A full-time teacher who was one of the first responders to the fatal stabbing of a teenage boy in Stretford earlier this year in her voluntary capacity as a Special Sergeant has described witnessing the trauma of the incident - urging kids to 'look out for each other' to stamp out youth violence.

  

Temporary Special Sergeant Lauren Whitworth dedicated more than 500 hours of her time to the streets of Trafford last year alongside her full-time role as a maths teacher of 12 years in the borough.

  

The 33-year-old's hybrid insight has enabled her to grasp a real enthusiasm for working with teenagers, and an appetite for educating them in and outside the classroom to give them a different perspective on the real world and in policing.

 

On the evening of Saturday 22 January - more than two years into her role with us as a Special - Sgt Whitworth was with a PC colleague when they received the report shortly before 7pm that a teenage boy had been seriously stabbed in the street.

  

Tragically, the life of 16-year-old Kennie Carter couldn’t be saved despite the best efforts of Sgt Whitworth and all those from police and NWAS who rushed quickly to the scene on Thirlmere Avenue.

  

Lauren reflects on the devastating events of that night and the impact of seeing a teenage boy's life end in front of her: "When we got to the scene there was a member of the public already trying to assist Kennie, and then my colleague and I brought out the first aid bag and tried to help him before the paramedics arrived.

  

"At that time you have a job to do and you're in business mode - everything happened so fast. But afterwards it did affect me, particularly the fact that a mother had lost her son.

  

"The saddest thing for me was the fact that Kennie didn't lose his life; it was taken from him. It made me wonder 'how many more boys' are going to have to have their lives needlessly taken from them and their loved ones."

  

Colleagues and leaders from both our Trafford district and Lauren's school offered all possible support to her in the following days, after an incident that she describes as 'traumatising to everyone who was there'.

  

Despite the tears and upset that Sgt Whitworth felt over that weekend before she swapped the station for the classroom the following Monday morning, Lauren describes how the traumatic shift from that weekend only 'fuelled her passion' and 'enhanced her drive' in working with young people.

  

Born- and-bred in Trafford, her versatility as a teacher and a police officer has helped form not just an understanding, but also a level of empathy with teenagers about their experiences on the street and how it can shape certain behaviours in the classroom.

  

She explains: "Before I joined the police I didn’t have my eyes open to what some kids were experiencing outside of school, but over the last two-and-a-half years I've gradually realised this and have noticed that I've become a lot more patient and understanding of them.

  

"What's concerning is that there does seem to be such a fine line at a young age between whether one child becomes a victim, or if they run the risk of becoming an offender - this is the danger of going out with the wrong crowd or, in some cases, even resorting to carrying a weapon on the streets. Kids have to look out for each other.

  

"Having myself in the classroom as someone the kids look up to as a teacher - but also having the insight of a police officer - it means my students are able to ask me things and are interested in what I do.

  

"And there are some children who may not show an interest and who say I'm a 'grass' or a 'fed' but when I explain what it is that the police actually do and how important it is to speak to the police, then they do start to see it differently. It helps give a 'face' to the police, I think."

  

Her unique dual-responsibility is one that she believes makes her 'best-placed to make a difference'.

  

With no background in policing prior to her training to become a volunteer at GMP in 2019, Special Sgt Whitworth encourages anyone able to do so to think about the merits of dedicated some of their spare time to become of a police officer.

  

Greater Manchester Police always welcomes new recruits to join us and have a real impact in serving their communities by becoming a Special.

  

Information about how to do so can be found here on our website: Special constables | Greater Manchester Police (gmp.police.uk)

   

“Without WFP, these people would not eat - it’s such an achievement when someone is no longer hungry – you have saved one person in the middle of this conflict," says Dimanche, WFP Field Monitoring Assistant.

 

"Every day I go to the ‘protection of civilians’ camp – home to 22,000 South Sudanese people sheltering under the protection of UN Peacekeepers.

 

"It is my job to check the food is reaching everyone, especially the older members of the camp who struggle to go and pick up their own rations.

 

"I also check how they are – many of the women I speak to are traumatised by the things that have happened to them. I just listen and try to provide guidance. They trust me and this puts me in a position to help them with what they have been through.

 

"We need the conflict to end. We need to feel safe and we need to build a generation of women that are educated – because once that happens, they will no longer be vulnerable.

 

"It is a difficult place to work. You need to be tough. Much of my work is done in high-risk areas and you see things that are not easy to see. In the beginning, many people at the camp didn’t trust me, some even became violent. I’ve been physically attacked in the past.

 

"But you have to empathise – these people are traumatised. Their mistrust comes from a place of fear. You have to put yourself in their shoes.

 

"I was born during the Sudan war and lived in a refugee camp in Uganda. I got assistance from WFP as I was growing up and I thought ‘one day I want to do this work. I want to help people the way I have been helped.’

 

"These are my own people – they are like me. I want to be here for them and I feel blessed that I am now in a position to help.”

 

Dimanche is one of many WFP staff members working to respond to the food needs of those caught up in the South Sudan conflict. There are nearly 30,000 South Sudanese civilians sheltering in UN peacekeeping camps in the capital of Juba.

 

With the support of UK aid, the World Food Programme and its partners currently provide food for those that are displaced by the conflict, offering rations of oil, sorghum, pulses, flour, salt and other necessities for those that are unable to return home.

 

Copyright: WFP/ Alexandra Murdoch

This is a funny secret because it shouldn't really be a secret, but because it's not the first time that I've been through this, and the first time felt like a car crash, it feels like it should be.

 

Cryptic? I will explain. I am loving being a Mummy to Cyrus, it rocks, and I want to freeze time and savour these moments as they pass too fast! Even the 4-6am night parties are cool as are the 5 day poos and the all day cluster feeds. He smiles and coos and my heart skips a beat.

 

However, I feel slightly guilty for feeling like this because everything was so different with Violetta, she was hard hard hard. I feel as if I am betraying her if I say this out loud but I LOVE MY NEWBORN SON! And I can't believe we nearly didn't do it, I was so traumatised by V's first 6 months [she was adbucted by aliens at 6 months and they returned an identical baby with less attitude] that I was prepared to stop at that. Having said that two is enough, one for each hand will do me nicely thank you.

 

Another image which was a lot better in my head! haha.

Found this purple guy at an op shop today. I know that being cast out can traumatise a bear but I'm sure the others here will help him settle in. Seems to be I'm bear collecting at the moment...

“All we need is a safe place to stay.”

 

Zara* was fortunate not to be at her home, located in Mar Mikhael, at the time of Beirut’s explosion. At that moment, all she could think about was her family members. They were terrified to see people trapped in the rubble, bleeding and traumatised on the streets.

 

Zara’s house was ruined by the blast leaving only one room relatively in tact and with a roof to sleep in. Other parts of the roof are still falling.

 

Zara and her family have been traumatised by the explosions and are terrified by the possibility of theft and crime.

 

“Our government is inattentive to our needs. We deeply thank international governments and people abroad for their solidarity and for taking the initiative to provide our most urgent needs,” she says.

 

© Photos - Caritas Lebanon

*Name changed to protect identity

The way it was between him and me was young, hot, loving, and violent. We were kids with traumatic pasts and we were lonely. We met on a bus-ride home from a concert, Bon Jovi and Cinderella if you can believe it. lol yeah, he told me later he went to meet girls, saw me, and had to figure a way to get me back to his place.

 

Yeah, that was a draw, 17 and his own apartment. He was lucky because as we headed back into Oshawa, I realised the city buses had stopped running and I had lent my girlfriend the last of my money so she could buy a shirt. How was I going to get home? My friend had gotten off a stop earlier.

 

I heard him trying to get his friends to come over and knew I'd found a place to spend the night. As soon as I accepted his friends backed out. Our three year common law marriage started.

 

Things are complicated but we eventually started hitting eachother. I'd been hit before so I wasn't overly traumatised by it even though we fought like it mattered every single time.

 

When I was taking these photos for fspasg campaign to end violence a lot of the feelings I had experienced back then came back. As often happens with acting there comes a point where it's so near real to call it fake is a lie and I remembered something.

 

Even when we fought I wanted to look pretty and fuckable. So, say he'd hit me, and I'd take a few steps back and trip over something and fall on my ass... I'd keep my legs parted and watch him look at me. Or say he pinned me against a wall, I'd part my lips and arch my back. Or that time I threw The Wall video at his head, and it smashed against the wall (haha) and he turned to me in a fuming rage and I put "fuck me" into my eyes.

 

what was that all about? I know what alot of it was about, but why was one of my top-most concerns how pretty I looked while he hit me?

 

amazing. I already knew what I was good for... I would never have put it that way. I never officially thought it was my role to fuck him. I was strong, smart and stubborn. when he asked for anal and I said "you first" and he laughed and that was that.

 

and yet, I knew, because I was his girlfriend he got to fuck me... like that time when I had ...

 

oh, nevermind

<3

For twenty five years Nyoman's mother kept her daughter in a dark and filthy room. This after an incident of a young man grabbing her daughter by her hair. Nyoman continued to mention the name of the young man and when the mother decided to bring Nyoman to the young man's house, he did not exist. When we asked the mother to clean up the filthy room she said " It's normal." ©Ingetje Tadros/Diimex www.ingetjetadros.com

A glimmer of hope... for all stray dogs in Poland!

 

Quite possibly you know that I have adopted three stray dogs, the last one, Chester, one year ago.

He was a badly traumatised problem dog, in poor health, aggressive against the other dogs...a whole year I tried to rehabilitate him... without success... I decided to look for another optimal home... and was helped by the Dobermann-Nothilfe e.V... they wanted him to have a checkup once again... the vet diagnosed a broken tooth, nerve bruises, three bullets in his body... a watch dog, bitten through his chain... now there is a glimmer of hope that he can stay in my pack...

as a little thank-you I started a project on a social internet portal...

would be great if you could register with charitystar and vote for my project!

 

www.charitystar.com/projekte/687/Hoffnung-fuer-Strassenhu...

 

Only 5 minutes of your time can help... Thank you all!

  

German collector card by Bravo.

 

Muscular Dolph Lundgren (1957), with his square jaw and bold blue eyes, is a Swedish actor, director, martial artist, screenwriter, and producer. Since his breakthrough in Rocky IV (1985), he has starred in more than 40 action films.

 

Dolph Lundgren was born Hans Lundgren in 1957 in Stockholm to Sigrid Birgitta née Tjerneld, a language teacher, and Karl Johan Hugo Lundgren, an engineer and economist for the Swedish government. At age seven, he tried judo and Gōjū-ryū. He took up Kyokushin karate at the age of 10 and began training with weights as a teenager. Lundgren claims his father was physically abusive and took out his own personal frustrations on his wife and son. He has cited his troubled relationship with his father as the reason he developed a desire to participate in heavy contact sports such as boxing and karate. Despite an early interest in music and the fine arts, Dolph decided to follow in his father's footsteps and pursue an Engineering degree. After having completed his military service, he enrolled at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. He later received a degree in chemistry from Washington State University and a master's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Sydney in 1982. He holds the rank of 3rd dan black belt in Kyokushin karate and was European champion in 1980-1981. While in Sydney, he became a bodyguard for Jamaican singer Grace Jones and began a relationship with her. He received a Fulbright scholarship to MIT and moved to Boston. Jones convinced him to leave the University and move to New York City to be with her and begin acting. He changed his forename to Dolph. After a short stint as a model and bouncer at the Manhattan nightclub The Limelight, Grace Jones got him a small debut role as a KGB henchman in the James Bond film A View to a Kill (John Glen, 1985) starring Roger Moore in his final film as 007. Lundgren's breakthrough came when he starred in Rocky IV (Sylvester Stallone, 1985) as the imposing Soviet boxer Ivan Drago. Since then, he has starred in more than 80 films, including dozens of direct-to-video films in the action genre.

