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My Three Uncles, Victoria Cross Winner, Cameronian and Panzer Soldier


Kenny Andrew

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Probably why the Army went for smaller headgear post WW2. The ToS became much smaller and most units went to small berets worn tight and pulled to the right.

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  • 2 years later...

Hi Kenny, sorry it took me a while to getting around to this, anyway went and got a few pics of Centenary Park for you,a very nicely kept cemetary,the Australians do a good job of this sort of thing. 

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behind the cross is a set of service mens memorials which are set behind two pines , a picture of the plaque explaining the pines is next....

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Thanks for taking the time to search him out Bruce, I will pass that picture onto my relatives, please put a poppy there for me too. 

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  • 2 years later...

A customer was in the shop last week who is building a museum in Holland featuring the Cameronians. I told him about my uncle and showed him the picture from the Daily Record of him sitting in the Landing Craft. When I showed it to him, he said I have that picture in a book. He later brought in the book "Cinderella Operation" by Gerald Rawling and sure enough there was the picture of my uncle. I managed to get hold of a second hand copy today and here are the scans of the picture, you can see the picture in the book is slightly different too ,must have been taken a few seconds later. Quite a thing to find. 

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Footage of British and Canadian troops advancing on Tilburg and conducting the amphibious invasion of Walcheren Island in the Netherlands 1944.  Walcheren island was the last enemy stronghold in the Scheldt estuary, and this action allowed the Allies ocean access to the recently captured city of Antwerp.

 

 

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  • 7 months later...

Some new pictures of my uncle Tom

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Studio postcard portrait

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His last visit to the UK in 1968 for the The VC and GC Association in London, along side the two other winners of the VC from Carluke, William Angus VC and Donald Cameron VC. This was the last time my mother saw him as he passed away the following year.

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Carluke has the distinction of being home to three gallant recipients of the Victoria Cross - William Angus; Thomas Caldwell; and Donald Cameron. Among its other sons of note is Major General William Roy, the father of Ordnance Survey, born in Carluke in 1726 to whom a monument in the form of a “Trig” point stands in Miltonhead Road close to his place of birth.

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Thomas Caldwell's medals on display at the Royal Highlanders Museum, Glasgow, Scotland.

(Picture - Thomas Stewart)

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1960's

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  • 4 weeks later...

Thanks to Buster for finding Toms medal card, pity the VC is not mentioned, it seems to be in another section which we can't access at the moment.   

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  • 2 years later...

Just found this today, while looking at where I used to live on google earth. I had forgotten I used to walk by this monument everyday when going to primary school. It's actually a Cameronian monument. I remember as a little boy staring at this monument although at the time I had no idea of it's significance. 

 

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  • 3 months later...

Hello Kenny,

Firstly can I say thanks to you for accepting my membership of your forum. Thanks for that, it's appreciated.

You've probably already seen these two following photographs of Tom Caldwell, William Angus and Donald Cameron. If not here they are...

They're not mine, they were passed onto myself from a guy on another forum. I'm sure he said the photographs were taken in Carluke before the VC and GC event down in London, but not totally sure.

It's nice seeing the three of them together in colour.

Carluke VCs 20001.jpg

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The second photograph taken at the same time shows a fourth guy. I was told that he was James Martin, the officer William Angus rescued which led to the VC award (I've not conformed this so not totally sure).

 

Cheers.

Carluke VCs0001.jpg

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Thanks Ian and welcome to the forum and thanks for posting these pictures. You are correct I have not seen these before, only the black and white one I posted from the same day above. The colour photos really bring out the medals especially the Victoria Crosses. I think this is Carluke as I remember my mother saying uncle Tom visited from Australia, must have been around 1965 I think, when this would have been taken as he died three years later.      

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He (Tom Caldwell) was my Grandfather's cousin, a distant relative I suppose (cousin, twice removed, or something like that?).

I only found that out a few years ago from my Dad. You know what Dad's are like, they tell you nothing about family history until they're in their 90's then off the cuff come out with "Your grandfathers cousin won the VC" and "oh aye, we used to see Willie Angus all the time up the park at Carluke, watching the football".

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Very true Ian, so we must be related too, strange days indeed  :) 

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Somewhere along the line, yes.

 

TBH, I've never done the family history research so not sure how it all fits into place, which is sort of strange considering how much time we spend researching the family history of medals awarded to other folks families.

 

I hope everything's going well down in your Glasgow shop, I've not visited for ages (sort of lost the collecting bug years back but slowly getting back into it), hope it's all going well. Cheers 👍🏽

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Hi Ian, yes thanks we are very busy at the moment. you never loose the collecting bug. I've lost count the amount of times I've stopped and re-started.  Yes next time you are in Glasgow pop in and say hello, we can try to work out exactly what relation we are to each other :thumbsup:     

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  • 5 months later...

This is amazing! I've got a stall at Carluke market selling my highland cows, but military history is my passion. I read the memorials and have looked up the names and I'm just stunned. Three VC winners from Carluke, all incredible stories! I'm going to post this on my Facebook group, 'World War Tourists' and share it into different military history groups, as long as there's no objection.

Nick Field

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Hi Nick, sure that is no problem, welcome to the forum 

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Thank you Kenny. This is a gold mine find for me. I spent all day with it on my mind, then, once the market was finished, I went to the graveyard to find William Angus, VC. When I found him, I saw that he lost his son, right at the end of the war, but I can't find anything other than he was a pilot and went missing in his Beaufighter right at the end of the war. I'll be posting it on Facebook shortly.👍🏼

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Thanks Nick, I have not seen Williams grave, I've not been to Carluke in years, very sad about his son, just at the end of the war too.  

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Quite a few Allied soldiers went missing in the Russian zone after May 1945, many were never heard of again.

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