16 Thursday Apr 2015
Posted in Out and About.
14 Tuesday Apr 2015
Tags
Fishing, fishing industry, fishing nets, flat cap, Grimsby, Industrial Heritage, Museums, National Fishing Heritage Centre
Posted by Mr. B Flaneur | Filed under Out and About.
02 Thursday Apr 2015
Posted in Cleethorpes. North East Lincolnshire.
25 Tuesday Nov 2014
Posted in Photo Archive.
Tags
British Monarchy, cameras, crowds, Duchess of Cambridge, Fog, Grimsby, National Fishing Heritage Centre, photographers, Photography, Ross Tiger, Royal Family, trawler
Sometimes you blink and you miss something; this was one of these occasions! By the time I had lifted my camera Her Royal Highness had gone, but I was left with some photographs I was very pleased with. Here are five of the best:
1. The Ross Tiger in the fog. It’s a miracle the fog cleared enough for me to photograph anything!
2. The professionals arriving.
3. These delightful young people seemed to think I was from the local paper. I told them I wasn’t , but they didn’t mind having their photograph taken anyway!
4. If only I’d thought to bring some ladders with me (or somebody who’d let me sit on their shoulders)!
5. At the windows of the National Fishing Heritage Centre.
09 Sunday Nov 2014
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags
Band, bugles, drums, Grimsby, Parade, Poppy Day, Remembrance Sunday, Sea Cadets
20 Sunday Jul 2014
Tags
football., Grimsby, Grimsby Town FC, moustache, National Fishing Heritage Centre, Sporting History, The Mariners
The Mariner.
I don’t remember the National Fishing Heritage Centre having a permanent Grimsby Town Football Club display, so this must have been part of a temporary exhibition I went to see. I don’t know much about the club’s history, but these early players lack the vertical black and white stripes that characterise the more modern team shirts. These early players also wear the arms of Great Grimsby as their team emblem (the more modern emblems features a complicated design incorporating vertical black and white stripes, a fishing trawler and three fish).
Posted by Mr. B Flaneur | Filed under Photo Archive.
19 Saturday Jul 2014
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags
2nd Polish Corps, bears, Carpathian Lancers, Grimsby, Military History, Poland, Polish Army, Second World War, Weelsby Woods, Wojtek, Wojtek the Bear
Wojtek The Bear.
If you have heard of Wojtek you will recognise this as an iconic image of the famous bear. If you haven’t heard of Wojtek you’re probably thinking, “What is that bear doing with an artillery shell?” My introduction to Wojtek was through a book by Aileen Orr entitled, “Wojtek The Bear: Polish War Hero“. In short, some Polish soldiers, regrouping in Iran after their released from Stalin’s gulags in 1942, adopted a bear cub as their mascot and called it Wojtek.
Wojtek grew up with the men of the 22nd Transport Company of the Polish 2nd Corps and by 1943 he was transporting artillery shells with them during the Battle of Monte Cassino, on the Italian Front. After the battle the image of a bear carrying an artillery shell became the insignia of the 22nd Transport Company.
In 1945 Wojtek ended his military career in a camp for displaced Polish servicemen unwilling to return to a Poland now occupied by Soviet troops. Wojtek retired to Edinburgh Zoo, where he was regularly visited by former Polish servicemen now settled in Britain. Wojtek died in 1963.
Although I haven’t found any evidence that Wojtek ever visited Grimsby, there is a regimental connection with Weelsby Woods. The Carpathian Lancers, the armoured element of the 2nd Polish Corps, in which Wojtek served, arrived in Grimsby in 1945 and made a camp in Weelsby Woods their home until 1947, when their demobilisation was complete.
It seems that Wojtek has become emblematic of the Free Polish struggle during the Second World War, despite being a Syrian brown bear!
You can read more about the statue on the BBC News website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-15491945) or on the Grimsby Telegraph website (http://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/Polish-soldiers-meet-Wojtek-bear-8210-Grimsby-s/story-13697691-detail/story.html).
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