MY UNCLE, JIM BYERS, WHO FOUGHT IN WORLD WAR TWO

Information about my Uncle Jim was sparse and my dad never really talked about him, certainly not to me. However from speaking to my cousin, also Jim Byers, and from research on the internet (particularly relating to my uncle's war experiences), I have gleaned the following details.

James BYERS was born in 1924 in Houghton-Le-Spring and married Janet Meldrum WATSON in 1943. This must have been about the time he joined the R.A.F. where he was initially a rear gunner (generally acknowledged to be the most dangerous job on the aircraft), although from what air base he flew out of at that time is not known.

James (Jim) Byers

He was shot down in France but managed to get home with help from the French Resistance. Subsequently, he was moved to Tempsford, in Bedfordshire, which was part of the Royal Air Force Special Duty Service, and was perhaps the most secret airfield of the Second World War. The work here was so secret that people in the nearby village knew nothing of what was going on until after the war. Everyone working at the base had to sign the Official Secrets Act and were forbidden to discuss their work with family or friends.

The Control Tower at Tempsford during the Second World War

At Tempsford, Jim Byers was a Flight Sergeant and there is one photo which he took, which is marked on the back "Tempsford - my ground crew". This is it - 

Tempsford Ground Crew

Tempsford was home to 138 (Special Duty) Squadron and 161 (Special Duty) Squadron, which dropped supplies and agents into occupied Europe for the Special Operations Executive (SOE). 138 Squadron did the bulk of the supply and agent drops, while 161 Squadron had the Lysander flight and did the pick-up operations from occupied Europe.

My Uncle Jim was in 138 Squadron and flew in Halifax and Stirling bombers, mostly with the same aircrew (7 in total), including pilot, Pilot Officer Strathy. From July 1944 to February 1945, 23 missions were flown, which seems a very high number and to have survived that number of flights into "enemy territory" is quite incredible.

I have one other photo of Uncle Jim (on the left), with two of his RAF colleagues.

It would be great to know who the other two are, but it's a long time ago now.

So by the end of the war, Uncle Jim had just turned 21. Amazing to think of all that had happened to him by that very young age!

Jim and Janet (known as "Jenny") had a daughter, Jeanette, in 1943 and by the middle of 1949, Jenny was pregnant again (with my cousin, Jim). However, in June of that year, Uncle Jim suffered a "subarachnoid haemorrhage" (an uncommon type of stroke) caused by a congenital cerebral aneurysm. He died on 9th June, 1949, in Glasgow Royal Infirmary, and his son was born early the following year.

Hard to believe that after all he'd been through, Uncle Jim's life was over by the age of 25. I'd love to have had the chance to meet him, but I didn't arrive until 4 years later.

MY BYERS FAMILY FROM DUMFRIESSHIRE

Having posted about the Andersons and the Turnbulls, I thought I should at least give some space to the origins of my own surname.

When I say "origins" I really mean back to the mid 18th century, which is as far back as my research has taken me with regard to my BYERS ancestors.

I start with Joseph BYERS, my 5xgreat grandfather, who married Catherine RICHARDSON and they had a son, John BYERS, my 4xgreat grandfather, who was born in 1766 in Lochmaben, Dumfriesshire. He seems to have previously been married, but in 1802 he had a child, James, with Jean McGILL (1780-1861). However, only a year later Jean McGill married an Alexander McWhan in Lochmaben and had five children with him. Jean, originally from Kirkmichael, died in 1861 in Shakespeare Street, Dumfries.

James BYERS, my 3xgreat grandfather, had at least 5 children with Esther RAE (born in Middlebie, Dumfriesshire in 1795). I can find no trace of a marriage, although this was still in the time of Parish Records and such records are notoriously unreliable. James, a labourer, died in Annan in 1856 and Esther, also in Annan, in 1872. Second born of these children was my great great grandfather, James BYERS.

James was born in Wamphray, Dumfriesshire in 1829. He married Janet BELL (born 1830 in Cummertrees, Dumfriesshire) in Kirkpatrick Fleming in 1855. James was a farm servant and over 15 years, they had 6 children, with their third born, James, being my great grandfather. James died in Westerkirk, Dumfriesshire in 1879 and Janet died in Bonnyrigg, Midlothian in 1900.

James BYERS was born in 1861 in Greenknowe, Canonbie, Dumfriesshire and was a ploughman. He married Mary Jane THOMSON (born 1859 in Gowkhall, Kirkpatrick Fleming) in Langholm in 1881. 

Mary Jane Thomson

They had 12 children between 1881 and 1903 and my grandfather, George, was third youngest. James died in 1920 at Howgillcleuch Farm in Ewes parish, Dumfriesshire with Mary Jane passing away in Longtown, Cumbria in 1935.

