A Covent Garden Christmas

* Season’s Greetings 2015 *

[Photographs taken in December 2015]

1. Christmas tree outside St Paul’s Church,

Covent Garden, London

2. Covent Garden ‘Apple Market’ barrows

(At the entrance to the former indoor fruit market)

3. The Covent Garden indoor ‘Apple Market’

(Seasonally decorated by large artificial mistletoe)

Formerly London’s fruit and vegetable market

Traders now sell antiques, collectables, art works, etc

4. Reindeer street decoration

(The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is in the background)

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During WW2, London’s main fruit and vegetable market remained at Covent Garden as it had done since 1670. In 1973 the fruit and vegetable market moved to New Covent Garden at Nine Elms, S.W. London about 3 miles (c. 5 kilometres) from its original site.

Between 1973 and 1980 the original Covent Garden was redeveloped as a popular shopping, tourist, theatrical and entertainment district, as seen in the photographs above. Christmastime at Covent Garden in 2015 was rather different to Christmastime during the Second World War, especially that of December 1940 when London was being bombed on most nights. 

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French Resistance Exhibition in Cumbria

1. The British and French flags hang side-by-side

Honouring a WW2 agent, Sister Olga Baudot de Rouville

(A member of the ‘PAT’ escape and evasion network)

[Cumbria Archives, Whitehaven (Dec. 2015 / Jan. 2016)] 

2. Information board summarising the exhibition:

“A most remarkable woman”

(Mlle. Maud Olga Andrée Baudot de Rouville)

[The exhibition is based on her personal collection]  

3. Mr and Mrs Tim Heslop at the exhibition opening

With a Red Cross uniform of Olga Baudot de Rouville.

Tim Heslop’s father was Dr John Heslop. M.C.   

[Dr Heslop worked with Olga in the P.O.W. hospital at Lille]

4. French Christmas card sent to Olga (21 December 1945)

[It was sent by her friend Paula from Mouvaux, Nord] 

5. A personal business card and a 1946 New Year Card

[Part of the personal collection of Olga Baudot de Rouville]

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Captain Michael V.P. Fleming (1913 – 1940)

1. WW1 memorial, Palace of Westminster, London

Inside Westminster Hall [Photo taken with permission]

Remembering M.P.s Lords and officers killed in WW1

Major Valentine Fleming. M.P. (1882 – 1917) is listed

2. Captain Michael Fleming (1^st left) & other officers

4^th Battalion, Oxford & Bucks. L.I.  

Taken at Attiches, France (March 1940)

Courtesy of Cumbria County Archives / Fleming family.

3. The Catholic University (‘Catho’), Lille

Staff and student accommodation building 

(This is across the road from the chapel)

Where wounded B.E.F. officers were cared for (1940)

4. Captain Michael Valentine Paul Fleming's headstone

Lille Southern Cemetery, France (Grave 5/B/29)

Photograph taken with permission 

5. Addresses in a post-war diary and address book

It belonged to Sister Olga Baudot de Rouville

(A Red Cross nurse in the P.O.W. hospital at Lille)

Bottom left is the name & address of Mrs Letitia Fleming

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Sister Olga Baudot de Rouville (1891 – 1979)

1. Cumbria County Council bookmarks:

[Left]: Sister Olga Baudot de Rouville (1891 – 1979)

A Red Cross nurse and M.I.9 agent

[Right]: Saint Thérèse of Lisieux prayer card

2. Cumbria County Council poster:

Sister Olga Baudot de Rouville and related documents

Part of an Archives exhibition (Dec. 2015 / Jan. 2016)

3. Two M.I. 9 ‘PAT’ line agents of WW2:

[Left]: "Françoise" with General De Gaulle

"Françoise" became head of the escape and evasion line

(Her true name was Marie-Louise Dissard)

[Right]: Olga Baudot de Rouville / ‘‘Thérèse Martin’’

A photograph used for a false I.D. card 

4. False I.D. card for “Suzanne Marie Gauthier”:

One of several false I.D. cards Olga used in the war

She was using this identity in the middle of 1944 

5. Haute- Savoie Health Service order:   

Issued to “Suzanne Gauthier” (18/09/1944)

Issued by the C.F.L.N. (F.F.I)

(French Committee of National Liberation)

(Issued shortly after the Liberation)

6. Travel Pass of “Suzanne Gauthier”:   

Authorising a journey to Paris after the Liberation

Issued by the Liberation Committee (19/09/1944) 

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Cumbria County Libraries and Archives Service

December 2015 – January 2016

“A Most Remarkable Woman”

An exhibition has been arranged at the Whitehaven Archives and Local Studies Centre about the life and the wartime experiences of Maud Olga Andrée Baudot de Rouville (1891 – 1979). It is based on a collection of her personal documents, photographs and possessions held by the Cumbria County Libraries and Archives Service. 