 

Dolph Lundgren received his first lead role as the mighty He-Man in Masters of the Universe (Gary Goddard, 1987), based on the popular children's toy line and cartoon. He next starred in Red Scorpion (Joseph Zito, 1989), opposite M. Emmet Walsh. He portrayed Marvel Comics character Frank Castle in The Punisher (Mark Goldblatt, 1989), opposite Louis Gossett, Jr. and Jeroen Krabbé. Over the years, the film developed a cult following with some who think it's the best adaptation of the comic and find Lundgren's performance solid as a ghostly and soul-depraved vigilante. Lundgren appeared in the Martial Arts action film Showdown in Little Tokyo (Mark L. Lester, 1991) opposite Brandon Lee as police officers investigating the yakuza. In 1992, Lundgren starred opposite Jean-Claude Van Damme in one of the biggest blockbusters of the year, the Sci-Fi action picture Universal Soldier (Roland Emmerich, 1992). Film critic Roger Ebert did not like the film: "It must be fairly thankless to play lunks who have to fight for the entire length of a movie while exchanging monosyllabic idiocies". In the early 1990s, he also appeared in films such as Dark Angel (Craig R. Baxley, 1990), Joshua Tree (Vic Armstrong, 1993), Johnny Mnemonic (Robert Longo, 1995), co-starring Keanu Reeves, and Blackjack (1998), by Hong Kong action legend John Woo. In 2004, he directed his first film, The Defender, and subsequently directed The Mechanik (2005), Missionary Man (2007), Command Performance (2009), and Icarus (2010), in which he also starred. After a long spell performing in direct-to-video films since 1995, Lundgren reunited with co-star Jean-Claude Van Damme for Universal Soldier: Regeneration (John Hyams, 2009). Lundgren returned to Hollywood with the role of Gunner Jensen in The Expendables (Sylvester Stallone, 2010), alongside Sylvester Stallone and an all-action star cast. He reprised his role in The Expendables 2 (Simon West, 2012) and The Expendables 3 (Patrick Hughes, 2014). Also in 2014, he co-starred in Skin Trade (Ekachai Uekrongtham, 2014), an action thriller with Tony Jaa and Ron Perlman about human trafficking. He filmed a cameo for the Coen brothers' comedy film Hail, Caesar! (2016), portraying a Soviet submarine captain. Lundgren played King Nereus in the popular action epic Aquaman (James Wan, 2018), starring Jason Momoa, and reprised his breakthrough role as Soviet boxer Ivan Drago in the eighth instalment in the Rocky franchise, Creed II (Steven Caple Jr., 2018). Lundgren also returned as Gunner Jensen in Expend4bles (Scott Waugh, 2023). In 1994, Lundgren married Anette Qviberg, a jewellery designer and fashion stylist in Marbella. They have two daughters: Ida Sigrid Lundgren and Greta Eveline Lundgren, both born in Stockholm. In early May 2009, Lundgren's Marbella home was reportedly broken into by three masked burglars who tied up and threatened his wife, but fled when they found a family photo and realised that the house was owned by Lundgren. His wife was traumatised, and they later divorced in 2011. Lundgren married Norwegian personal trainer Emma Krokdal, nearly 40 years his junior, in 2023.

 

Sources: Sylvie Pazoutova (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

For most of a decade Gede had been locked into a two meter long wooden stock on his right leg. After being realised his right leg muscles where so severely atrophied that he could no longer walk and his right foot became deformed due to his physical position. As a teenager Gede used to be an athlete. ©Ingetje Tadros/Diimex www.ingetjetadros.com

"Abide with us for it is toward evening and the day is far spent."

 

A glimpse of the stained glass in St Michael's Church, Doddiscombsleigh in Devon - much of the medieval glass still remains there - remarkably.

 

These stained glass shots are the last ones I was able to take before my poor little Fuji P&S upped and died on me in a spectacular New Year's Eve tantrum. Currently it awaits restoration and probably psychotherapy in order to be returned to me. In the meantime, I await news to find out if I am fit enough to be its owner. I've been told social services might have to be involved....but the camera is so traumatised they don't even think it is suitable for fostering. Ho hum......

 

Good job that:

 

a) I bought a cheap film camera for the evening sun and The Lost Gardens of Heligan...you and me both will have to tolerate the wait to see if anything useful can be retrieved from it.

and

b) a very, very lovely kind person intermittently loaned me their Nikon D70s for The Lost Gardens of

Heligan, an evening beach sunset, Padstow, & The Eden Project.......... * claps with delight!!!!*

 

Woo Hoo!!!! :D

 

Cave photography is tricky, since they will not let you bring in a tripod most of the time and flashes look terrible, so you're left with high ISO and balancing on a hand rail. This was hand-held.

 

Lot's Wife and the Cockatoo is the most famous formation in Wombeyan Caves (in the Wollondilly Cave). Wombeyan used to be lit to emphasise all the fantasy figures and names but some time in the last decade, they relit it to emphasise the natural forms and to illustrate the science. Which is all very good and intellectually wholesome, but much less interesting to those of us who are not geologists in training. The fantasy names of cave features are interesting historically and give the caves a grandure - by fitting the figures into a narrative we've got half a chance of remembering them.

 

We spent most of our holiday this time in caves. Caves are a great place to be in the Australian summer. Even Miss I'm-a-cynical-14-yr-old who hates family trips and is traumatised by boat rides, actually likes caves.

 

Excuse the spelling mistake - I copied it from the State Records of NSW photograph, assuming they'd know best...

The Postcard

 

A postcard published by the Medici Society Ltd. of London. The artwork was by Margaret W. Tarrant. The card was engraved and printed in Great Britain. The card was published in the United States by Hale, Cushman and Flint Inc. of Boston, Mass.

 

The card was posted in Leatherhead, Surrey on Wednesday the 22nd. October 1941 to:

 

Miss Susette Jaeger,

'Solar View',

Bookhurst Hill,

Cranleigh,

Surrey.

 

The message on the divided back was as follows:

 

"Many Happy Returns

of the day.

Love from Ronald".

 

The Odessa Massacre

 

So what else happened on the day that Ronald posted the card? Well, quite a lot, actually.

 

The 22nd. October 1941 marked the start of the Odessa massacre. The Odessa massacre was the mass murder of the Jewish population of Odessa and the surrounding towns during the autumn of 1941 and the winter of 1942 while it was under Romanian control.

 

At least 25,000 Jews were shot or burned by Romanian soldiers, Einsatzgruppe SS and local ethnic Germans.

 

The Sinking of the Darkdale

 

Also on that day, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary oil tanker Darkdale was torpedoed and sunk at Jamestown, Saint Helena by the German submarine U-68.

 

A Tokyo Blackout

 

Also on the 22nd. October 1941, Tokyo conducted its first practice blackout.

 

U-406

 

The day also marked the commissioning of the German submarine U-406.

 

'Candle in the Wind'

 

Also on that day, the three-act dramatic play 'Candle in the Wind' premiered at the Shubert Theatre in New York City. (.... Elton - the song title is not original!)

 

Wilbur Wood

 

The day also marked the birth of Wilbur Wood, baseball player, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

 

Civilian Executions in France

 

Also on that day, 27 French hostages were shot outside Châteaubriant in reprisal for the killing of a high-ranking German officer in Nantes two days previously.

 

Guy Môquet

 

The 22nd. October 1941 was not a good day for the French Communist militant Guy Môquet, because he was executed at the age of 17.

 

Guy Môquet, who was born on the 26th. April 1924, was taken hostage by the Nazis and executed by firing squad in retaliation for attacks on Germans by the French Resistance. Môquet went down in history as one of the symbols of the French Resistance.

 

Guy Prosper Eustache Môquet was born in Paris. He studied at the Lycée Carnot and joined the Communist Youth Movement. After the occupation of Paris by the Germans and the installation of the Vichy government, he was denounced on the 13th. October 1940 and arrested at the Gare de l'Est metro station by three police officers of the French Anti-Communist Special Brigade. At the time he was distributing propaganda against the war.

 

Imprisoned in Fresnes Prison, then in Clairvaux, he was later transferred to the camp at Châteaubriant, where other Communist militants were detained.

 

On the 20th. October 1941, the commanding officer of the German occupation forces in Loire-Atlantique, Karl Hotz, was assassinated by three communists. Pierre Pucheu, Interior Minister of the government of Marshal Philippe Pétain, chose Communist prisoners to be given as hostages:

 

"In order to avoid letting 50

good French people get shot."

 

Pucheu's selection comprised 18 imprisoned in Nantes, 27 at Châteaubriant, and 5 from Nantes who were imprisoned in Paris.

 

Two days later, the 27 prisoners at Châteaubriant were shot in three groups. They refused blindfolds, and died crying out "Vive la France". Guy Môquet, the youngest, was executed at 4 pm.

 

Before being shot, Môquet had written a letter to his parents. This moving letter (see below) has become famous in France.

 

His younger brother, Serge – 12 years old at the time – was traumatised by Guy's death and survived him only by a few days.

 

Guy Môquet was portrayed in a short film in French, 'La Lettre', released in 2007, with the title role played by Jean-Baptiste Maunier. Môquet is also one of the principal characters in the 2011 film Calm at Sea, which depicts the events that culminated in the execution of the hostages.

 

The Last Letter

 

Guy's letter to his parents was as follows:

 

'My darling Mummy, my adored brother,

my much loved Daddy, I am going to die!

What I ask of you, especially you Mummy,

is to be brave. I am, and I want to be, as

brave as all those who have gone before

me. Of course, I would have preferred to

live. But what I wish with all my heart is

that my death serves a purpose.

 

I didn’t have time to embrace Jean.

I embraced my two brothers Roger and

Rino. As for my real brother, I cannot

embrace him, alas! I hope all my clothes

will be sent back to you. They might be

of use to Serge, I trust he will be proud

to wear them one day.

 

To you, my Daddy to whom I have given

many worries, as well as to my Mummy,

I say goodbye for the last time. Know that

I did my best to follow the path that you

laid out for me. A last adieu to all my

friends, to my brother whom I love very

much. May he study hard to become a

man later on.

 

Seventeen and a half years, my life has

been short, I have no regrets, if only that

of leaving you all. I am going to die with

Tintin, Michels. Mummy, what I ask you,

what I want you to promise me, is to be

brave and to overcome your sorrow.

I cannot put any more. I am leaving you

all, Mummy, Serge, Daddy, I embrace you

with all my child’s heart. Be brave!

Your Guy who loves you.'

 

A street and a Métro station in Paris were named after Guy in 1946. Many other place names across France also bear his name, and Châteaubriant dedicated a high school to him.

Ava lost in the woods. Don't worry, her parents were right behind me, joining in with the traumatising experience!

 

I likes this one a lot, very "me"

  

Indian Railways deserve a special chapter in just about EVERY book. I took my first ride with them today -- in bottomrock Sleeper Class, together with hundreds of so-called commoners. Some cockroaches were spotted on walls, some dirty children played on the ghastly floor - but no-one was seriously traumatised : )

Ipswich, Suffolk, 17 June 2017

(very rare occurrence of a female being attracted to light. This was in the MV trap and looks traumatised having spent most of the night with the best part of a thousand moths!)

Image 272

Young traumatised African man arriving at the camp

An air crash... but all is not what it seems. This is part of the extraordinarily realistic set at the Open Air Theatre in Regents Park, London, when it staged William Golding’s Lord of the Flies – the story of a pack of schoolboys marooned on an island after their aircraft crashes.

 

The realism of Jon Bausor’s set is heightened because the trees which surround the stage are utilised to their full effect. As the evening progresses and night falls, the traumatised but once civilised boys gradually turn into a feral mob, with powerful consequences.

 

The play is an allegory about society, of course. And here, amid the broken fuselage and dozens of damaged suitcases spewn across the set, it’s decidedly realistic, with some memorable performances by a young cast – the youngest of whom is just nine. All in all, an inspirational production (which ran until June 18).

Another good night shooting at the old Helensburgh station tunnel. A varied night of people visiting and the tunnel from some shinning torches in all directions making it a little difficult for our eyes to adjust both for photos but to just enjoy this freak of nature. There was a crew there spinning lit steel wool at high speed giving some wonderful effects. Though driving home I wondered if this might traumatise these potentially fragile insects.

Many of the survivors of the Rana Plaza factory tragedy in Savar, Bangladesh were left traumatised and injured. The families of the dead were in shock and grieving. ActionAid is helping to rehabilitate and support 250 of the most vulnerable workers so they can re-start their lives.

 

One year after the Rana Plaza factory building collapse in Savar, Bangladesh, ActionAid is helping many of those left injured or vulnerable to restart their lives and is part of the campaign seeking compensation for the survivors and families of those who died. ActionAid has worked for a number of years with garment workers in Bangladesh, supporting women to demand better pay and safer conditions. The Rana Plaza tragedy reinforced why this is so important.

 

Photo: ActionAid

 

www.actionaid.org.uk

  

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Liverpool Pals memorial

By Tom Murphy

2014

  

The Pals Memorial

 

Unveiled on the 31st August 2014 in Lime Street Station , Liverpool . The unveiling of the £85,000 bronze memorial is the culmination of a three-year campaign by The Liverpool Pals Memorial Fund to create a permanent tribute to remember those who volunteered for the King’s Liverpool Regiment during World War I.

