3
January 2023
world war ii
what denys, rodney and pauline meakin and philip
hughes did
denys gray meakin 18 may 1913 – 2
dec 1991 army number 88748
1.
Commissioned 2nd
Lieutenant (2Lt) into Staffordshire Yeomanry (part of Territorial Force Royal
Armoured corps) 20 May 1939.
2.
Jan 1940.
Served in Palestine in Staffordshire Yeomanry on internal security duties.
3.
1940.
Transferred to Cyprus Regiment – Cypriot soldiers with British officers and
non-commissioned officers (NCOs), equipped with mechanical transport and mules.
4.
Temporary Captain (T/Capt) DG Meakin
88748 Staffordshire Yeomanry attached Cyprus Regiment Missing in Action in
Greece 28 Apr 1941.
5.
Temporary Captain (T/Capt) DG Meakin
88748 Staffordshire Yeomanry attached Cyprus Regiment Prisoner of War in Greece
previously reported as missing in List 535.
6.
Oflag (Offizierslager) 7B, Capt DG Meakin 88748 Prisoner of War number
232.
7.
1941 – Sep 1942 Prisoner of War at
Oflag 6-B Dössel near Warburg, district Höxter, North Rhine-Westphalia. (Guy
has his Russian-English-Russian dictionary stamped “Oflag 6B”.)
8.
Sep 42 – 1945 Prisoner of War at
Oflag 7-B at Eichstätt, Bavaria.
9.
8 Aug 1944 discharged from
Bezirksklinikum Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Ansbach, Bavaria (a psychiatric
clinic). (My guess is that the Oflag and
its British Army prisoner authorities referred him to the clinic on account of
his mental deterioration for assessment for repatriation, possibly assisted by
the Red Cross.)
10.
Jan 1945.
Repatriated to UK via Switzerland (assume by Red Cross).
11.
War Substantive Lieutenant (Lt)
relinquishes commission on account of disability (mental disability leading to award of Mental Disability Pension)
and granted honorary rank of Lt 27 Apr 1945.
12.
War Substantive Lieutenant
relinquishes commission on account of disability and granted honorary rank of
Captain 27 Apr 1945.
13.
Anecdote.
When he visited Guy at Cambridge in 1965 and Guy told him that he had travelled
by train through Innsbruck on a skiing holiday, he replied that the last time
he had been that way had been in a cattle truck.
basil rodney gray meakin 27 oct
1915 – 26 sep 1991 army number 89584
1.
Commissioned as 2Lt Royal Engineers
Territorial Army 14 Jun 1939. Date of appointment changed to 23 May 1939.
2.
Transferred from Royal Engineers
Territorial Army to Royal Artillery Territorial Army retaining his rank and
seniority 1Aug 1940.
3.
Volunteered for service in Finland,
or possibly Norway, because skiers were needed and briefly joined the Scots
Guards (where he caught lice from a blanket), but was turned down for active
service overseas because of his childhood poliomyelitis: this had also caused
him to miss his last year at Harrow to undergo rehabilitation.
4.
Briefly transferred to the Catering
Corps (where he learnt to cook) before being rescued by Jack Hamilton (see
Pauline’s story).
5.
Back in the Royal Artillery,
commanded a searchlight troop in the Bristol and Plymouth areas.
6.
Attended technical staff college in
Stone Staffs.
7.
Posted to Royal Armoured Corps
Experimental Wing at Lulworth Camp: was the resident expert on tank guns and
their gunsights. Worked on the 17 pounder Quick Fire (QF) gun, which was used
in the Cruiser Mark VIII Challenger and Sherman Firefly tank. It was installed
in the new Centurion tank towards the end of the war, but Centurion was not
deployed until 1947: it is possible that Rodney was working on this new
tank/gun configuration. He may also have worked on the new 20pdr QF tank gun
(84 mm bore), which was used in Centurion from 1947.
8.
Demobilised in 1946 and moved to
Stone, working at J&G Meakin.
9.
Anecdotes.
•
Whilst serving in Bristol area, his
troop was ordered to Badminton, to where the Queen Mother, Queen Mary, had been
evacuated. The task was to collect firewood from around the estate. One
supposes that the large trucks used to tow the searchlights would not be used
every day, so could be easily diverted to such domestic tasks.