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The Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich

1. The Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich (O.R.N.C.)

[Now home to the Discover Greenwich Visitor Centre] 

2. The story of the Old Royal Navy College, Greenwich
Its motto: "By wisdom as much as war"
(Displayed at the Discover Greenwich Visitor Centre)

3. Part of the Oral History collection of the O.R.N.C.:
Naval Officer Derek Gaulter speaks about D-Day  

4. Another part of the Oral History collection:
The story of the WRNS training courses after 1939 

5. WW2 Cipher Officer Jane Eldridge tells her story.
(As a wartime WRN, she trained at Greenwich 1942/1943)

6. WW2 Officer Susan Martin (nee Byron) tells her story.
(As a wartime WRN, she also trained at Greenwich)
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A 1939 Electric Delivery Vehicle

1. Harrod’s Electric Vehicle No. 952 (side view)
This is a local 'carrying and delivering’ vehicle
Built in 1939 it was one of a fleet of 60 electric vehicles 

2. Harrod’s Electric Vehicle No. 952 (EYT 382)  

The restored vehicle is still being used: 

Covent Garden, London (November 2015) 

3. The story of Harrod’s inter-war electric vehicles

Display at Covent Garden, London (November 2015) 

4. Jonathan, a modern day chauffeur of E.V. 952

(Many original drivers were disabled ex-servicemen)

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Poppies at Remembrance time

1. The Cenotaph, Whitehall, London (November 2015)
With poppy wreaths remembering the 'Fallen'

2. Close up of the poppy wreaths left at the Cenotaph

3. Poppy wreath left by London Transport (November 2015)
(Remembering comrades who fell in the World Wars)

4. Monument to the Women of WW2 
A garland of poppies encircles the monument

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The British Museum remembers

1. Main entrance of the British Museum, London

2. War Memorial of the British Museum
(Adjacent to the main entrance of the museum)
It remembers staff who died in the two World Wars 

3. Commemorating the staff who died in the 1914 - 1918 war

4. Commemorating the staff who died in the 1939 - 1945 war

5. Tributes placed at the British Museum War Memorial

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Brussels Liberated (September 1944)

1. Museum of the City of Brussels (La Maison du Roi)

Grand’ Place, Brussels, Belgium

The city’s principal museum in the heart of the city

2. Memorials to the Belgian resistants of September 1944

[Gifts of the 4^th Battalion of Fusiliers in September 1969]

3. Model of the ‘Mannequin Pis’ / ‘Manneken Pis’

[Dressed in the uniform of the Welsh Guards]

It is found in the Museum of the City of Brussels 

4. Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Brussels

[Situated at the base of the Congress Column]

This is Belgium’s national monument

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A ‘Thankful Village’ of the Second World War

1. The village of Morland in Cumbria’s Eden valley:

A ‘Thankful Village’ of the Second World War

During WW2 Morland Hall was a Red Cross hospital  

2. St Lawrence’s Church and churchyard, Morland

The fortified church tower dates back to Saxon times

3. Two outstanding features of St Lawrence’s, Morland:

A topiary squirrel and the Saxon church tower behind 

4. The War Memorial in St Lawrence’s churchyard.
Commemorating those killed in the Boer War and WW1:
There are no WW2 casualties listed on the memorial

5. The War Memorials inside Morland Parish Church:

(Top): The WW1 memorial for Morland and district

(Bottom): The ‘Thankful Memorial’ of WW2

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The War Memorials of Abbeytown, Cumbria

1. Holme Cultram Abbey, Abbeytown, Cumbria

The headstone in the foreground is that of:

Flight Lieutenant I.J. Muirhead, D.F.C.

2. WW1 memorials inside Holme Cultram Abbey.

(Left): The parish memorial for the ‘Fallen’

(Right): Stained glass window, Sister Martha Mark, QA.I.N.S. 

3. Headstone of F/Lt. I.J. Muirhead, D.F.C.

Died in the Battle of Britain, 15 October 1940

[A WW1 casualty also buried in the churchyard]

4. Abbeytown village memorial

[In the corner of the Methodist Church grounds] 

5. The inscribed panels on the village memorial

[Remembering both WW1 and WW2 casualties]

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