WWII – Haggbridge.com

William Thompson & The Mounted Home Guard

Our Great Grandfather, William THOMPSON (1891-1964), led the charge! “England’s only mounted section of the Home Guard, which nightly patrols 100 square miles of the North Riding,” read the caption in the Yorkshire Evening Press. Well, that might have been a slight exaggeration, as there were at least three other mounted units in Devon, Glamorgan, & Warwickshire. It was the...

H Robert Thompson & Vickers Wellington

Sergeant H Robert Thompson, Royal Canadian Air Force, was serving with 14 OTU at RAF Market Harborough, training as a navigator on Vickers Wellington medium bombers, having left his new wife, May, in Vancouver, British Columbia. Prior to enlistment, Robert worked on his father’s farm and completed two years studying medicine at Victoria College. He intended to continue studies after...

Robert Thompson & SS Empire Spring

Leading Signalman Robert Thompson, aged 24, served as one of six Royal Navy staff aboard the CAM Ship, SS Empire Spring. Robert had completed naval training in London, met his wife on weekend leave in Southend on Sea, married in her hometown of Sunderland, and started a family. They were going to settle down in his hometown of York. The...

Geoff Bainbridge & The Cuban Missile Crisis

Flight Lieutenant Geoff Bainbridge (1924-2022) served with the RAF from 1942 for the duration of the war. He ultimately pursued a successful career with the RAF and by 1962 Geoff was stationed with the new V-Force. Having completed flights tests beyond the sound barrier on the new Avro Vulcan, he served as a test pilot, flight instructor, and demonstrated the...

Nobby Clark & The Searchlights

Albert Wear Clark aka Nobby Clark was born 1921 in Darlington, County Durham, the third of nine siblings born to a steel worker and worsted cotton spinner. Nobby followed in his father’s footsteps as a labourer in the steelworks. Why Nobby Clark? A clerk would deal with the common people but would be better educated, better paid and in a...

John Henry Bainbridge & The Grocers

John Henry, our Great Grandfather, was the youngest of five siblings, born 2 March 1892 in Tollerton, to Elizabeth Ann HEADLEY and Charles BAINBRIDGE, a platelayer for North Eastern Railways. John Henry was named after his great grandfather John BAINBRIDGE and grandfather Henry BAINBRIDGE. Unlike his elder siblings in domestic service, John Henry, took an apprenticeship with a clothing and...