December saw two families join us to remember family members lost in conflict. Members of Private Delmyr Gee Gosper’s family and Private Henry George Munday family participated in the ceremony and wreaths were laid remembering both soldiers.

In attendance for the first time was representatives of the Belgian War Veteran Federation – UK Branch.

Private Gosper of the 36th Battalion – 9th Brigade Australian Imperial Forces was born in Meranburn, NSW, Australia in 1895. He was one of 12 children and was originally a farm labourer in the vast area to the west of the Blue Mountains.

He enlisted on 29th August 1916 and left Sydney on HMAT Wiltshire on 7th February 1917, arriving in the UK on 11th April. He was killed in action about six miles north east of Ypres along the Menin Road between Ypres and Passchendaele on 11th October 1917. Private Gosper has no known grave and is remembered on the Australian Roll of Honour, Menin Gate, Ypres.

Private Munday was killed in action on 31st March 1916 outside of Ypres. He was 27 years old and the father of four children. He has no known grave and is remembered on the Menin Gate, Ypres.

Alan Lopez was our Standard bearer and Tom Milne paraded the Union Flag. Peter Hills performed chaplain duties and afterwards we retired to the Trench Experience to continue the stories.

Thank you to Alan Meeks and Tony McCallum for the photographs.

We had representatives of the Intelligence Corps and the Canadian Intelligence Corps join us today for a ceremony dedicated to the memory of members lost.

Our Individual Remembrance was Captain John Kenneth (“Ken”) Macalister, Intelligence Corps of the British Army. A Canadian national.

Captain Macalister was an agent of F (French) Section, Special Operations Executive (SOE). He was captured soon after parachuting into occupied France in 1943 and murdered at Buchenwald concentration camp, 12th September 1944.

He is listed on the Brookwood 1939-1945 Memorial, Panel 21 Column 1.

Alan Lopez paraded the BLP Standard and Tom Milne carried the Union Flag. We had further standards from the Intelligence Corps, the Artists Rifles, the Woking Royal Naval Association and the Royal British Legion, Knaphill, Bisley and West End Branch. Mrs Ruth Moore sounded the Last Post. Rev. Peter Hills performed chaplain duties.

This was the first ceremony where we sung God Save the King in over 70 years. Mrs Ruth Moore played the National Anthem and the audio from our performance was captured. It is included here for the historical change. We were on very good form.

Thank you to Mike Hillman for the photographs and Paul McCue for the Individual Remembrance text and photograph.

Thank you to Alan Meeks for the audio of God Save the King.

Today we welcomed members of the Israeli Embassy and members of AJEX, The Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen & Women. We were extremely grateful to see members of Private 5109 Thomas Barnes Holdway’s family, one of the subjects of our Individual Remembrance.

Paul McCue delivered a brief history of Operation Boatswain, a terrible incident when 23 Palmach Jewish Volunteers and their British Liaison Officer of the Special Operations Executive were lost at sea on the 18th May 1941.

The first subject of our Individual Remembrance was Captain Isidore ‘Izzy’ Newman. Capt. Newman was a British secret agent and radio operator who served with F (French) Section of the Special Operations Executive during the Second World War. He was born in Leeds and was the son of Jewish immigrants from Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire. He was executed on 6th September at Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. A full biography is included below with detailed notes on his service.

Private Thomas Holdway was born in 1884 on a farm in Chapmanslade, Wiltshire, the youngest son of Thomas and Sarah Holdway, he was a cabinet maker and wood carver by trade. He emigrated to Australia in 1912 and in September 1915 answered his country’s call, enlisting in the 9th Battalion, 3rd Infantry Brigade, Australian Infantry. His unit embarked on HMAT Star of Victoria in May, arriving eventually in the Port of Marseille and moving up to the area of Pozieres to the Battle of The Somme. On 13th August he was taken on strength 49th Battalion Australian Infantry, whose Motto was “Always Faithful”. Here his unit received orders to take a farm on high ground which they did after seven attempts under one of the heaviest artillery barrages of the war. The village Pozieres was obliterated and is now open moorland. Private Thomas Holdway was killed in action on the 3rd September 1916 aged 31 in the Battle of the Somme near Pozieres and is buried in Serre Road Cemetery No 2 Beaumont Hamel. Thomas’s memory is kept alive in a children’s chair which he carved for his niece Dorothy and so far, has been used by four generations across 100 years, three of these generations were in the audience today.

Our poem today is from Achziv Poems by Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai, 1924 – 2000. It brings an echo of the loss at sea of Operation Boatswain.

Broken by the sea,
my head a broken tin,
Sea water fills it
and drains out.

Broken by the sea.
A dirge my lament,
froth on the lips of the cliffs.
The sea has rabies,
has sea sickness,
more dog than dog,
more sea than all seas.

Broken by the sea
my lament.

Wreaths were laid by The Israeli Embassy, the family of Private Holdway, AJEX and the Secret WW2 Learning network.

Our Standard Bearer was Alan Lopez and Ruth Moore sounded the Last Post. We had Standards from AJEX, The Artists Rifles, The Royal British Legion, Knaphill, Bisley and West End Branch and the Woking Royal Naval Association. The Union Flag was paraded by John Pain of Woking District Scouts.

Thank you to Paul McCue and David Lasseter for text, and Alan Meeks for the photographs and audio.

Post edit: We did not realise it at the time, but the September Last Post would be the final time we sang God Save the Queen, probably for several decades if not much longer. An audio recording is included below, although we collectively were not on top form and it is included here for historical purposes.