 

The frieze, made up of two 15ft-long panels, has been designed by Liverpool sculptor Tom Murphy and funded through donations.

 

Description:-

‘Time to go home.’ On the extreme left of the panel sit two soldiers who are making the burial markers for the dead. The older soldier comforts the younger man. Behind them, by the side of an enormous artillery gun, stands a silent soldier lost in thought as he reads a letter, again and again. A wrecked tank dominates the background. To the right of the tank, stands an officer who ceremoniously checks his watch for the 11 O’ Clock deadline; his free arm is raised like an umpire ready to signal the end to the deadly game of war. In the foreground, two dead soldiers lay as they fell, like discarded puppets, flanked by two kneeling soldiers who mourn the passing of their friends. In the middle of the frieze in the foreground lies a wounded Sergeant. He angrily gestures to a soldier that has come to his aid, to see to the critically wounded soldier behind him. The older man, a Padre administers the last rights, as if the boy soldier was his own son and to his left, a RAMC medic also gives aid and comfort. In his hand, is a letter from his mother. Ominously, behind the group, a member of the burial party looks out vacantly as he smokes his pipe his shovel at the ready. Two worried soldiers in the rear look on as one of them slowly unscrews his water container wondering if it is too late. The next character we encounter, is a standing soldier wearing a poncho. One of his feet is placed in France and the other foot in his Liverpool home. He stands on guard as he dreams of home. This figure represents what soldiers are: ‘guardians of our country,’ who must, if necessary, make the ultimate sacrifice. He, like all the characters depicted, dreams of home. Behind the men, we see the desolate war torn landscape of scorched earth, tortured trees and mud-filled shell craters. Yet above, a clearing sky marks hopefully, a new beginning, as two planes fly back to base. All the characters in both friezes are remembering something important to themselves. In the next scene, some of the surviving Liverpool Pals returning to Lime Street . A lone soldier walks ahead; he is severely wounded, having lost a leg and has been blinded in one eye. His wife, who we saw in the first frieze saying farewell to her husband as he was bound for the front, stands desolately in the foreground. She pretends she has not seen her husband, as she looks away to hide her shock. The hat she wears is reminiscent of the helmets the soldiers wore in battle. This symbolises the battle now raging in her head as she contemplates the future with her wounded and battle scarred husband. Meanwhile her young son, now four years older, proudly salutes his brave father’s return. He is a lonely believer, as the discarded recruitment posters blow along the platform. The giant steam engine that brought the men home, angrily spouts out smoke and steam which mingles with the massive girders in the roof of the station. The station is depicted in this part of the frieze, as a giant spider’s web from which the men are emerging. On the extreme right, the last scene is set on August 31, 2014, the date of the unveiling. The date on which we officially commemorate a century later, the men that were lost, wounded and traumatised in WWI. The three service personnel stand in remembrance, one of whom is a woman. This women is a reference to the extraordinary contribution and sacrifice of woman at home and abroad in WWI. The remembrance ceremony takes place on St Georges Plateau, where the original recruitment took place. Finally, the bugler plays the last post. The Liverpool Pals’ Badge of ‘Lord Derby’s Crest ‘ the distinctive ‘Eagle and Child,’ features on their bottom left corner of both panels.

  

www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/67303

 

liverpoolsculptures.co.uk

 

liverpoolsculptures.co.uk/about-tom-murphy/

Thank you very much for the visit and comments. Cheers.

At the Emerald Airport under a fig tree, Queensland, Australia, on a 44C day. We gave it a good spray with the hose to cool it down.

European Hare

History in Australia: The European hare was introduced to Australia in the late 1830s in Tasmania, although this initial attempt to establish wild populations failed. The first successful colony of hares to establish in Australia was on the shores of Westernport Bay in 1862. The following year another hare colony was established on Phillip Island by the Acclimatisation Society of Victoria for the use in the sport 'coursing'. Hares released on the mainland thrived with limited hunting pressure. The hare became a widespread species throughout much of south-east Australia by 1870. Spreading at an approximate rate of 60 kilometres per year, hares crossed the Murray River in 1875, where they made their way along the western slopes and tablelands of New South Wales. By 1900, hares had reached the Queensland border and become a major agricultural problem in easter, rural Australia.

Appearance: The European hare belongs to the family Leporidae, along with the rabbit. The male European hare is called a 'Jack' while the female is called a 'Jill'. Offspring under one year are referred to as 'leverets'. Male hares are generally smaller than females. Leverets are born with hair and their eyes open and are able to move about soon after birth. Similar to rabbits, juvenile hares have a white star on their forehead. Hares have similar physiology to rabbits but are much bigger. Hares have larger ears, often with black tips which play a large part in controlling their body temperature. In hot weather, the ears are held away from their bodies and appear flushed, while in cooler weather, the exposed areas of the ears are held close to the body to prevent heat loss. Like the rabbit, the hareâs hind limbs are longer than its front limbs.The fur of the European hare has a flecked appearance, made up of tan, black and white hairs, ruddy brown or grey above and white below. This allows the hare to blend in well with dry grass. Like rabbits, hares have 28 teeth with the lower tooth rows being closer together than the upper rows. In the upper jaw, the hare has two pairs of continuously growing, enamel covered upper incisors; the front long pair has a cutting edge, while the peg teeth located behind these do not have a cutting edge. At birth, the hare has three sets of incisors, but the outer pair is lost soon after birth. Hares have unique upper teeth consisting of a pair of gnawing hypsodont teeth (which grow continuously) with a pair of peg teeth hidden behind. This double pair of upper teeth is found only in rabbits and hares and cause a very distinctive, 45 degree angle cut on browsed vegetation.

Behaviour: Hares, like rabbits, are most active in the late afternoon and at night. Hares are solitary animals but do tend to come together while grazing as a response to predation. Hares grazing in groups tend to receive fewer interruptions than those who graze alone. Hares will travel up to 3-4 km to feed on a wide range of food types. Hares hide and can accelerate to high speed when disturbed or threatened. When approached, the hare will remain still in its form until the predator is within 1-2 metres. The hare will then break cover and sprint away at high speed. A hare will confuse predators by doubling back on its tracks to leave a disarrayed trail. This will often involve a large leap sideways to break its scent trail. A hareâs heart is big for the size of its body. Although it can drive the animal's legs at a pace that many other other animals can't match, its heart will not support the animal when stressed. Hares are easily stressed, panicked or traumatised. European hares are primarily solitary animals but may form hierarchies with both male and female members. Unlike rabbits, hares do not shelter in warrens or burrows. Instead they rest in a shallow depression in the ground called a âformâ. A hareâs form is usually found amongst long grass, rocks, logs or branches, oval in shape and around 400 mm x 200 mm in dimension. Leverets are born into a type of nest created within a form. Unlike rabbits hares are born above ground.

Diet: Hares are primarily herbivorous and feed mainly after sunset. The diet of hares consists of leaves, stems and rhizomes of dry and green grasses. They also eat herbaceous plants, cereals, berries, vegetables, wood and bark, seeds, grains, nuts and some fungi. Like rabbits, caecotrophy (the reingestion of faecal material from the caecum) is a behaviour that is used by European hares in order to gain the maximum amount of nutrients from their food as possible.

Preferred habitat: The preferred habitat of hares is open country with the presence of tussock or rocks to hide amongst. They are widespread in grasslands, woodlands, agriculture and urban areas.

Predators: Hares are vulnerable to predators both as leverets and as adults. Foxes will hunt adult hares and leverets, while wedge-tail eagles are a major threat to adult hares and feral cats pose a major threat to leverets.

Reproduction: Under favourable conditions, hares may produce more than four litters (each of two to five young) annually. Research has found that the more litters hares have, the smaller the litter size tends to be. Little is known about the breeding habits of European hares in Australia. European hares have an average 42 day gestation period but this ranges from 38-46 days. At birth, leverets are fully furred, 13-17 cm in length and weigh 80-180 g. Their eyes are open at birth and are precocial, meaning they are able to move around soon after birth. Leverets are born into a form and are hidden within dense vegetation. The mother will visit to suckle the young once every 24 hours. After around three days, the young will disperse from their birth place and find separate hiding locations. Young from the same litter will return to a central space to suckle.

(Source: www.dpi.vic.gov.au)

  

Chris Burns 2013

__________________________________________

 

© All rights reserved.

This image may not be copied, reproduced, distributed, republished, downloaded,

displayed, posted or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic,

mechanical, photocopying and recording without my written consent.

If you have the time, please read the write-up below and, if you can, please highlight the plight of the world's rhino populations by posting any photograph you have of a rhino – whether it was taken in a zoo or in the wild – in support of the World Wildlife Fund's World Rhino Day.

 

All five of the world’s rhino species are on the brink of extinction because of their distinctive horns. Though rhino horns are used to fashion dagger handles and are prized possessions in Yemen, the problem today is not with their ornamental use, but in the demand fuelled by the belief that shaved or powered horn can cure anything from fever to cancer. (It is not, as commonly believed, prescribed as an aphrodisiac.)

 

The majority of African rhino horns are now headed for southeast and east Asia, especially Vietnam and China for use in traditional medicine. In China rhino horn has been used for traditional Chinese medicine since 2000 BC thus belief in its traditional medicinal properties is firmly entrenched. Though the Chinese government banned the use of rhino horn or any other parts from endangered species in traditional Chinese medicine in 1993 current rhino poaching levels suggest that the use of rhino horn continues unabated in traditional medicine markets.

 

Several scientific studies have been commissioned and each confirmed that rhino horn does not contain medical properties. Using computerized tomography (CT scans) researchers at the University of Ohio have revealed that horns are comprised of calcium, melanin and keratin and are similar in structure to horse hooves, turtle beaks and cockatoo bills. Thus those who use rhino horn may just as well chew their own nails!

 

In South Africa the slaughter continues. 13 rhino were butchered in 2007, 83 in 2009, 122 in 2009, 333 in 2010 and at present the figure for 2011 is 290. The focus of syndicates seems to have moved from rhino in national parks to privately owned populations on reserves and farms - a softer target since the South African National Defence Force was deployed in the Kruger National Park to try to curb poaching. Unfortunately I do not have figures for Kenya, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Tanzania, but it’s unlikely these countries are faring better.

 

Criminal syndicates which deploy helicopters, GPS devices, night vision equipment and foot soldiers who track rhinos are operating with impunity. Armed with specialised veterinary drugs, darting guns, chainsaws and automatic weapons they butcher rhino. In some instances the horns are sawed off while the animal is still alive and it dies a slow and painful death. Rhino calves too are killed because they hinder the butchers in their operations and the tiniest stub of a horn is also deemed useable. Where a calf is rescued at the carcass of its mother it is usually severely traumatised and unlikely to survive despite dedicated efforts by vets and caretakers.

 

At $60 000 per kilogram, the horns – weighing on average 7 kilograms each – are now worth more than their weight in gold, and there is no shortage of foot soldiers willing to work for a share of the profits. And that’s only part of the story. Unscrupulous professional hunters and their clients use legal trophy hunting as way of accessing horns for trading, exploiting loopholes in legislation. Since the beginning of 2010 for every two rhino lost to poachers another has been shot by trophy hunters. In addition there are unconfirmed reports of live rhino sales to China to breed them so that horns can be harvested for use in traditional medicine.

 

Member of the Flickr Bird Brigade

Activists for birds and wildlife

 

This photograph and all others on my photostream are protected by copyright and may not be used on any site, blog or forum without my permission.

During the incident in 2020, the girl (child Q) was taken out of an exam to the school's medical room and strip-searched while on her period by two female Met police officers searching for cannabis, while teachers remained outside. No drugs were found. The child was traumatised. A report released this month found the search of the 15-year-old girl, known as Child Q, was unjustified and racism was "likely" to have been a factor.

news.sky.com/story/child-q-report-met-police-culture-unde...

kompaktkat.bandcamp.com/album/swaralakshmi-devi

 

Swaralakshmi Devi (4th October 1938 - 24th December 1965) was born in Puri, Eastern India. At the age of seven, she and her family attended the annual Ratha Yatra procession at the Jagannatha Temple. As was usual, thousands of people crowded around the juggernauts and her father was among nine people who were accidentally crushed under the chariot wheels that year. Swara was traumatised by this event and friends claimed it was the main cause of her later depression.

 

Encouraged by her mother, Swara enjoyed learning to dance and sing and was spotted by a film executive at a local event. From the age of twelve Swara began appearing in Indian musical films usually playing non-speaking background roles.

