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Emotional reunion party planned for wartime buddies
The Imperial War Museum North, Friday June 14, 2.00pm
Friendship,
fortitude and sheer human endurance saw some very special bonds
develop during the Second World War.
Now, more than 50 years on, a spectacular party is being held at
Manchester's new Imperial War Museum North to re-unite some of those
wartime buddies and celebrate the special BBC project which made
it all happen.
We'll
Meet Again involved BBC Local Radio listeners from all over Britain
working together to re-unite wartime friends and colleagues.
Hundreds of people responded to appeals for information on the 39
stations but the search expanded even further still, with people
getting in touch from across the world through the We'll Meet Again
website. (www.bbc.co.uk/meetagain)
Across
the airwaves listeners exchanged memories of shipmates, aircrew
buddies, land army girls, fellow evacuees or just a friend glimpsed
on a chaotic railway station.
Some
amazing stories were uncovered and the project has already succeeded
in bringing many people back together.
The
first success of We’ll Meet Again, which received the backing
of Forces favourite Dame Vera Lynn, happened within hours of the
broadcasts on Remembrance Sunday 2001.
John
Coward from Preston wanted to contact some of his old friends from
the RAF, 1942-1946.
He was looking for people who trained as pilots in the USA - in
Detroit and Pensacola in Florida and was specifically looking for
WO Gilbert Leach, whose last known address was in the Leeds area,
and WO Dolf Perkin, last heard of in Truro.
BBC Radio Leeds and BBC Radio Cornwall broadcast his story and within
24 hours both had been located. Gilbert lives in Yorkshire and Dolph
Perkins had moved to Nottinghamshire.
John's
search isn't quite over though, he is still looking for WO Arthur
Dobbs who was last known to be living in the Bristol area.
Sheila
Oldcroft, nee Parkinson, was 11 when, along with hundreds of other
schoolchildren, she was sent into the country to escape the bombing
in her home city of Manchester.
She became one of thousands of young evacuees being cared for in
strangers' homes and was placed with the Heap family in Samlesbury
near Preston.
They
treated the little girl as a member of the family and Sheila and
the Heap's daughter Joan became best friends.
For Joan, now living in Blackburn, Sheila was the sister she never
had. After two very happy years Sheila went back home and the girls
lost touch. Sixty long years later they were reunited and they couldn't
have been happier.
Other searches have been made by: Douglas Ousby from Workington,
Cumbria; code breaker Jo Lewington from Reading; radio operator
Roy Clark from Market Rasen; and the amazing story of Stan Yule,
from Stockton-on-Tees, who, along with his crew, survived a dangerous
flight mission after one of the engines on his plane failed.
The
party on Friday 14 June at the Imperial War Museum North, Manchester,
will celebrate the many successes, and give those involved the chance
to revisit wartime friendships.
There will be a very special surprise for one war veteran and a
documentary film crew will be there to capture some truly memorable
moments for a landmark programme to be screened on BBC TWO, Thursday
20 June - see separate release.
Hosted by Dad's Army star Bill Pertwee, the party will feature very
special guest Marguerite Patten, the Queen of ration book cuisine,
who will be hosting a wartime cookery demonstration.
There will also be special performances from 40s band Sticky Wicket
and members of international dance troupe Jiving Lindy Hoppers.
The party will also give the wartime buddies the opportunity to
have a sneak preview of the Imperial War Museum North before it
opens in July.
Campaign producer Catherine Mitchell said: "We’ll Meet
Again is a wonderful project that has brought people back together
who have spent more than half a century wondering what happened
to long-lost comrades.
"We have given them the chance to renew old acquaintences and
there have been many poignant moments. The party is a celebration
of all those stories and the amazing friendships which have stood
the test of time."
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