•
At Lulworth, one day after test
firing, Rodney was working at his desk, when there was a loud bang and a gun
shell flew through the (probably wooden) building. Rodney’s sergeant appeared
at the door, visibly shaken and apologetic: he had been clearing the tank down
at the end of the day and neglected to check whether there was a round in the
breach before (perhaps accidentally) pressing the “fire” button. Rodney
remarked that it was good that it was an armour piercing (AP) round (which is
designed to make holes in targets) rather than a (high explosive) Squash Head
(HESH) round (which is designed to explode on impact).
pauline mary meakin née hughes 15 nov 1919 – 25 jul 1974 army number
196792
1.
1939.
Worked as secretary to the adjutant of the Warwickshire Fusiliers, Capt Jack
Hamilton Royal Engineers, who later was Guy’s godfather and retired as a Major
General, then became the first bursar at Churchill College Cambridge.
2.
1939-1940.
Enlisted in Army Territorial Service (ATS). Promoted to Sergeant and posted to
Beaumaris Anglesey, possibly as an instructor.
3.
1941.
Commissioned as 2nd subaltern 10 Aug 1941.
4.
1942.
Believed posted to Anti-Aircraft (AA) Command at Stanmore.
5.
1942 – 1943.
Promoted to (Acting or Temporary) Captain. Posted to War Office Directorate of
Military Operations (DMO) Branch No 12 (MO12) as General Staff Officer Grade 3
Operations (GSO3 Ops) – the first female to hold such a post: previously women
had been posted to personnel or logistic jobs. MO12 was responsible for
monitoring and reporting on South East Asia Command (SEAC) (which was, firstly,
in Delhi, then in Kandy Ceylon).
6.
17 Nov 1944.
Relinquished War Substantive commission as subaltern.
7.
1951.
“Late ATS Emergency Commission” to be Lt 23 Mar 1951 with seniority 8 Sep 1944.
(About this time, Guy remembers her at Waters Upton Hall sewing AA badges on
her battle-dress blouse – she was probably detaching them.)
8.
Anecdotes.
Pauline may have been working mostly on night shifts.
•
Occasionally, those on night shift
would take turns in pairs to patrol the roofs of the Old War Office building to
watch for incendiary bombs landing on the roof. On one occasion, Pauline and a
Major (name forgotten) were on such
duty. The Major gallantly told Pauline to shelter in a cupola, whilst he
patrolled the roof: but he had forgotten his helmet, so Pauline offered hers to
him. This was lucky because he was struck on the head by some falling debris.
•
One of the duties of the night shift
was to compile the situation report (SITREP) that would go to the War Cabinet
for the Prime Minister’s morning briefing. One night, Pauline had read an
American report from SEAC that “the city of Myitkyina” (Burma now Myanmar) had
been captured by the 14th Army. She duly included this detail in her
SEAC SITREP. She was pleasantly surprised on her next shift to be shown her
report, where the Prime Minister had annotated in his distinctive red pen,
“Since when has that miserable place Myitkyina been a city?”
philip leslie norgrove hughes 1918
– 14 sep 40
1.
Elder brother of Pauline. Guy has
his glass-bottomed pewter beer tankard, engraved P.L.N.H.
2.
937702 (personal number as
Aircraftsman) Philip Leslie Norgrove Hughes 81069 (personal number as officer)
commissioned as Pilot Officer for duration of hostilities with effect from 16
Jun 1940.
3.
Served with 15 Squadron RAF
Volunteer Reserve. Navigator in Bristol Blenheim light bomber: crew of three –
pilot, navigator and dorsal turret gunner.
4.
14 Sep 1940.
Missing believed killed in action over English Channel: no aircraft or bodies
found.
5.
Commemorated on Panel 8 at Runnymede
RAF Memorial.
GUY MEAKIN CEng MIET
Lt Col Royal Signals
Communication Systems Engineer and Communication Security (COMSEC) Officer
Eldest son of Rodney and Pauline
Assisted
by John Meakin his brother.