 

In 1956 Swara received her first onscreen credit, named as one of the featured dancers in “Home Sweet Home” (“घर प्यारा घर”). Supporting roles followed in many films over the next few years and by 1961 she was playing romantic leads in “Curry and Caviar” (“चावल और कैवियार”) and “Mr. Dancewala” (aka “Foolish Feet”).

 

In 1962 Swara became romantically involved with older, married producer Tariq Hussein. Hussein was making European co-productions and, according to Swara, they planned to emigrate to France. However, when the scandal broke Hussein left Swara, eventually reconciling with his wife and children. Her reputation tarnished and now unable to find work, Swara departed for Paris with Akash Rahman, one of Hussein’s business partners. Over the next year her screen roles amounted only to “native girl” in at least three minor European films.

 

During the Spring of 1963 Swara was introduced to French music producer Raymond Orlay. Orlay attempted to shape her into an exotic ‘ye-ye’ girl. However Swara’s choice of songs was unremittingly dark in tone and failed to win over critics or fans.

 

In 1964 Swara met Yves Hollande at a party and shortly after moved into the film producer’s apartment. Hollande cast Swara in the title role of ‘La Fille Russe’ where she played an undercover Russian seductress.

 

During November 1965 Swara suffered a miscarriage and on Christmas Day her body was recovered from the River Seine. Friends assumed that she had taken her own life. She was 27 years old.

 

Grief-stricken, Hollande cancelled the premiere of ‘La Fille Russe’ and other than a short trailer, the film is believed to be lost.

 

Very few artefacts still exist about this tragic, obscure actress, but diligent research has uncovered some vintage photographs and artwork from her brief career.

Our recently adopted rescue cat Gatsby, who up until we got him led a sad & miserable life. Was abused by his previous owners & left to roam the streets. Two women took to feeding him but when he appeared severely traumatised & bloodied (A big open wound on his head & his ears ripped) he was put into Cats Protection West Lothian where he was put up for adoption. Having been overlooked a few times he finally got his chance of happiness a few weeks ago when he became the newest member of our family in his brand new furrever home

Wayan has been chained and locked in the chicken pen for many years and as the family moved away, she now lives with her mother in a kitchen. Wayan is receiving treatment but is not able to communicate and is hardly able to walk. Dr. Suryani and her team have already surveyed almost half a million individuals, a seventh of Balinese population and have identified about a thousand cases of Pasung.

"I care about my people and I cannot sit back and do nothing about it."

©Ingetje Tadros/Diimex www.ingetjetadros.com

A picture about a fall and what happened afterwards.

 

Lillian fell from a statue in Brussels in 2011 (not actually the one in the photo at the top left - we were too traumatised to actually take a photo). She was very brave for the rest of that holiday but by the time we came home - Lillian had a funny head wobble and a couple of other minor injuries. So we decided on a body transplant.

 

Lillian is an ADG - her new body was a Licca. I did some modifications / refinements to the Licca body ... sanded the chest area because cleavage rarely goes all the way to the neck! Used transparent bra straps to 'pad' the neck (thus curing the head-wobbles) and I whittled the Licca feet so Lillian could still fit into all her favourite shoes. We are very proud of those feet - you can see a before and after comparison there with the tape measure.

 

Lillian is still on her Licca body and is as lovely as ever.

A young lad is traumatised on the roundabout at Newcastle Weekend Market.

1960s.

John Everett Millais 1829-1896

Ophelia 1851-2

Oil paint on canvas

This painting depicts the death of Ophelia from Shakespeare's Hamlet. Traumatised by her family, her cancelled betrothal and the murder of her father by her fiancé, she drowns in a stream after roaming the countryside looking for flowers. John Everett Millais painted the setting leaf-by-leaf by the Hogsmill River in Surrey. The artist and model Elizabeth Siddal posed as Ophelia by wearing a wedding dress in a filled bathtub. Siddal and the other working-class women who joined the Pre-Raphaelite circle as colleagues, friends and wives challenged Victorian expectations of arranging marriages for money and status.

Presented by Sir Henry Tate 1894

N01506

14 May 2015. The Dream Doctors Project, a non-profit organization established in 2002, integrates professional medical clowning into the medical services provided at Israeli hospitals. TDDP funds around 100 medical clowns in different hospitals, and regular meetings encourage the sharing of ideas and practices among them. As well as providing their unique form of therapy to both the young and the old at home, the DDs have also traveled overseas in the wake of disasters - such as Thailand after the 2004 tsunami and Haiti after the 2007 earthquake - to assist.

 

A team of medical clowns from DD came to Nepal for 2 weeks and visited numerous camps and organisations hosting vulnerable and traumatised children and adults. I was lucky enough to be invited to join them for a day of improv, slapstick and bubble-blowing. The smiles on the faces of all who came in contact with Yaron and Nimrod - aka Sancho and Max - tell the rest of the story.

Liverpool Pals memorial

By Tom Murphy

2014

  

The Pals Memorial

 

Unveiled on the 31st August 2014 in Lime Street Station , Liverpool . The unveiling of the £85,000 bronze memorial is the culmination of a three-year campaign by The Liverpool Pals Memorial Fund to create a permanent tribute to remember those who volunteered for the King’s Liverpool Regiment during World War I.

 

The frieze, made up of two 15ft-long panels, has been designed by Liverpool sculptor Tom Murphy and funded through donations.

 

Description:-

‘Time to go home.’ On the extreme left of the panel sit two soldiers who are making the burial markers for the dead. The older soldier comforts the younger man. Behind them, by the side of an enormous artillery gun, stands a silent soldier lost in thought as he reads a letter, again and again. A wrecked tank dominates the background. To the right of the tank, stands an officer who ceremoniously checks his watch for the 11 O’ Clock deadline; his free arm is raised like an umpire ready to signal the end to the deadly game of war. In the foreground, two dead soldiers lay as they fell, like discarded puppets, flanked by two kneeling soldiers who mourn the passing of their friends. In the middle of the frieze in the foreground lies a wounded Sergeant. He angrily gestures to a soldier that has come to his aid, to see to the critically wounded soldier behind him. The older man, a Padre administers the last rights, as if the boy soldier was his own son and to his left, a RAMC medic also gives aid and comfort. In his hand, is a letter from his mother. Ominously, behind the group, a member of the burial party looks out vacantly as he smokes his pipe his shovel at the ready. Two worried soldiers in the rear look on as one of them slowly unscrews his water container wondering if it is too late. The next character we encounter, is a standing soldier wearing a poncho. One of his feet is placed in France and the other foot in his Liverpool home. He stands on guard as he dreams of home. This figure represents what soldiers are: ‘guardians of our country,’ who must, if necessary, make the ultimate sacrifice. He, like all the characters depicted, dreams of home. Behind the men, we see the desolate war torn landscape of scorched earth, tortured trees and mud-filled shell craters. Yet above, a clearing sky marks hopefully, a new beginning, as two planes fly back to base. All the characters in both friezes are remembering something important to themselves. In the next scene, some of the surviving Liverpool Pals returning to Lime Street . A lone soldier walks ahead; he is severely wounded, having lost a leg and has been blinded in one eye. His wife, who we saw in the first frieze saying farewell to her husband as he was bound for the front, stands desolately in the foreground. She pretends she has not seen her husband, as she looks away to hide her shock. The hat she wears is reminiscent of the helmets the soldiers wore in battle. This symbolises the battle now raging in her head as she contemplates the future with her wounded and battle scarred husband. Meanwhile her young son, now four years older, proudly salutes his brave father’s return. He is a lonely believer, as the discarded recruitment posters blow along the platform. The giant steam engine that brought the men home, angrily spouts out smoke and steam which mingles with the massive girders in the roof of the station. The station is depicted in this part of the frieze, as a giant spider’s web from which the men are emerging. On the extreme right, the last scene is set on August 31, 2014, the date of the unveiling. The date on which we officially commemorate a century later, the men that were lost, wounded and traumatised in WWI. The three service personnel stand in remembrance, one of whom is a woman. This women is a reference to the extraordinary contribution and sacrifice of woman at home and abroad in WWI. The remembrance ceremony takes place on St Georges Plateau, where the original recruitment took place. Finally, the bugler plays the last post. The Liverpool Pals’ Badge of ‘Lord Derby’s Crest ‘ the distinctive ‘Eagle and Child,’ features on their bottom left corner of both panels.

  

www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/67303

 

liverpoolsculptures.co.uk

 

liverpoolsculptures.co.uk/about-tom-murphy/

Traumatisée. Tout ce qui se chausse dans ma maison. Et encore, je crois bien qu'il en manque. Nous ne sommes que trois. Bon, trois filles, mais quand même! C'est fou comme ça s'accumule!

 

Cette semaine, dès que j'ai vu le thème, je saurais que je ferais cette photo. Voilà pourquoi je peux publier rapidement. Rare que je trouve mon idée si rapidement sans même essayer autre chose.

 

Aujourd'hui, après 2 semaines de quarantaine, Loula et Dagobert ont fait connaissance en terrain neutre (voir ci-dessous). Ca s'est plutôt bien passé, pas l'amour fou, de petites altercations avec touffes de poils volantes (voir la touffe de poils blancs dans la bouche de Dago), mais rien de sérieux. En fait c'est mon grand dadais qui n'a connu qu'une seule autre lapine qui était le plus impressionné, voire par moment presque traumatisé le pauvre. Faut dire que la petite elle ne s'en laisse pas compter, pas difficile de comprendre qui va être le boss.

Là ils sont de nouveau séparés pour se remettre de leurs émotions, mais tous les jours il y aura une nouvelle rencontre jusqu'à ce que je puisse les laisser découvrir ensemble leur futur territoire.

 

Today, after two weeks quarantine for Loula, Loula and Dagobert have met on neutral ground (see below). It went pretty well, not crazy love, small altercations with tufts of hair flying (see the white tuft in Dagobert's mouth), but nothing serious. In fact it's my oaf Dagobert who has known only one other girl before Loula, who was most impressed, even at times almost traumatized poor guy. I have to admit that she isn't shy at all, not difficult to understand who will be the boss.

Now they are again separated to recover from their emotions, but every day there will be a new meeting until I can leave them together without supervision to discover together their future territory.

 

went to nannys this morning for breakfast, yummy :o) had a lovely time, chatting away, made me wish i didnt have to go to work....

work was bloody boring, didnt have anything to do, hate that!!

this morning i was meant to check if dave the slug was still ok, i accidentally slammed it into the path last night, it wouldnt get off the piece of paper i was using to put it in th

e garden, so i waved it around and he flew off and i heard him smack the ground :o( i was a little traumatised and couldnt just leave him like that, poor little fella. alex caught me looking for him and thought i was mental!! i eventually found him,(there was a hairy moment when he was laying on his side and i thought i'd killed him), but then his little things bobbed out of his head, like he was giving me a thumbs up, he was fine :o) yay!! :o) and yes, i do realise that makes me sound like a complete nutter but ahh well ;o)

  

Vietnam - war without end

Four Vietnam veterans arrive at Waikumete Cemetery in West Auckland with a blue chillybin. They squelch through the damp grass and mud to a section of civilian graves at the far side.

It's Saturday afternoon and although the torrential rain has let up, the sky is dark.

The men set the chillybin down in between rows of headstones of the long dead. They throw down a rug, pull out some beers and pay their respects to a soldier who died a hell of a death and a man who, in their eyes, deserves a lot more respect than he ever got.

When Morrie Manton was blown up by a landmine in 1967, the Vietnam War had become a war of politics.

Protests were taking place around the world. Instead of being welcomed home as heroes, soldiers who believed they had been serving their country faced anger.

A growing hostility in New Zealand spilled over on to Manton's original headstone. He was buried in the civilian section of the cemetery 38 years ago but his headstone made no mention of the Vietnam War. Nor did it mention he was killed in action.

These four veterans from the same platoon, none of them entirely well, have come here to rectify that.

The men unveil a new headstone they have had engraved: "Vietnam, 34598 Cpl, MJ (Morrie) Manton, RNZIR, Died 2.9.1967, aged 29 Yrs, Killed in Action."

Being killed in action is different to just dying, say these soldiers, some of whom were only teenagers when they moved through the jungle in silence for weeks on end using sign language to communicate; who tied string to each other at night, a slight tug enough to bring them to wide-eyed alert in the face of ambush by the Viet Cong.

The men of this platoon of Victor Company, the first infantry to go to Vietnam, were sent by a reluctant Government under pressure from America.

They forged incredible bonds and today their memories still bring tough men to the verge of tears.

