HM Royal Marines 350th Anniversary - J A Proctor, proud Royal Marine.

A departure from RAF matters for once. Today marks the 350^th Anniversary of the formation of the Royal Marines.

Our late father James Augustus 'Gus' Proctor was a proud Royal Marine. To continue a common theme on this site - Dad never really told us much about his war other than stories that involved playing football, dodging predatory birds in Egypt which would dive-bomb to steal food out of mess tins, interminable train journeys across India with locals hanging on the outside of carriages and snatching cigarettes from marines lips, being bombed by Japanese aircraft in Ceylon, running into a building in Bruges driving one of the trucks. There were more sobering tales though – witnessing the aftermath of a V2 blast on a cinema in Antwerp. The patrons were dead in their seats still staring at the screen.

Any ideas ?

Corporal J A Proctor, extreme right, always considered H M Royal Marines to have been the best dressed, the best at ceremonials, marching, the best band, toughest Commandos, you name it – they were the best. Dad was unabashed that his reason for joining the Corps was in reaction to seeing a pair of Royal Marines in their best blues marching perfectly in step down Tring High Street – they looked so smart.......

I believe that Dad served with MNBDO1, Mobile Naval Base Defence Organisation, 1st RM (Heavy) AA Regiment, probably 'D' Battery, ending the war as a Sergeant.

No 3 Section OC 'D' Battery

No 4 Section OC 'D' Battery

Another common theme here is 'the luck of the draw.' - Dad told us of being assembled in a hall, the room was divided down the middle, one side went, I think, to Crete, and suffered heavy casualties – Dad happened to be on the other side of the hall with the Egypt contingent.

Every year at about this time in the run-up to his birthday (the day before Armistice Day) Dad would announce, 'I must apply for my medals'.

WW2 F/Lt Anthony Gobbie DFC – 42G pilot graduate – settled in the USA - eventually.

Anthony Francis Gobbie was born in London on November 24th 1919 the son of Francis J Gobbi and Evelyn Mary Marshall, Anthony was the middle one of three siblings, his two sisters were Marjorie and Evelyn. Francis Gobbi is thought to have been of Italian extraction – his father Fidele had been a cabinet maker in Islington in the 1880s.

At the age of 18 years Francis was working as an Audit Clerk for a Chartered Accountant. He served in WW1 with the 21^st Reserve Battalion, Kings Liverpool Regiment and was awarded the Military Medal for bravery in the field. Between 1915 and May 1917 he was stationed in England during which time he married Evelyn Mary Marshall in November 1916. He subsequently returned to France as a signaller with 55^th Division Royal Field Artillery.

In 1928 Francis Gobbi made a business trip across the Atlantic to the USA and his family followed soon after. In July 1932 the Gobbi family returned briefly from America destined for Chadwell Heath, East London. Subsequently Francis Gobbie, vice-president of London and Lancashire Indemnity Company of America, dealing in motor vehicle insurances and family, now with an 'e', emigrated to Weathersfield (possibly Wethersfield, Connecticut?), USA in August 1932.

It seems that the Gobbie family prospered in New England and it is understood that Anthony Gobbie attended Harvard University for a year before returning to England as the outbreak of war loomed, arriving sometime around July 1939. Anthony's RAF service number 655545 suggests that he had initially followed in his father's footsteps and joined the British Army before, as with a number of his RAF colleagues on course 42G, Anthony Gobbie transferred to train as a pilot. As the USA entered the war immediately following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour Anthony re-entered the USA ,not in a business suit, but wearing his RAF 'blues'.

Anthony Gobbie graduated as a pilot on 5^th August 1942 having completed his advanced training at Maxwell Field, Montgomery, Alabama and was commissioned in the rank of Pilot Officer. Unlike his friends and colleagues P/O George Stone, P/O Geoffrey Snow and P/O David Sumsion who were retained in the USA as instructors, P/O Tony Gobbie returned to the UK (initially aboard the Awatea? then the Queen Mary?) to complete his training and conversion to heavy bombers.

P/Os Snow, Gobbie?, Stone, Sumsion, Maxwell Field, Ala.  August 1942

It seems that Anthony's sister Evelyn was also drawn to the Air Force. The London Gazette records her commission to the rank of Assistant Section Officer (equivalent to the RAF rank of Pilot Officer) effective 28^th October 1942.

F/O Anthony Gobbie became operational during the 'Battle of the Ruhr' and on 19^th November 1943 the London gazette published the citation for the award of Acting F/Lt Gobbie's DFC:- 

'F/Lt Gobbie has participated in very many sorties, including attacks on Berlin, Hamburg, Peenemunde and targets in the Ruhr. He has displayed skill, courage and determination, qualities which have earned him many successes. On recent occasions, against Leipzig and Kassel respectively, his efforts in the face of extremely adverse weather were worthy of the highest praise.’

The night the Gazette was published -18^th/19^th November 1943 Anthony Gobbie and his 57 Squadron crew, were operating Lancaster JB418 for the operation against Berlin:-

f/e Sgt J A Hemmings

nav F/O A E W Gardner DFC

b/a P/O R W Newcomb

w/op F/O T Scott

m/u Sgt T Pool

r/g F/Sgt F J Lambie

Their aircraft was shot down about 11 km from Dresden, at Bärnsdorf. 

F/O Alfred Gardner DFC from Norbury, Surrey and P/O Richard Newcomb were killed, but their crew-mates survived to become prisoners of war.

A/F/Lt Anthony Gobbie was held at Stalag Luft 1 just outside the town of Barth, Western Pomerania, to the north-east of Rostock. The proximity of the camp to the town reputedly saved Barth from Allied aerial bombing throughout the war. Having been promoted to F/O in February 1943 and subsequently elevated to A/F/Lt Anthony Gobbie's promotion to F/Lt was effective from 5^th August 1944, two years to the day after his graduation.

When Stalag Luft I was liberated by Russian soldiers on the night of 30th April 1945 there were almost 9,000 Allied airmen imprisoned there – over 7,500 of whom were USAAF personnel.

Following repatriation to England, Anthony Gobbie yet again crossed the 'pond' on the Queen Elizabeth from Southampton to New York in 1947 and migrated to Florida where he married Lorraine Albin in Broward County in 1953. It seems that both of Anthony's sisters, Marjorie and Evelyn also moved to Florida after the war.

Anthony Gobbie passed away in Dade County Florida on 26^th December 1976, aged 57.

1933 school photograph identified.

Another minor mystery solved thanks to to good people of Southall, (thanks especially toYvonne), who via their Knowhere message board identified young Jimmy Ives's primary school.  John, Mabel and James moved from Peckham to Southall around 1933 taking Jim away from Woods Road School to complete his primary education at.....

Beaconsfield Road Primary School.  Jim is second from left, front row. 

The photo was taken by R W Crane, Bounds Green Studio, New Southgate, N11.  The houses in Beaconsfield Road can be seen in the top left hand corner of the photograph.  Google maps' street view from Oswald Road confirms that the rear elevation of the school has changed little over the past eighty years.

If anybody recognises any of the other pupils or teachers, please let me know.

Can anybody identify Jim's school uniform below?