From For Evermore: A selection of our favourite stories

We have been amazed by the incredible stories you have been sharing on For Evermore: our online resource for reading and sharing the stories of the Commonwealth’s war dead! Here’s a small selection of our favourites so far.

Stories from For Evermore

Wing Commander Guy Gibson VC

Guy Gibson is one of the most iconic British pilots of the Second World War.

Guy distinguished himself from the start of his short but significant RAF career, racking up sorties and medals. He combined natural flying ability with incredible courage to become one of Bomber Command Commander Sir Arthur Harris as the “most full-out fighting pilot” under his watch.

With his unerring ability behind the controls of an aircraft and his sheer bravery, Guy racked up multiple honours throughout the Second World War, including a Distinguished Service Order (DSO) and Bar, a Distinguished Flying Cross and Bar, and the Victoria Cross.

Guy’s most storied episode came when he commanded 617 Squadron, the famous Dambusters, on its near-mythical night-time raids on massive German dams on 16/17 May 1943. 

For Evermore contributor Mark Peel has gone into great depths into one of the bravest but tragically flawed characters of the Second World War. 

Read Guy’s story today on For Evermore.

First Officer Rosamund King Everard-Steenkamp 

With For Evermore, we can shine a spotlight on everyone who lost their lives in the World Wars and share their remarkable contributions – including many of the women who gave their time, expertise, and in some cases their lives, alongside their male counterparts for the war effort.

Among their number was South Africa-born First Officer Rosamund King Everard-Steenkamp of the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA).

The ATA played an incredibly important non-combat role in the Second World War. Its job was to transport aircraft from factories and maintenance hubs to air service squadrons around the world. As they were a civilian service, the ATA’s pilots and planes were usually unarmed too, adding to the risks already posed by wartime aviation. 

One of every eight Air Transport Auxiliary pilots was a woman, including Rosamund. Rosamund’s career had begun as a training instructor after earning her wings in the mid-30s. Her wealth of experience was used to turn out a generation of South African pilots at Witwatersrand Technical College.

In 1940, Rosmund was commissioned into the South African Air Force as a Captain, putting her knowledge to good use in a military capacity. By 1944, her career took another turn when Rosamund joined the Air Transport Auxiliary. 

Rosamund’s wartime experiences were like many other women ATA pilots. Learn more about her interesting life on For Evermore. 

Corporal Eithne Swanton

One of the brilliant things about seeing For Evermore grow has been users coming together to record the stories of casualties in their local areas at home and abroad.

We have been particularly blown away by the contributions of Gemma v.d. Klundert-Bertens. Based in The Netherlands, Gemma has been diligently documenting the stories of the Second World War casualties commemorated in and around the Goirle close to the Belgian border.

So far, Gemma has shared the stories of 69 casualties commemorated by Commonwealth War Graves in Goirle.

One story that caught our eye was Corporal Eithne Swanton, a young woman from Enniskillen, Northern Ireland with a penchant for languages.

Eithne, fluent in French and with a solid grasp of German, was possibly motivated to join the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) to grow her already considerable language skills. Sadly, we will never know her motivation as Eithne tragically lost her life in a motorcycle accident shortly after arriving in the Netherlands in late 1944.

Eithne’s story is available, alongside the 68 others carefully written and researched by Gemma, on For Evermore.

Sister Mabel Lee Milne

Dave Dykes is one of our most prolific For Evermore contributors. He has provided well over 200 stories so far and shows no signs of stopping.

Dave’s research and writing have taken him far into the archives of Perth Academy, Scotland, where he has pulled out a multitude of interesting yet tragic tales from the city’s past sons and daughters.

Dave has taken in both First and Second World War casualties and we’re incredibly grateful for his taking the time to write and research such wonderful pieces.

One that caught our eye was Sister Mabel Lee Milne who was killed by an air raid in October 1917. While military aviation and bombing raids were in their infancy during the First World War, they could still be deadly, as the story of Mabel Milne shows us.

Mabel was working alongside her fellow nurses at a the 58th (Scottish) General Hospital, near St. Omer, France on the night of the 30th September when it was attacked by Imperial German aircraft. Sadly, Mable lost her life in the attack.

Head over to For Evermore to read more of Mabel’s tale and to see the rest of Dave Dyke’s growing list of For Evermore entries.

Sher Bahadur Thapa VC

Some of the most compelling wartime stories of courage and duty are those of the Victoria Cross winners.

The Victoria Cross is the British military’s highest awarded for valour in combat and was awarded to many Commonwealth soldiers who went far above and beyond the call of duty.

To get a Victoria Cross usually means the recipient has shown incredible skill, bravery, and a disregard for one’s own safety in the face of often insurmountable odds or in viciously dangerous situations.

Sher Bahadur Thapa, a Nepalese Gurkha serving in the Indian Army, was posthumously awarded the VC for his selfless actions during the Battle of San Marino on 19 September 1944, as shared on For Evermore by Dhruv Ratti.

You can read all about Sher’s exploits on For Evermore, but the short medal citation of Sher’s actions gives us a quick look at Sher’s actions that fateful night in San Marino:

“On 18/19 September 1944 at San Marino, Italy, when a company of the 9th Gurkha Rifles encountered bitter opposition from a German prepared position, Rifleman Sher Bahadur Thapa and his section commander, who was afterwards badly wounded, charged and silenced an enemy machine-gun.

“The rifleman then went on alone to the exposed part of a ridge where, ignoring a hail of bullets, he silenced more machine-guns, covered a withdrawal and rescued two wounded men before he was killed.” – London Gazette.

Leading Seaman William James Nicholas Tucker

For Evermore lets us share stories from across the services with this naval story from regular contributor Nick Tucker piqued our interest.

William James Nicholas Tucker had been a career naval man since joining the Senior Service in 1899, aged just 15.

Over the next 13 years, William hopped from ship to ship, steaming across the world’s oceans and seas. By 1912, William was serving aboard HMS Bulwark where he would stay until the tragic end of his career and life.

On 26 November 1914, Bulwark was moored off Sheerness, Kent, in the South of England. At 7.35 am, with the ship’s full complement aboard and working through its daily routines, a rumbling roar was sounded, a sheet of flame shot skyward, and Bulwark lifted out of the water completely. Something had gone drastically wrong.

An internal explosion had rocked Bulwark, tearing the ship apart from the inside, and causing widespread devastation among the crew. Some 741 men were lost, including William Tucker.
 
Read the full story today on For Evermore.

Share your stories today on For Evermore

For Evermore: Stories of the Fallen is our online resource for sharing the memories of the Commonwealth’s war dead.

It’s open to the public to share their family histories and the tales of the service people commemorated by Commonwealth War Graves so that we may preserve their legacies beyond just a name on a headstone or a memorial.

If you have a story to tell, we’d love to hear it! Head to For Evermore to upload and share it for all the world to see.