It is not just Manton, though, who makes them emotional. Even as they toast their friend, the men - retired Lt Col Raymond "Red" Beatson, Brian "Willy" Wilson, Graeme "Topsy" Turvey and James "Dinga" Bell - are contemplating their own early deaths.

Agent Orange still haunts them and each man has health niggles, some worse than others.

Their platoon of 35 men is dying at an exponential rate. Twelve are already dead - two killed in action, one by suicide and nine from what they believe are Agent Orange-related illnesses.

A further seven, they say, are at death's door. The rest are biding their time, trying to fit in activities with families, fearing they too will become ill.

In this one platoon the death rate from conditions that may be connected to Agent Orange is 257 in 1000, compared to 18.93 in 1000 for the civilian population of the same age dying of similar illnesses.

At the graveside which for so long denied Manton's place in Vietnam, the men remember the "constant" raining down of chemicals designed by the Americans to strip the trees of foliage and expose the enemy. The chemicals soaked into their skin and they drank them in rain water.

On their minds today, as every day, is anger about the ongoing struggle for recognition and recompense for exposure to chemicals which are killing their comrades and causing defects in their children and possibly in future generations.

Still upsetting is the lack of acknowledgement and recognition they received on their return from Vietnam, from a war which still leaves them with nightmares.

Corporal Morrie Manton was a section commander in the platoon. The day he died he had two scouts out front, the third man in a line of men who trailed single file, stepping into each other's footprints to avoid ground littered with mines.

Jumping Jack mines jump to waist-level before detonating. Maybe Manton heard something in the village his section had come across on its way to its next operation in Phouc Tuy Province, South Vietnam, but whatever the reason, he deviated slightly from the path.

His body was blown off from the hips down, but he did not die instantly.

The moment is frozen in time for those with him that day. Somehow, Manton hauled himself to a sitting position and looked down at where his legs used to be. There were mines all around, the rest of the men could not get to him.

Someone yelled "hang on, mate, we're coming to ya," and Manton said "well, for fuck's sake, hurry up."

He died about 20 minutes later, the first of the New Zealand infantry to be killed in Vietnam.

His mum wanted him home but the New Zealand Army had no system to get the dead back to New Zealand. In the end, the Americans flew him back and he was buried in the civilian part of Waikumete Cemetery with a civilian headstone.

He meant a lot to these men. He was 29, an experienced soldier and mentor.

"As long as we're alive there'll be one of us who will come up and pay respect to him, the respect that's owed to him," says Graeme "Topsy" Turvey.

The men each place a poppy on the new gravestone. They are in their late 50s and early 60s now but were just teenagers when they joined the Army.

Leaving for Vietnam was the proudest day of their lives. They joined up for various reasons but all say they wanted to serve their country.

In Vietnam they had no idea of the politics of the war. Their job was to kill and to survive.

They were in dense jungle almost all the time, moving silently, a highly trained platoon with a remarkable kill rate of 80 to one.

They would spend two weeks in the jungle, come out for clean socks and new ammunition, then head back in again.

At night during a two-week operation in a swamp full of snakes, leeches and mines, they strapped themselves to trees so they did not sink and drown. The skin on their legs rotted and peeled.

On a normal day they would stop for a quick cup of tea while it was still light but when darkness fell they would pack up and quietly move.

If enemy eyes had been watching and mortars were lobbed, they were no longer there.

Says Wilson: "Those tactics were going on all the time, which is why we're still here today, that's why we were so good."

There are horror stories too, plenty of them, but they are not keen on giving details. The war was savage and sickening, yet coming home after their tour was also a shock. They thought they had been serving their country but their country now disagreed.

Faced with protest marches and accusations of "baby-killers" - nonsense, they say - and not allowed to join the Returned Services Association, they were shunned and traumatised.

Brian Wilson, now 60, says they could not wear their uniforms. "We all disappeared into the wind to hide and you had a guy buried out at Waikumete, they couldn't put Vietnam on it [the gravestone], there would have been protests all over the place.

"You've come from a very close-knit group. We're 35 guys who slept with each other literally, alongside each other in the bush being rained on, piddling on each other's legs and you get pretty close to someone.

"And suddenly you're pushed back into civvy life and you're out there with the guys you went to school with who are yahoos now with long hair and they're saying 'well, how many babies did you kill?' "

Wilson got a job working night shift "and I hid from the world for a whole year".

His wife met him "as a bloody strange little recluse fella who just worked at nights and drank about nine flagons of beer and came home and went to bed all day. Of course it's depression ... "

But each of them got on with life as best they could. Some married and had children. Then came word of strange birth defects in children born to Vietnam vets - cleft palates, club feet, spina bifida, circulatory problems and many more. Wilson, who won't give details, has a child affected.

Later came illness in veterans. They began to fall to cancers and circulatory problems, diabetes and other disorders.

Raymond "Red" Beatson has brought a document to the graveside. It is his submission to a Government working group on the concerns of Vietnam veterans.

The men call Beatson "the Boss". Quietly spoken now, the retired Lieutenant-Colonel was the platoon commander, just 23 years old. The men credit him with keeping them alive. They defer to him still, quietening when he speaks.

Beatson's submission is grim reading. It contains two photographs. One is the platoon as young men, before they left for Vietnam. The other is a rugby team, a College 1st XV which Beatson captained, whose members were about the same age as the soldiers he served with in Vietnam.

In the platoon photo, faces have been coloured in. The yellow faces - 12 of them - are dead. "The pink are those I suppose you could say have got one foot in the grave," says Beatson. There are eight of these.

Just five of the rugby team are dead and Beatson notes that of the five, one man, a cancer death, was a Vietnam veteran. He has more figures, collated by Sovereign Insurance.

"They took our age group, which is 55 to 64 and said 'well, for men dying of cancer, diabetes and circulatory problems, what would be the actual death rate'. "

The death rate was 18.9 in 1000, across the country. Beatson's platoon's death rate is 257 in 1000. "And we're just one platoon of many companies that served. For me the big issue is that no one knows the extent of the problem, how big it is.

"It's interesting, I mean, we have 56 per cent of our group that is dead or dying and there's something like 3800 people who served in Vietnam. You push the 56 per cent out to 3800 and my maths makes it about 2000 who are dead or dying. That's scary."

Three members in his platoon alone have children with birth defects. He knows another veteran who had his DNA tested and the strands were found to have been "corrupted" - a legacy of Vietnam, he says.

But there is some optimism. After long years of denial, the Government has accepted that troops were exposed to a toxic environment. The working group has finished interviewing veterans but its findings may be months away.

Beatson's view is that the acceptance of adverse health consequences has not been translated quickly enough into action.

Still veterans wait for an acceptance of responsibility. Still they struggle to get pensions for certain disorders. And for the four men at Waikumete, attending funerals has become the norm.

Says Wilson: "The proof of the pudding is that every second week on the net we hear about one of our guys who has a brain tumour, who has cancer, and they're dying in twos and threes. There's three or four right now on a death watch. It's a frightening picture."

For years they did not talk about the war. Now, for the sake of their families and dying friends, they say they have no choice.

www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/vietnam-war-without-end/5Q3T4ROVO7W...

 

Plot 14: Maurice Jude Manton – stepped on landmine

Brian David Wilson (61) 29/1/1994 – Rtd Carpenter (ashes)

 

(ROYAL NEW ZEALAND INFANTRY REGIMENT)

ONWARD

Vietnam

346598 CPL

M.J. (MORRIE) MANTON

R.N.Z.I.R.

Died 2.9.1967

Aged 29 Yrs

Killed in action

 

plaque:

In proud and loving memory of dear Maurice

son of Henry & Mina, brother of Carmel, Kiernan & Sherril

“Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord.”

“May he rest in peace.”

 

View and/or contribute to Percy’s profile on the Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph data base:

www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/recor...

  

Commissioned by Lionel Cox in about 1935, it is not known who designed the boat-shaped building, but it was built by Mark Amy Limited.

 

Occupation

The Barge Aground was requisitioned by the German occupying forces in 1941 and used as a canteen by Machine Gun Battalion 16. The building was painted with camouflage. Many of the original contents were looted and shipped to Germany.

 

After the war, Lionel Cox returned to the Barge Aground and the building was restored as a beach chalet. He left the building to the Jersey Scouts Association in his will in 1955.

 

It was leased to a William Chalmers Kerr until 1971. Mr Kerr was a research psychologist from Glasgow University who specialised in speech disorders, particularly stuttering. The property was used as a clinic, with patients visiting from all around the world.

 

The site was used in the 1970s and 80s by the Scouts as a base for camping, in connection with the Westward Ho site on the opposite side of the road. It was then sold by the Jersey Scouts Association to the Public of the Island in 1997, who then let it to the Scouts Association for a time. The building was restored and refurbished as a holiday let by Jersey Heritage in around 2005.

 

Architectural assessment

The Barge Aground is the single surviving example of the beach chalets that once lined St Ouen’s Bay and is illustrative of the inter-war fashion for building places of fun.

 

Boundary

The parish boundary between St Ouen and St Peter was the old outlet stream from St Ouen's Pond. This now runs beneath the German anti-tank wall, which was built during the Occupation and had the effect of joining together the various lengths of seawall, which had been constructed during the 19th century, to stabilise the sand dunes and make access to the beach easier for horse-drawn carts.

  

L’Ouzière Slipway (La Montée de l’Ouzière), and its associated walls, were built about 1870. During the Occupation, like many slipways, it was blocked by fortification building – in this case twin 4.7cm anti-tank gun emplacements. Following the Liberation, one of these was removed to open up the slipway again. The scars left by the German blocking can be still seen, because the original setts or cobblestones had been set at an angle to give the horses hauling carts grip. This was not needed by motor lorries and tractors fitted with rubber tyres, and the replacement setts were laid flush.

 

Another victim of the German army in this area was the Conway tower built just after the 1779 invasion attempt. Standing to the south of the slip, the tower known variously as St Ouen’s No 3, St Ouen’s D, or the High Tower, was demolished as it got in the way of their more modern weapons. The tower had been sold by the War Department in July 1922 for the princely sum of £50.

 

Today this part of the bay, between L’Ouzière and Le Braye, is better known for sunbathing and surfing, but in the past it was generally referred to as Le Port, which means the ‘haven’. This is because in the 17th century it was called Le Port de la Mare, and was described as a roadstead – somewhere vessels could lie safely at anchor.

 

Invasions

The Channel Islands Pilot, published in 1870, informed ships’ masters that the anchorage which afforded good shelter in easterly winds was ‘about half a mile square ... off La Rocco tower’. This would explain why this part of the bay was selected in October 1651 by the Parliamentary forces, headed by Admiral Blake, to invade the island.

 

Sir George de Carteret, the Royalist leader, and the Island Militia spent three days watching and tracking the Parliamentary fleet, moving between St Ouen’s Bay and St Brelade’s Bay and back again, but by the time the Parliamentarians landed, many of the militia had gone home exhausted. There was a short clash on the beach, but it was the beginning of the end for the Royalist cause in the island, and within three months the last Royalists, penned up in Elizabeth Castle, surrendered and the island was under Parliamentary control.

 

Although the States had voted to set up what was supposed to have been some sort of defensive work with a cannon here in 1602, to protect the anchorage, Admiral Blake makes no mention of it in his account of the landing.

 

Two centuries later, in May 1779, while Britain was fighting the rebel American colonists, a French force of 1,500 soldiers, accompanied by a fleet of five warships and over 50 small landing craft, under the Prince of Nassau, attempted a landing here. They were thwarted by the falling tide and Moyse Corbet, the Lieut-Governor, who had 40 mounted troopers, another 400 infantry drawn from the 78th Regiment and militia, supported by some of the militia cannon. Unable to land, the French ships returned to Brittany. The scare caused the British Government to more than double the size of the garrison on the island.

 

La Caumine a Marie Best

The only building still standing from the period of the 1779 invasion is the St Peter’s Guardhouse, also known as La Caumine à Marie Best, or, because it is whitewashed for sailors to use as a navigation mark, the White Cottage. The guardhouse and magazine, with its vaulted roof, replaced an earlier gun position, probably the one mentioned in Colonel Legge’s 1679 report, known as the Middle Boulevard, which was destroyed in an explosion in 1765.

 

The guns were placed about 15 metres in front of the building. Its association with Marie Best dates from just after the Napoleonic War, when Marie Anne Best (1790-1832), the daughter of an English soldier called Adam, and Marguerite Carrel, moved into the disused guardhouse with her children to avoid a smallpox outbreak. Over the years, deprived of its military use, it fell into disrepair and later inhabitants let more windows into the walls.

