uniform. The man refused to wear battledress on the ground that it was enemy uniform, so he was stripped, wrapped in an Army blanket and bundled into Osborn's staff car.

Osborn drove to Army HQ as Murphy, with a drawn revolver, rode in the back with their prisoner. On arrival Himmler was escorted to a room where a doctor was waiting to carry out a preliminary examination to check that he was not carrying any poison.

As Osborn left the room to telephone the Army commander, he heard a shout and the sound of a scuffle. On coming back in he saw Himmler writhing stark naked on the floor, foaming at the mouth. He had concealed a small phial of poison under his tongue."

He also was one of the first to discover the Bergen Belsen concentration camp, he landed in Normandy on D-Day plus 1, he was in Tobruk ... the man seems to have been everywhere!

Read about him here.

Susan Hibbert RIP

A lot of the time obituaries celebrate the lives of people who are well-known for their contributions to society and/or their personalities. Sometimes, however, we get the chance to look at someone who was quite ordinary, but was witness to something extraordinary. Susan Hibbert, who died earlier this month, is thought to be the last British witness to the signing of the German surrender in May 1945. She was also responsible for typing up the document, and sending the signal to the War Office in London.

"Susan Heald(her maiden name) and others left inside celebrated quietly. "We had some champagne but we didn't have any glasses so we had to drink it out of army mess tins. We passed the tins around and had a few sips.""

A more complete description of the event is here.

the soldier bear

'voytek', a bear that was adopted in the middle east by polish troops in 1943, has had a campaign launched in scotland to put up a permanent memorial to his life and work says the bbc:

"He was found wandering in the hills of Iran by Polish soldiers in 1943. They adopted him and as he grew he was trained to carry heavy mortar rounds. When Polish forces were deployed to Europe the only way to take the bear with them was to "enlist" him. So he was given a name, rank and number and took part in the Italian campaign. He saw action at Monte Cassino before being billeted - along with about 3,000 other Polish troops - at the army camp in the Scottish Borders. The soldiers who were stationed with him say that he was easy to get along with. "He was just like a dog - nobody was scared of him," said Polish veteran Augustyn Karolewski, who still lives near the site of the camp. "He liked a cigarette, he liked a bottle of beer - he drank a bottle of beer like any man." When the troops were demobilised, Voytek spent his last days at Edinburgh Zoo."

more details in an article from the daily mail here.