George BYERS was born at Rowanburnfoot, near Canonbie in 1899. He enlisted in the army (3rd Battallion, King's Own Scottish Borderers) on 19th July 1918. At that time, he was a ploughman at Effgill, Westerkirk, Dumfriesshire. Later he moved south, to County Durham, looking for work and it was at this time he met my granny, Florence May ANDERSON. They married in Houghton-Le-Spring Register Office in 1923. They had five children, the first three including my father Robert, were all born near Chester-Le-Street, with my uncles Richard and Norman both born in Gretna. So the family moved north to Scotland sometime between 1929 and 1936. Although George had worked as a ploughman and shepherd, he ended up as a foreman for the local Electricity Board in Gretna.

My grandpa, George Byers

He was a keen green bowler and won the Gretna Bowling Club Championship in 1944 and 1953, although I am unaware of when the above photo was taken. (His brother, Marius, also won the Club Championship - in 1949).

Also, George was one of the co-founders of Gretna Football Club in 1946. At the time of his death in 1960, he was a Vice President, and there was a minute's silence (or similar) at the start of the first game after his death. See undernoted newspaper clipping.

My granny, Florence May Anderson (with my cousin Allan Brady and my aunt, Jenny Brady)

Florence died in 1970, after suffering from gangrene and needing part of her leg amputated.

My dad, Robert BYERS was born on Birtley Farm, near Chester-Le-Street in 1929. He left school at 15 and worked as a van boy for the Gretna Laundry. From 1955-1962, he worked at the Victoria Laundry in Hawick, before moving to the Nairnshire Laundry in Nairn, near Inverness, as the Laundry Manager. He left there in 1970, having fallen out with the owner of the laundry and moved to Kirkcaldy, working as Manager at the Victoria Hospital Laundry for Fife Health Board. He was there until he retired in 1995. He'd met my mother, Nellie McGlasson ANDERSON, in Hawick where she worked in a dress shop. They married in 1952 in Gretna and a year later I was born. My sister and brother followed a bit later in 1959 and 1960.

My mother did not like her first name and when we moved to Nairn, she took the chance to say that her first name was "Helen". After that, most of her friends called her Helen, although her family still called her "Nellie". Nairn was certainly where my mother was the happiest in her life, as she often mentioned.

Dad died in July 2002 at the Borders General Hospital near Melrose. Mum died 10 years later in April 2012, at her home in Newcastleton.

Robert and Nellie Byers (in 1966)

So there we have it for the most part. This pretty much covers the past 260 years or so. How time flies and the generations go by!!??

This chart shows 10 generations of the BYERS family

SOCIALISM AND ARISTOCRACY IN MY FAMILY

My great aunt (my grandpa Byers eldest sister), Janet Glendinning BYERS was born in Langholm in 1881, so was 18 years grandpa's elder.

I have to confess I know little of Janet's early life, but she married Joseph HENDERSON (born 1864 in Carlisle to William Henderson, a signalman and Jane TOWNSON) at Rowanburnfoot, Canonbie on 31st December 1908.

They had a daughter, Marjorie, born 5th January 1910.

Joseph Henderson was the first socialist Mayor of Carlisle (1927-28) and was President of the National Union of Railwaymen from 1934 to 1937. He had been elected as Labour Member of Parliament for Manchester Ardwick at a by-election in June 1931, following the death of the Labour MP Thomas Louth. At the general election in October 1931, when Labour split over Ramsay MacDonald's formation of a National Government, he lost the seat to the Conservative Party candidate Albert George Hubert Fuller.

Joseph regained the seat at the 1935 general election, and represented Manchester Ardwick in the House of Commons until he was elevated to the peerage in the Dissolution Honours List on 22 January 1950, as Baron Henderson of Ardwick. He was Lord Commissioner Of The Treasury from 1945-1950, serving under the Prime Minister, Clement Atlee and the Chancellor, Sir Stafford Cripps. According to Hansard, he made 41 speeches in the House of Commons between 1935 and 1949.

His maiden speech was made on 13th December 1935 and this is a copy of it - 

1.12 p.m.

Mr. J. HENDERSON 
As an hon. Member privileged to address this House for the first time, I have no doubt that I shall be afforded the traditional courtesy and indulgence in that respect, and if I do not pay the hon. and gallant Gentleman who preceded me the compliment due to him, I hope that he will not take it that any personal discourtesy is intended. I am pleased that the right hon. Gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer has rather cleared the atmosphere with regard to the date and the circumstances when these proposals were made known. My personal opinion is that it savours too much of political jobbery when we recognise that these discussions with the railway companies had been going on for some time. The right hon. Gentleman the Member for Hillhead (Sir R. Home) is reported to have said in a speech which he delivered at Plymouth in January of this year that he had great faith that the Government would support the railway companies in schemes of this character. It is doing the democratic institutions of this country a considerable dis-service to have projects of this description thrust upon the electorate in the throes of a General Election. It plays into the hands of the detractors of our democratic institutions, and, on the other hand, rather disheartens people who are very jealous of the preservation of their liberties.