 

Along with most of the coastal defensive structures, the War Department sold the building and land after the Great War. It was bought by William Gregory in November 1925. In May 1932 he sold the building to Captain J A, Hilton but kept the associated land. Captain Hilton’s widow donated the cottage to the National Trust for Jersey in 1975. Today it is the oldest surviving defensive building in the bay.

 

La Caumine à Marie Best’ caused a bit of a stir in 2011 when it was painted a pale green as part of the National Trust’s green awareness campaign, because some people thought it was an official navigation marker. The Jersey Coastguard issued a public notice to the effect that, according to the Admiralty Chart of the bay, the white building marked as the recognised navigation mark in the area is actually Big Vern’s Diner, just to the north. Normality returned in 2012 when the building was repainted white.

 

Just to the north of the Watersplash stood another of the Conway towers, St Ouen’s No 4. It was probably built after the 1779 invasion attempt and, like the others, it was armed with an 18-pounder carronade on a traversing platform mounted on the roof. At some stage in the middle of the 19th century it was undermined by the sea and collapsed.

 

The Watersplash was originally built before the Occupation, as a private home called Idaho, by Arthur Parker. In January 1948 it was bought by Harry Swanson, who renamed it and turned it into a nightclub. The Watersplash has become something of an island institution, for it was here that Jersey’s current surfing culture started.

 

Surfing centre

In 1923 Nigel Oxenden and a few friends started what was probably Europe’s first surf club, the Island Surf Club of Jersey. These first surfers were all body boarders - lying on their boards rather than standing up - but with the Occupation and the removal of the beach huts along the shore surfing faded away.

 

Surfing restarted in 1958, when three young South Africans came to work at Parkin’s Holiday Camp at Plémont. They built their own hollow boards and took them to St Ouen’s Bay, where, recognising the potential, Harry Swanson hired them as “South African Hawaiian Board Riders” and lifeguards. Tourists and locals flocked to watch, and the following year a group of young islanders formed the Jersey Surfboard Club, which is now said to be the oldest club in Europe. In 1962 the first Surf-Riding Championship at was held at the ‘Splash and in 1966 the World Surfing Championship was held here.

 

Another beach café integral to the history of Island surfing is El Tico. Opened in 1948, in 1965 it became the site for the Jersey Life Guard Station and Centre.

 

It was not only water sports that St Ouen’s Bay was known for; it has also been the venue for sand racing since before the Occupation. Its heyday was probably in the late 1950s and '60s, when thousands of spectators watched the events.

 

Before the Watersplash and El Tico existed, in the 1920s and 1930s, the dunes between them were dotted with beach huts. All of these were cleared by the Germans to create a military no-go zone. Just beyond El Tico, and just over the parish boundary in St Brelade, stood another Conway tower, La Tour de la Pierre Buttée, or St Ouen No 5. Built after the 1779 invasion attempt, like its neighbour it collapsed around 1850 having been severely damaged by storms.

 

Le Braye Slipway (La Montée du Braye), which leads to the beach, along with its flanking walls, were built around 1869 to the designs produced by the architects Philip Le Sueur and Philip Bree, who are better known as the architects who worked on St Helier Town Hall in 1872 and the Royal Court Building in 1877.

 

Le Braye means 'passage between the rocks'. Old maps show that there was a rocky outcrop on the dunes at this point, so does the name refer to this and the track on to the beach which went through them, or does it refer to the narrow passage between the rocks to the south of Le Rocco Tower?

 

Le Pulec

The precipitous cliffs of Les Landes end at the small inlet known as Le Pulec. Although the name has come to mean ‘stinking bay’ because of the smell caused by rotting vraic that gets piled up here, it actually comes from the Old Norse word for Pool. Access to the small inlet was made easier in 1858 when an access road and slipway on to the beach were built.

 

Vraic was especially important for the light soils of this part of the island. It could be put straight on to the land to improve the soil, or it could be left in stacks to dry. In 1710 the Seigneur of Vinchelez de Haut Manor leased a field to Jean de Carteret and Jean Le Cornu for drying vraic, for which he received two cabots of wheat and two hens a year. In order to prevent erosion of the shoreline by carts going on to the beach in the 1850s and 1860s, the States built a number of granite slipways with short flanking walls. Over the years further stretches of seawall were built until, during the Occupation, the Germans forces linked them all together behind a reinforced concrete anti-tank wall, two metres thick and six metres high.

 

Dominating Le Pulec to the south is the massive rock that gives the area its name, L’Etacquerel, which comes from the old Norse word for a heap or a stack of rock – stakkr. While most buildings and the haven lie in the lee of the massive rock, a small cottage called La Voûte, because of its vaulted roof, was built on the seaward side in the 1th century. A datestone in its gable is testament to the fact that Jean Hubert and Elizabeth Le Gresley were living there in 1753.

 

The Chamber of Commerce report of 1872 noted that the fishery here involved about 12 boats and 30 fishermen, who mainly went out for crab and lobster. Slipways had been built at either end of the haven in the mid-1860s, to allow the boats to be hauled to safety off the beach, but the report also made the recommendation that a small breakwater should be built, because boats at anchor were frequently damaged because of a lack of one. From the seaward side, access was along La Bouque - a narrow, safe passage about three-quarters of a mile long through the reefs.

 

It was here at L’Etacq that in the late 1820s Philip Hacquoil built three boats – all just over 30 feet (9½ metres) and about 14 or 15 tons. These were the Friends and the Dophin in 1825, and the Hope three years later. In 1831 the Dolphin, which was owned by Philip Perree and his son, was seized and condemned for smuggling.

 

Further to the south is an area known as La Saline, which is where salt was collected by evaporating seawater from very shallow pools. This was first mentioned in 1248. Access to the beach here was improved in 1856 when the slipway - La Montée de la Brequette - was built. Near the slip, a house was built just after the Great War, to look like an early 19th century fort, complete with loopholed walls. It took its name from the field behind it - Le Petit Fort. In recent years a modern house has been built, destroying the illusion.

 

Beyond La Saline the place names give a clue as to the characteristics of the area: Les Laveurs was where the waves surged up the beach washing the shingle, La Crabiére took its name from the offshore rocks where crabs were caught and, just over the parish boundary, by the southern end of St Ouen's Pond, L’Ouzière, which took its name from the English word ‘ooze’, because before the sea wall altered the make up of the beach, this area was quite muddy.

 

For a long time this northern half of the bay was thought to have protection enough from any attempted enemy landing from the reefs running down from L’Etacq. A French map of the island dated 1757 shows the only defensive structure in the bay was a redoubt holding four cannons, in the vicinity of La Tour Cârrée, or The Square Tower. The current building, which is more of a blockhouse with loopholes for musketry than a tower, was put up in 1778. The following year, three 24-pounder cannons - referred to as the North Battery - were placed in front of it. Today it is painted white and black on the seaward side, as a navigation mark, and since 2007 it has been part of the Jersey Heritage holiday lets scheme.

 

With the growing tension following the attempted landing in the bay in 1779, and the Battle of Jersey two years later, further batteries were built. Among these, close to where Lewis’s Tower now stands, was the Du Parcq Battery. Named after Jean du Parcq, the Rector of St Ouen, who, during an attempted French landing in 1779, brought down several artillery pieces to form a battery on the beach. Originally it had three small-calibre guns and two 8-pounders, but by 1787 these had been replaced by three 24-pounders on a wooden platform behind a turf rampart.

 

During the 1830s, following a report that highlighted the threat posed by ships carrying larger calibre guns, which could hold position beyond the reefs and bombard the coast, these batteries were replaced by three of the last Martello towers to be built in Europe – Kempt Tower, Lewis Tower and L’Etacq Tower. The work on all three was supervised by Colonel G G Lewis, the Commanding Officer of the Royal Engineers in the Island, but the actual construction was carried out by local builders.

 

L’Etacq Tower was demolished by the Germans in 1942 to make way for a bunker housing a 105mm coastal gun. Since 1980 this has housed Faulkener Fisheries' vivier. As it was situated on the point at L’Etacq overlooking the small haven, it was also known as Le Havre Tower. Built by John Benest in 1833 for £840, it was armed with a single 24-pounder gun set on a traversing platform on the roof, and was garrisoned by a sergeant and twelve men.

 

Like the other towers in the island, once Britain and France became allies in the 1850s it was allowed to fall into disrepair; the War Department actively began to get rid of them after the Great War.

 

Work on Lewis’s Tower started in May 1835, but the builder Jean Gruchy, stopped work in June when Philippe du Heaume, the Seigneur of the Fief of Morville and Robilliard, raised the Clameur de Haro. His claim was upheld, and he received 600 Francs compensation. Work resumed in July that year. By spring 1837 it was nearly finished, although the ground floor magazine needed to be completed, as did the water cistern.

 

Jean Gruchy received £780 for his work, but within two years the Royal Engineers were complaining that it was not weather-tight and requested that a coating of cement be applied to reduce the problem of damp. During the Occupation a concrete extension was added to house a searchlight as it was part of Resistance Nest Lewis Tower, which also included the nearby bunker, with its 105 mm gun and 4.7 cm Pak 36(t) anti-tank gun. The bunker is now home to the Channel Islands Military Museum.

 

As the amount of leisure time increased in the years after the Great War, the dunes around the bay became dotted with beach chalets of all descriptions. Most were cleared by the Germans, although the more substantial chalet, popularly known as the Barge Aground, because of its shape, still remains. More correctly known as ‘Seagull’ it was built for Mr G L Cox by Mark Amy Ltd in 1935. During the Occupation it was used as a canteen by the Germans, and from the 1970s until 2001 it was used by the island Scout Association. Since 2006 it has been self-catering holiday accommodation.

 

Shipwrecks

The rocks and reefs of this part of the bay have seen their fair share of shipwrecks. In 1859 the 113-ton racing schooner, belonging to the Royal Yacht Squadron, Alca sank off L’Etacq. Her owner Mr Delmé-Radcliffe, his guests and crew took to the boats. All 14 people on board were saved.

 

A more recent wreck was the 76-ton ketch Hanna, of Poole, which struck the reef a quarter of a mile off L’Etacq just before midnight on Saturday 19 November 1949. She was carrying a cargo of limestone from Brixham to St Helier. Her crew of three were rescued by the Lifeboat RNLB Elizabeth Rippon but the vessel was a total loss.

 

La Rocco

About half a mile straight out from Le Braye slip lies a natural outcrop of Jersey shale La Rocco - from Rocque Hou which means ‘the rocky islet’. The northern side of this islet is called La Joue, the ‘prow’, from the way it presented itself to the incoming swell. Because of its position, guarding the approach to the beach, La Rocco was selected as the site for the last of the Conway towers to be built in the island.

 

CoastMapStOuenS.png

In addition to the usual design, this tower also had a surrounding bulwark for four guns. Work started in 1796 but was hampered by lack of funds, and because of the low wages offered, local stonemasons were not too keen to be involved in the contract either. By 1798 the project had overrun its original budget and the Lieut-Governor had to come up with more money to complete the job. In May 1799 he had to take 15 stone masons to court to get them to complete the job. Finally, at a cost of over £8,000, the work was done and in May 1801 the tower was named after the Lieut-Governor, Lieutenant General Andrew Gordon [1]. Manned by a subaltern, a sergeant, two corporals, a drummer and 18 privates, its armament consisted of five 24-pounders.

 

It continued to be manned after 1815, and by 1848 a report shows that its armament had been upgraded to 32-pounders. It was abandoned in the 1850s following the improvement in relations with the French, and by 1896 the War Department proposed selling it. The States eventually bought it in July 1922 for £100, with the intention of creating a day-mark for shipping.

 

Occupation damage

The tower suffered considerable damage during the Occupation when a landmine on the southern side of the bulwark accidentally went off. The popular story is that the damage was caused by German gunnery. Whatever the real story, it was neglect and severe weather over the next few years that caused the extensive damage. A States report in November 1962 noted the damage and, with typical governmental alacrity, in October 1968 it was proposed that the States would pay 50% of the cost of repairs, if the public would pay the other half. A La Rocco Tower Appeal Committee was formed to raise the £17,500 required and, backed by the Jersey Evening Post, raised the money in just under 15 weeks. Rebuilding work began in the late spring of 1969 and was finished in 1972.

