"Upon this Rock": Buttermere in WW2

1. Buttermere and St James' Parish Church
The church is built high on a rocky promontory

2. The wrought iron shepherd's gate of Buttermere church
Originally dedicated to former clergy of the parish
"The Good Shepherd guides his flock"

3. The nave of St James' Church, Buttermere.
The WW2 memorial can be seen on the left hand side wall

4. Buttermere's War Memorials found inside the church
(Left): The Buttermere WW1 'Roll of Honour'
(Right): The WW2 memorial for Alan Edmond Catherall

5. Buttermere village and valley looking south-west
Sourmilk Gill is the stream seen flowing down the fellside
The cloud covers the summits of Red Pike and High Stile 

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International Holocaust Memorial Day

1. Holocaust Memorial Day Booklet 
[Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, January 2016]

2. Elie Wiesel, K.B.E., Nobel Peace prize winner
A Romanian born survivor of the Nazi Holocaust
[Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, January 2016]
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The War Memorials of Armathwaite, Cumbria

1. Entrance to Armathwaite Parish churchyard, Cumbria
Beside the village hall which was erected in 1854
[The church is dedicated to Christ and Our Lady]

2. British Legion standard mounted inside the church

3. Stained glass window honouring a local WW1 casualty
[Second Lieutenant Charles Rushton Turner, R.F.A.]  

4. Framed WW2 'Roll of Honour' for Armathwaite parish
[Wall mounted inside Christ and Our Lady Parish Church]

5. The framed WW2 'Roll of Honour' of Armathwaite.
[Commemorating four locals who died during WW2]

6. Headstone of Corporal T.F. Gasgarth, R.A.F.V.R.
[Armathwaite Churchyard, Cumbria]
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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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