The hon. and gallant Gentleman the Member for Cleveland (Commander Bower) spoke as a railway stockholder or for the railway stockholders, and I want to make some comments on behalf of the men who operate the railway services of this country. It has been inferred, if not stated, that these projects were responsible for many of the railway employés supporting the National Government in the last Election. I reject that imputation knowing the railway personnel as I do, and in view of my experience in active association with them. That puts their integrity at an extremely low level. The railwaymen and their families by a tremendous majority support the philosophy and policy advanced by representatives of the Labour party. In demonstration of that, may I say that the Union of which I am a member, the National Union of Railwaymen, has 1,200 of its members who are either councillors or aldermen of local authorities. In addition, they can claim, many chairmen of parish councils. Last year nine of our members were mayors of various municipalities. All these humble working men at the end of their period of office had added lustre to the well-founded local government system of this country. It would be ungracious on my part not to pay a tribute to the railway companies for having afforded to these men facilities for attending to their duties in connection with local government. I would, however, make the point that railway employés, in the main, are an influential and integral part of the Labour movement of this country, and they deeply resent the insinuations that have been made that, more or less, they were bribed by this £30,000,000 development scheme being dangled before their eyes during the Election.

The present occasion is a sad commentary upon the existing capitalist system, when we look at the extensive ramifications of the four railway companies. They own many thousands of miles of railway track, and are reputed—and I believe it to be correct—to be the largest owners of docks in this country. They are also the largest owners of restaurants and hotels in the world and they own practically the canal system of the country. They have money invested in airways and £10,000,000 of capital locked up in road transport. In view of these ramifications, when monopolistic authorities such as the railway companies cannot provide the necessary public services, they must be in a very parlous state. It is an outward and visible sign of the decay of the present system, whatever may be said by hon. Members opposite. If proof were needed, it is here provided that the time is propitious when transport should be organised and publicly controlled in this country. 

The right hon. and learned Member for Hillhead said that the work contemplated would mean increased prosperity for the operatives of the railway services. Whoever replies for the Government I should like him to give me some assurance that these schemes, the efficacy of which I am not going to criticise, will not be to the detriment of the railway employees. Automatic signalling has in our experience been responsible for many hundreds of signal boxes and signalmen becoming redundant and displaced. More powerful locomotives envisage heavier and longer trains to be handled, and in the sum total it means fewer and fewer train crews. Incidentally, it means a heavier physical and mental strain on the men who will have to handle the trains. The electrification of the railway from Manchester to Sheffield, a distance of 41 miles, is mentioned, and that will diminish the personnel so far as that length of line is concerned. I hope that the Government will bring pressure to bear upon the companies so that men who are displaced as a result of the developments arising from these loans will be treated in a considerate manner and that their status will be adequately safeguarded. 

I welcome the tribute that has been paid to the diligence, capacity and fairness with which the railwaymen of this country labour. I am speaking for the men who earn the dividends and who will have to earn the interest on these loans. It is not done without a great deal of human sacrifice. The casualty figures for last year are not generally known to the public. The toll of life and limb in the railway service is great. Last year 241 men were fatally injured and 14,484 were injured. The occupation of the railway employé is very onerous. I was rather intrigued by the argument adduced by one hon. Member in regard to speed. In this mechanised age the craze for speed is insatiable, but comfort and safety are essential and in providing it the railway employés have to face the rigours of the weather. While hon. Members and the general public are ensconced in their blankets at night the railway yards are busy and the great trains are thundering along the railway tracks. The tribute which has been paid this morning to the efficiency with which the railway system is worked will be appreciated by the men who operate the railways. 

The right hon. Member for Hillsborough (Mr. Alexander) expressed the hope that the link between the companies and their employés would be strengthened rather than weakened as a result of the loans. It gives me no pleasure to say what I am about to say, and I hope that I shall not be misunderstood when I say that we have had a little domestic trouble with one of the companies concerned, the London Midland and Scottish, with whom normally we are on good terms. In a particular case the company have used their disciplinary machinery, but we are satisfied on the facts that an inquiry ought to take place in regard to the whole matter. That inquiry has been refused. I hope that commonsense and good will will prevail and the inquiry be granted, but if the officials concerned still adhere to their inflexible attitude and refuse the inquiry, then when the company come along under the provisions of this Bill for certain powers we shall be compelled to ask hon. Members on these Benches to support us in our opposition. I represent the railway operatives in what I have said and I hope my remarks will not be misunderstood but that they will act as an incentive to the railway officials to grant the inquiry and have the whole matter cleared up. I trust that the interrogations in my speech will elicit an answer from the Minister who replies for the Government. The answer, which will be awaited by the public and even more keenly by the men concerned, will, I hope, be satisfactory. I thank the House for having listened to me so patiently, and I hope that I have not unduly delayed the proceedings.

1.25 p.m.

Joseph died only five weeks after his peerage, in Carlisle, on 26 February 1950, aged 65, and the title became extinct on his death.

They were however, Lord and Lady Henderson.

This is Joseph Henderson

And my great aunt, Janet Glendinning Byers

Undernoted is the obituary of my great aunt, from November 1962

Although they became Lord and Lady, I have no doubt that they were both socialists through and through - and I have to say I'm quite proud that they are in my family tree!