 

In the 1920s the tower was leased to Lady Houston, who used it as her ‘beach hut’. In 1931 she gave £100,000 towards the development of what was to become the Spitfire. In January 1806 the English vessel Adventure, on passage from Malta to London, was wrecked near La Rocco. Captain Watson and all his crew were saved but the ship was lost. The fates were not so kind in March 1861 when the 250-ton French vessel La Cultivateur, sailing from Dublin to Rouen, struck rocks off La Rocco and five of the nine-man crew, despite being able to swim, were drowned. It was not only ships that came to grief on La Rocco: in November 1940 a Dornier 17 crashed here while on a training flight and all four Luftwaffe personnel were killed.

 

Once completed, La Rocco tower became part of the fortification network in the bay. Just to the south of Le Braye, towards La Carrière, stood St Ouen’s No 6, also known as la Tour du Sud. Built by 1786, the tower was severely undermined by coastal erosion following a high spring tide and violent storm on 19 March 1847. By 1851 half the tower had collapsed, and what was left was used for target practice by the Militia artillery. Today no trace of the tower remains, although there is a marvellous photograph taken just before its destruction.

 

Quarry

Where the escarpment sweeps back to the coast there was a quarry - La Carrière - and it was here that one of the early gun positions in the bay was sited. In his 1685 report William Salt indicated that two demi-culverins were here. These cannon, which fired an 8-9lb shot, had a range of about a mile, although they were only really effective at up to a third of that distance.

 

The strategic importance of this area was recognised by the Germans, too, and two massive bunkers, a heavy machine gun position, a personnel shelter and a searchlight bunker were built into La Tête du Nièr Côte behind the anti-tank wall. Known as Resistance Point La Carrière, they are maintained and opened to the public by the Channel Island Occupation Society.

 

As part of this building work, the slipway known as La Charrière du Mont du Feu was demolished and blocked, although traces can still be seen in and around the anti-tank wall. The name commemorated the du Feu family who owned the land.

 

The shore alongside La Pulente slip, more properly known as La Montée du Sud, was known as Le Grand Havre, and beyond the slip was Le Petit Havre. While they may not look like harbours to us today, they were recognised landing points in the past. In 1299 records show that duty was collected on a cargo of wine unloaded here.

 

In 1309 court records mention a wreck at La Pulente, whose cargo was 32 pieces of iron, some verdigris, two barrels of ‘roker’ fish (Thornback Rays), 12 lb of chalk, some ginger, six measures of cinnamon, six measures of pepper (these three spices were valued at 40 livres), six lengths of strong white cotton cloth (dimity), 140 yards of canvas valued at 8 livres, one mast, small logs of timber and a hand wheel.

 

The fishery survey published in 1872 noted:

 

"There is but one boat, we found here three or four fishermen from town who frequently visited this bay and told us they considered it the best bay for fish, particularly whiting, but the sea was always very rough and dangerous".

 

This survey was undertaken just after La Montée du Sud had been completed. This allowed small boats to be hauled up from the beach and more boats began to be used here by the end of the century. The slip also allowed carts easier access to the vraicing area. Marks, such as La Merq de la Charrièrre, just below the slip, were set up among the rocks, which as the tide dropped and they became visible meant vraicing could begin. Sometimes the mark was a designated rock, sometimes it was an iron spike set in the top of a rock.

 

Like Le Pulec, La Pulente is derived from the Old Norse word for pool and endi the Norse word for end – so it means the pool at the end of the bay. In the 19th century a hotel was built here to cater for the growing number of visitors to the island. In the 1880s the landlord, Thomas Gibaut, was also one of the leaders of a smuggling gang who used the beach to land contraband before distributing it in Town. In June 1889, following a tip-off, the police intercepted a van carrying 20 barrels of illicit spirits in Devonshire Place, outside the home of Gibaut’s father. Inside the house they found another barrel. Altogether over 300 gallons of spirit was recovered.

 

The hotel was evacuated during the Occupation and partly demolished, before it was gutted of anything burnable during the last winter of the war. Rebuilt in 1946, the hotel to all extents and purposes became a public house.

 

Thursday 23 April 1896 must have been a slow news day in Guernsey as their newspaper, The Star, reported a nasty incident involving two men at La Pulente the previous Sunday. While riding their tandem, a cow had kicked their machine ‘rendering it useless, owing to half a dozen spokes being broken’. The traumatised pair had to walk to La Moye Station, carrying their machine with them in order to catch the train back to Town.

 

The following February The Star also reported the sad fate of John Syvret, who had fallen ‘40ft’ over the edge of the quarry at La Pulente to his death while going fishing. The rather unsympathetic headline read ‘A Ne’er-do-Well’s Sad End’. The headland John Syvret was walking over to get to the beach was L’Oeillière, which means peep hole. This could refer to a pierced rock or more probably some form of early lookout tower.

here we go again with the start of my 52 week project this is my lovely niece megan who im sure will pop up again over the year :)

had a hard time picking my pic, still not sure ive made the right choice....

so this week we've had the typical weird customers in work i got asked if we sold travel irons, hmm....

then we had the woman who came in with bird poo all down her back and in her hair, i wasnt sure weather i should tell her or not (sometimes ignorance is bliss ;) but then i started to feel really bad that she was walking around like that, so i looked around the shop but she'd already gone, ooops!!

I also accidentally elbowed christina in the face eekk!! well, thats what you get for sneaking up and tickling me hehe :)

I was a little traumatised when i saw a christmas tree in a skip outside someones house poor christmas tree :(

So many jellies washed up on the beach and some of them HUGE! I hate swimming in the ocean because I'm still traumatised from getting severely stung by a bluebottle when I was a wee tote. Seeing all these jellies did nothing to ease my anxiety about being in the water.

v The historian Lynette Silvers wrote the following information in a press release post excavation of the site.

(She has a web site on the books on she has written on this and other important Australian WW11 stories)http://lynettesilver.com/

 

In January 1942, as the Japanese pushed the Allied army down the Malay peninsula, two under-strength Australian infantry battalions (the 2/19th and 2/29th), some gunners from 2/15th Field and 4 Anti-tank Regiments, and a depleted Indian Army contingent held back a vastly superior enemy force of 10,000 crack Japanese Imperial Guards.

 

This epic Muar battle, which prevented the enemy from cutting the line of retreat of the main Allied forces, is one of the most desperate, and least known, fighting retreats of WW2, for which the Australian commander, Lieutenant-Charles Anderson, was awarded a Victoria Cross.

 

After four days of relentless combat, the defenders reached the bridge at the village of Parit Sulong, only to find it in Japanese hands. With no hope of relief, and refusing to consider surrender, Anderson gave the order 'every man for himself'. Left behind in trucks at the bridge were the very badly wounded – 110 Australian and 35 Indian soldiers, all expecting Red Cross protection. This was not to be, and what followed was one of the most infamous massacres of the war.

 

The massacre

It was not until mid-afternoon that the enemy, advancing cautiously through the ruined village, reached the convoy. Shouting and yelling, they forced the injured from the vehicles and across a parit (drainage ditch) to the front of a Public Works Department (PWD) accommodation block. Anyone who lagged behind was belted with rifle butts, kicked, bayoneted, or shot.

 

Stripped of their clothing, the prisoners huddled together, while the Japanese searched their belongings. However, the sight of naked white men attracted the attention of passing enemy troops, some of whom broke ranks to kick, punch and prod the captives with bayonets. An officer singled out one prisoner for 'execution' by the sword, only to abort his downswing, just short of his terrified victim's neck. A badly wounded Indian, whose cries and moans irritated his captors, was also bayoneted, and forcibly drowned in the nearby, water-filled parit.

 

The searches over, the prisoners were ordered to dress. Now clad in whatever they could grab, they were herded at bayonet point into a small garage adjoining the PWD block. The Japanese paid no heed to screams of the badly wounded, and several died of suffocation before the group was moved to two rooms at the end of the PWD block.

 

Just before sunset, each prisoner's hands were tied with a length of rope, which was then passed around his neck and secured to the next prisoner. Anyone who could not stay upright was cut from the line, bashed or bayoneted, and left for dead. When the rope ran out, the Japanese used lengths of signal wire until that too, was exhausted, leaving the last twenty or so prisoners unsecured.

 

They were then forcibly moved in groups around the far end of the building and machine-gunned. Bodies of those who had been cut from the line, or died previously, were added to the pile of the dead and dying. Dousing them with petrol, the Japanese then set them alight, in a futile attempt to destroy the evidence of their crime.

 

Post-war, not a single trace of any of these victims was found. As the Japanese claimed that they had been cremated, no further investigation in regard to the remains was ever undertaken.

 

Although all physical evidence of the massacre had 'vanished', the Japanese responsible did not escape retribution. Two Australians survived not only the carnage, but also the war. However, 18-year-old Reg Wharton, one of those left untied, was so traumatised that he never spoke about it. After somehow evading machine-gun bullets, he had rolled free of the flames before finally diving into a parit, where he remained hidden. The other long-term survivor was Lieutenant Ben Hackney; who became the prosecution's prime witness in a war crimes trial held in 1950.

 

Hackney's survival was miraculous. Trussed and tied, and unable to stand on badly injured legs, he had been cut from the line, bayoneted repeatedly and left for dead. Lying undetected in the shadow of the garage, he had witnessed everything that occurred before managing to free himself and hide in the jungle. Five weeks later, he was recaptured. As he was escorted from the Parit Sulong Police station and across the killing field to the local Japanese headquarters, a short distance away, he was surprised to see no evidence at all of the slaughter that had occurred such a short time previously. At war's end, after enduring the horrors of the Burma-Thai railway, Hackney returned to Australia. His compelling evidence ensured that General Nishimura Takuma, the officer who had issued the orders to kill the prisoners, was hanged at Manus Island in 1951.

 

The search for remains:

What became of the remains of the murdered Allied soldiers was not questioned until 1998, when I began in-depth research into the Muar battle and the subsequent massacre for my book 'The Bridge at Parit Sulong'. Even then, the stories were conflicting.

 

One Japanese interrogated post-war stated that he believed the bodies had been thrown into the river – a method of disposal considered unlikely due to the distance and effort required. Other Japanese, involved in the fighting at Parit Sulong, claimed that the remains had been cremated. This story, told to Australian officers in Changi, was strengthened by the post-war discovery of charred bones buried further along the road (actually those of Indian troops, killed during the fighting and cremated several months after the battle). Such 'evidence' not only gave credence to the Japanese claim. It also ensured that no further searches were conducted.

 

There is no doubt that the bodies were doused in petrol and set on fire. However, once the fuel burnt off, the fire went out. The Japanese then left, leaving final disposal until the next morning. There was no further cremation. The Japanese had neither the fuel, nor the time to cremate such a large number of bodies. Furthermore, there was a witness - Hackney, who was still in hiding only a short distance away.

 

The first inkling that the corpses had not been cremated was not until the late 1990s, when the daughter of a villager told an Australian, Paul Wright, that her father had been forced to untie the bodies and drag them to a nearby 'burial pit'. A new element was added to the investigation when, on a visit to Parit Sulong in 2003, I learned that, during the upgrading of the bridge, a number of human femurs had been unearthed on the river bank.

 

Following the publication of my book in 2004, I began a campaign to have a memorial erected, and to press for an official investigation to establish if a mass grave existed at the site. With the support of the Office of Australian War Graves, I was invited to address an expert panel to argue my case. The panel concluded that, although it was possible that the remains may have disposed of in the river, in light of the reported burial further investigation was warranted.

 

To coincide with the unveiling of the memorial in 2007, an official announcement was made by the Army History Unit that a search for the remains would be undertaken.

 

The archaeological investigation:

It was not until the end of 2010, following a vigorous review of the evidence, and the discovery of another human bone on the river bank, that the Department of Defence's Unrecovered War Casualties Unit initiated a joint Australian-Malaysia archaeological survey of the site. The following March I joined a team of more than thirty Australian and Malaysian archaeologists, anthropologists, surveyors, geologists, researchers and a forensic dentist to begin an investigation.

 

The entire area was heavily overgrown. Once the foliage was cleared away, the old, silted-up parits, accepted by members of the reviewing panel as the most likely place to dispose of a large number of bodies, were identified by the surveyors. Pre-war archival maps, the PWD block, now a virtual ruin, and the foundations of the adjoining former police station provided excellent reference points. Meantime, a geological team used ground penetrating radar and resistivity testing equipment to search for any sub-subterranean soil disturbance.

 

Several 'hot spots' were identified. The most significant was the old main parit, abandoned long ago but which, in 1942, had widened out to form a large stream before emptying into the river. The excavation itself extended to the virgin clay, to a depth of up to two metres or more. As the mechanical excavators took out each bucket load, the archaeologists and geologists, aided by other members of the party, examined the exposed ground and the spoil for any signs that might indicate that a mass grave had been in that location.

