30 November 2014

1101197 Flt Sgt Laurence Helm, 39 Sqdn, RAF VR


Remembering today 1101197 Flight Sergeant Laurence Helm of No 39 Squadron, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve who lost his life on this day, 30th November, 1942. He has no known grave and is commemorated on panel 3, column 2 of the Malta Memorial (pictured above, courtesy Wikipedia).

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

2 November 2014

Derek and Henry Cecelin, civilians


According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website, 137 service personnel and civilian air raid casualties died on the 2nd November 1940. Amongst the latter, was 15-year-old Derek Anthony Cecelin who died at King's College Hospital. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records that his home address was 31 Angell Road, Brixton and that he was the son of Henry Bohuslan Cecelin who also died at the hospital on the same day. He was 51 years old.

I have not found Henry on the 1911 census but his marriage in 1923 to Lily Blakeney is recorded as is Derek's birth in 1925. Derek was a twin, his brother Kenneth Bohuslan Cecelin's birth also recorded in the third quarter of 1925 in the district of Thanet, Kent. Kenneth Cecelin died in 1985.

The bomb site website notes that a total of 21 high explosive bombs were dropped in Brixton Hill between October 1940 and June 1941. Map, below courtesy of www.bombsight.org; blitz image from Wikipedia.


Remembering Derek and Henry Cecelin.