 

Gathering more information:

While the excavations continued at a slow and steady pace, I and and members of the UWC unit interviewed several local people. There were numerous eye witnesses who confirmed previous information that local Chinese and British troops, captured south of the village, had been bayoneted on the bridge and pushed into the river. Although these bodies had floated back and forth on the tide for some days until they eventually sank, no one reported seeing, or had ever heard of, any burnt bodies among them. Based on this evidence, it appeared that, if the massacre victims had been disposed of in the river, the corpses must have disappeared before the villagers returned to what was left of their homes, about three weeks after the battle.

 

As the village was 'out of bounds' for this period, no one interviewed had any first-hand information about the massacre, although some had seen the remains of those killed in battle lying in parits further up the road. We also learned that, about a month after the fighting, the area had been inundated when the Simpang Kiri River, swollen with monsoonal rains, broke its banks to the east of the village. According to one man, the bodies of 'many Australians' lying unburied along the battle zone 'were washed away'. Another villager also reported that, prior to the flood, he had netted human remains while searching for fish in the roadside parits.

 

Local people also revealed that in recent years, when the river was dredged as part of a flood mitigation process, human bones were observed in the silt. It is now believed that the bones found on the river bank are the result of this dredging.

 

A significant discovery.

Crossing the plank spanning the PWD parit to and from the search area in order to interview villagers, I noticed a change in the water level. Further observation revealed that, at each low tide, the parit, which now discharges into the river via an underground pipe, is completely drained of water, leaving a layer of sludge and mud exposed. At high tide, the water is about one metre deep.

 

Since Hackney had reported that after their capture on the afternoon of 22 January, an Indian soldier had been drowned in the parit, I concluded that it must have been close to high tide at that time, as the body disappeared completely beneath the surface. Therefore, with a six-hour tidal change, low tide the next day would have been at around mid-morning, the time of the reported 'burial'. Also, at around this time, Hackney had reported hearing a disturbance at the killing field, from his hiding place in nearby jungle.

 

The results of the search:

The archaeological search was extremely thorough, extending far beyond the actual massacre site.

 

Although our brief was simply to ascertain if there was a mass grave, we had all had been hopeful of a positive result. However, to our great disappointment, three weeks of sifting through tonnes of earth yielded nothing other than bits of rubbish and odd artifacts, none of which was considered to be war-related.

 

Although my husband Neil spent many hours running a metal detector over heaps of excavated material, especially near the killing field, and archaeological assistants manually and diligently searched every pile, not a single solitary bullet was found, despite the fact that hundreds of rounds had been expended during the massacre.

 

Indeed, the most remarkable feature of the excavation was that there was nothing at all to indicate that the area had been subjected to fierce fighting, or that large numbers of Allied troops and civilians had been killed there. Malaysian archaeologist, Dr Stephen Chia, remarked that he had never excavated a site with such potential, that had yielded not a single archaeological find of any significance.

 

Interestingly, an Australian army officer who examined the area in 1945, following the cessation of hostilities, had noted this same phenomenon. Despite a search of the entire battle area, his investigating team had found no gear nor any kit lying about.

 

What happened to the remains of the massacred prisoners?

With no grave discovered, an evaluation of the previously known facts, in conjunction with the new information that came to light, is needed in order to form a logical conclusion.

 

1) None of the 145 soldiers left in the convoy at the bridge survived the war, with the exception of Ben Hackney and Reg Wharton

 

2) No remains were ever found anywhere near the killing field.

 

3) The Japanese claimed the bodies had been cremated. Another believed they had been thrown into the river. A local woman claimed that her father and other villagers had been forced to untie the bodies and drag them to a burial pit.

 

4) Although bodies of Chinese and British troops captured south of the village were observed floating in the river, no one saw any that were burnt.

 

5) There was no sign of any grave, bodies or military kit when Hackney walked past the killing field, five weeks after the massacre, or when investigators arrived in late 1945.

 

6) Local people confirmed that that area of Parit Sulong floods on a regular basis, and floodwater inundated the area shortly after the battle.

 

7) Although some human bones were netted from the roadside parits along the battle line, after the flood they were no longer in evidence.

 

8) The bodies were reportedly dragged from the massacre site to a nearby burial pit mid- morning of 23 January. As it was low tide, the parits were empty.

  

Conclusion:

Based on the available evidence, it seems that there is an element of truth in each of the methods of disposal claimed over the years – cremation, burial and in the river.

 

The bodies were doused in fuel and set on fire. However, with cremation very incomplete, the following morning local people were forced to drag them into a nearby burial pit. Yet, we found no trace of this grave.

 

It is known that the Japanese, who rarely dug a grave to bury their victims, made use of shell holes, slit trenches, wells, ditches and monsoon drains. At ParitSulong, on the morning of 23 January, the large main parit, drained of water at low tide, would have been the most convenient method of disposal.

 

It is possible that the bodies were then covered in mud or silt. However, as the Japanese officer in charge of the disposal did not arrive at Divisional Headquarters at nearby Batu Pahat until 7 pm, it is likely that, late that afternoon, many of the corpses were floated into the river on the outgoing tide, possibly with the help of bamboo poles. The remainder would have been flushed out over the next few days by either monsoonal rains or the tide. By the time the local people returned to the village, all trace of the massacre victims would have disappeared.

 

Any remains, still lying in the mud, along with any gear and equipment, would have been swept away by storm water and/or the subsequent floodwaters that inundated the area. This scouring would also account for the total lack of any equipment, when the investigating team arrived at the village at the end of the war, and why Hackney saw no sign of the massacre as he passed by the killing field, a mere five weeks later.

 

Mother Nature had done her job well.

 

A final tribute:

With the investigation complete and everything that had been unearthed photographed and logged, the excavated areas were filled in.

 

During the three-week search period, a number of villagers had maintained a close watch on the entire proceedings, which they now regarded in a very positive light. With the compacted soil turned over to a depth of more than two metres across a vast expanse, what had been a useless wasteland could now be turned into a productive agricultural area, suitable for growing vegetables, fruit trees and other crops.

 

One local man had visited the site each day. Greatly moved by the story of Hackney and his comrades, he created a small garden at the rear of the PWD buildings, which he named 'Hackney Garden'. As a further tribute, the village headman agreed to name the small road leading to the site, Hackney Lane.

 

The expedition concluded with a simple ceremony, on the the bridge spanning the Simpang Kiri River, whose waters had become a final resting place for so many. The Ode was recited for all those who had lost their lives and Flanders poppies dropped from the parapet in their memory. As the blood-red blooms floated away on the outgoing tide, we stood in silence, reflecting on the tragic events that had taken place at the bridge at Parit Sulong, on 22 January 1942.

 

`A traumatised, bewildered, immobilised witness, propelled by the blowback of a catastrophic history' (Dominick LaCapra, www.cornell.edu/video/sebald-and-the-narration-of-trauma)

The "Green Line" (or "no man's land") is the dividing line of the Lebanese civil war in Beirut from 1975-1990

 

A ‘no man’s land’ developed between the Christian east and the Muslim west. Grass and plants sprouted amongst the deserted streets in the belt of land that separated the two halves of the city, and it became known as ‘the Green Line’. Over time, ‘the Green Line’ widened and stretched right out into Beirut’s suburbs and beyond. The people moved out as the conflict raged over the years.

 

Today there are parts of the "Green Line" in central Beirut where people never returned, the memories and the structural damage were too horrific. These once residential areas are now like ghost suburbs; over grown with vegetation, shattered glass, rubbish, and heavily pitted walls from gunfire.

 

One still feels the traumatised emotions of the civil war when walking through these streets, which even today is not recommended, especially at night.

as the swedish worker has a cuddly 35 hour week in handsome conditions, they order some german orks to do the ugly work.

the mill was a 60m high dark fortress of doom. working conditions were affecting physical and mental state.

on the lower levels it has been temperatures like outside, the levels above had plenty 30°C and as the silo stands on the entrance of a harbour to the skargerak, it sometimes had -17°C on the rooftop, due to the wind.

you have two switch permanently through the different levels. on the most stages is an earsplitting noise caused by machines.

 

the air of some stages is filled by a fine chrystalline dust, that caused a dry cough and nosebleed by some colleagues.

we changed some huge components and innstalled the mainparts of a new product-line. mainly heavyly steelwork.

workingtime 12 to 14 hours a day, twenty days in a row. after ten days we had one day off, because our boss had a breakdown and was taken to the hospital for safety-reasons.

 

when i came back home i was totally exhausted and kind of mentaly traumatised. it took me while to readapt my normal environment. i still feel sorry for the disturbances my girlfriend had to suffer.

 

to imagine that many people over the world has to work under far more worse conditions,

disillusioned me.

Carrying her baby on her chest and holding two dogs by her side, I saw her walking in my direction and I called out to her: "May I make a picture of you?"

Yes, she nodded.

 

As we approached, I introduced myself in Finnish but was glad to know that she was what we call Finlandssvensk, a Finn speaking Swedish, a language I am much more familiar with.

 

I told Lisa about my Strangers photo project. She said she takes lots of pictures and she loves photography. If she had to start her studies now she would have chosen photography.

 

Lisa is a graduate of Aalto University - the School of Arts, Design and Architecture.

She is a clothing designer although she hasn't worked in her profession yet.

design.aalto.fi/en/studies/programmes/masters_degree/fash...

She has been working at marimekko some time in the past.

 

Lisa has a four months old baby boy, Frank, her first child.

Between the baby and the dogs she is a busy woman.

 

Lisa told me about her dogs. Kolja, the black one, has been rescued by Lisa and her husband some two years ago. He is a hunting dog who had been abused and consequently severely traumatised. Kolja walks with his tail folded between his legs and fears everything and everybody, although it's been better recently.

My heart went out to him, poor doggie :-(

  

W23

 

A Mercedes-Benz with the engine at the back, Henri Malartre had said on the phone. Quite rare, he added. Malartre wasn’t interested in the Mercedes. As a result of his experiences during the Second World War, he disliked German cars. But Ghislain Mahy didn’t – and so he set off on another of his journeys to Lyon.

 

The Mercedes was a 130 H from 1934, one of the three models that Benz built with the engine over the back axle. A ‘heckmotor’ as the Germans called it; hence the ‘H’ in the type name. With some ‘encouragement’ from Adolf Hitler, this was the company’s attempt to design an affordable car for common people. The 130 H was thought to be designed by Hans Nibel, who succeeded Ferdinand Porsche as chief engineer at Mercedes-Benz, although some people believe that Porsche had a hand in at least some of the design. The Mercedes-Benz 130 H that headed towards Ghent on the back of Mahy’s lorry was a first year model, one of just 2500 that were ever made. This was a very low number for what was supposed to be a ‘car for the people’.

 

It didn’t take long for Mahy to discover the origin of the vehicle, thanks to the extensive Mercedes museum at the company’s home base in Stuttgart. The 130 H was bought new by a Dr. Friedrich Husemann. In 1930, he opened a sanatorium for psychiatric patients in Wiesneck near Freiburg. A safe place – or so it was thought until the evil ideology of the Nazis decided differently. Hitler and his cronies regarded the mentally ill as ‘unfit to live’. As a result, after the Nazis came to power in 1933, sanatoria were forced to engage in an active programme of euthanasia for their patients. With great courage and at risk to his own life, Dr. Husemann was able to prevent all his patients from being murdered in this way. It was a remarkable achievement. After the war, a traumatised Husemann moved into spiritual healing. He died in 1959. His clinic in Wiesneck still exists. So too does his Mercedes-Benz.

 

Mahy - a Family of Cars

09/09/2021 - 31/10/2021

 

Vynckier Site

Nieuwevaart 51-53

Gent

Belgium

A camp for internally displaced people in Fallujah, Iraq, where Caritas has set up educational programmes for young people, a healthcare centre and a centre for traumatised women. Credit: Sir/Rocchi

Nawal is a psychologist working fr the International Rescue Committee in Jordan. With the help of funding from the UK, she provides counselling to Syrian women who have fled to Jordan to escape the conflict in Syria.

 

"Most of the women here are traumatised. They have nightmares and psychological problems due to what they've witnessed in Syria. Many of them have lost family members in the fighting", she says.

 

"I try to encourage them to focus on the future, and to live their lives here as refugees. We don't how or when they will be able to go back home, so we encourage them to take their children to school here and live here as best they can.

 

"The services that we can provide with the help of UK aid make a big difference to their lives. The need is great, and we need more help, but together we are helping these women through this very difficult time."

 

Find out more about UK support for the Syria humanitarian crisis

 

Picture: Russell Watkins/Department for International Development