Albert Bernard Loosemore 1918 - 2006
Albert Bernard Loosemore was the only son of Bernard Loosemore and Dorothy Jane Loosemore nee Coe and was born in Lambeth on 29th October 1918. I do not have a full certificate for Albert and so I have no record of the address at which he was born. The short certificate which is shown does not indicate where my grandparents were living at the time of Albert’s birth but I have no reason to believe it was elsewhere than Thornton Street in Brixton.
Early Years 1918 – 1934
Albert was baptised on 22nd December 1918 at the same church in which his parents had married, St Michael’s Church, Stockwell. During his childhood he lived with his parents at ‘The Lodge’ Hayes Court on Camberwell New Road. His father worked as a Janitor at the building which was divided into flats.
Albert was educated at Loughborough Central School in London from April 1930 until March 1st 1935 having previously attended Cormont Road School presumably from 1923 until 1930. I have copies of his school reports for the period at Loughborough Central School.. I know that at one point he did sit a scholarship examination for the Blue Coat School more properly known as Christ’s Hospital which had moved from its original site in Newgate to Horsham in Sussex. I understand that he was successful in the examination but for some reason was not able to take up the scholarship.
It is interesting that a long standing bequest related to Christ’s Hospital was influential in helping my maternal great grandmother survive hard times in Dorchester during the early part of the 20th Century. The details of this are contained in Nigel’s researches.
Enquiries indicate that the Cormont Road School buildings are now the location of the Charles Edward Brooke C of E Girls School. The buildings are on the North West corner of Myatts Fields Park in Camberwell. From the road the school seems to have the same appearance as it would have done during the 1920’s.
The Loughborough Central School was situated on Minet Road from 1928. Apparently the original school buildings no longer exist in this location. It has been replaced by the relatively modern Loughborough Primary School.
I made enquiries with the London Education Authorities and have been advised that the school records for Loughborough Central school are held at the London Metropolitan Archives.
London 1934 – 1939
Albert started work at the Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane in the administration offices probably at the age of 16 and continued working there until the outbreak of war in 1939. I have no more details as to how he fared in this occupation but as he resumed an administrative career after the war it seems that office life probably suited him well.
During his lifetime Albert kept diaries of the more significant events and these have been very useful in identifying where his war service took him around the world. Unfortunately his first entry is in 1939 and so they do not shed any light on his time at the Grosvenor House Hotel.
Military Service 1939 – 1946
I have summarised below the movements Albert made during the war. His diaries give details of the exact towns and locations in which he spent his time but I have reduced the entries in this instance to an overview of countries visited and the dates he arrived in each country. From these I have produced maps which show his travels at that time, the paler lines indicate sea voyages and the black lines are travels undertaken on land.
The table below shows his rapid promotion up the ranks from his enlistment at the end of 1939 to the end of the summer in 1940 by which time he had achieved his highest rank until he was granted a commission in the Home Guard during the 1950’s.
18/10/1939 Enlisted in 295th Field Coy RE Oakleigh Park N10
13/01/1940 Promoted Lance Corporal
06/04/1940 Promoted Corporal
24/08/1940 Promoted Lance Sergeant
31/08/1940 Promoted Company Quarter Master Sergeant
The last few months of 1939 and most of 1940 were spent in the United Kingdom and it is during October 1940 that Albert started his overseas service with the Royal Engineers. His first major posting overseas was as part of the Middle East and North African Campaigns which started with a long sea voyage around the Cape of Good Hope in order to arrive in Egypt. The shorter route through the Straits of Gibraltar was avoided at that time because of the threat of hostile attacks in the Mediterranean Sea.
North Africa 1940 – 1943
The North Africa campaign involved travel throughout Egypt, Libya, Jordan, Palestine and Cyprus.
05/10/1940 Glasgow Scotland Embarked ‘Oronsay’
26/10/1940 Fleetwood Lancashire England Embarked ‘Canterbury’
14/11/1940 Douglas Isle of Man Embarked ‘Andes’
29/11/1940 Freetown Sierra Leone
12/12/1940 Durban Natal Province
29/12/1940 Port Suez Egypt
12/02/1941 Bardia Libya
09/03/1941 Mersa Matruh Egypt
24/03/1941 Ridotta Capuzzo Libya
15/04/1941 Mersa Matru Egypt Embarked ‘Fiona’
03/07/1941 Port Fuad Egypt Embarked ‘Rodi’
04/07/1941 Famagusta Cyprus
08/04/1942 El Quassassin Egypt
16/04/1942 Beersheba Palestine
18/04/1942 Damascus Syria
29/06/1942 Nazareth Palestine
01/07/1942 Ismailia Egypt
23/11/1942 Tobruk Libya
26/12/1942 Sollum Egypt
09/06/1943 Suez Egypt Embarked ‘Strathnaver’
15/06/1943 Akaba Jordan
16/06/1943 Akaba Jordan Embarked ‘Strathnaver’
17/06/1943 Fayid Egypt
Sicily and Italy 1943 – 1944
In the middle of 1943 he moved out of North Africa and took part in the campaigns in Sicily and the south of Italy.
30/06/1943 Suez Egypt Embarked ‘Strathnaver’
10/07/1943 Mazamemi Sicily
12/09/1943 Gallico Marina Italy
23/09/1943 Sapri Italy Embarked ‘Strathnaver’
24/09/1943 Augusta Sicily
23/10/1943 Augusta Sicily Embarked ‘Durban Castle’
25/10/1943 Algiers Algeria
In October 1943 Albert embarked for the United Kingdom and remained there until D-Day June 1944.
27/10/1943 Algiers Algieria Embarked ‘Durban Castle’
04/11/1943 Greenock Scotland
07/11/1943 Ely Cambridgeshire England
05/06/1944 Lymington Hampshire England Embarked ‘LST II (2824)’
06/06/1944 Anchored off Normandy France
Being in the Royal Engineers Albert obviously did not go in with the first wave of infantry regiments but did arrive in France aboard a Landing Ship Tank ‘LST II’ Number 2824 on D-Day when they were anchored at sea off Gold beach. They must have come ashore late in the day or probably the following day as he records that on the 7th June they were in the area of Ryes some two miles inland from the beachhead at Arremanches and five miles from Bayeux where he arrived on 11th June.
France and Germany 1944 – 1946
03/09/1944 Enghien Belgium
18/09/1944 Valkenswaard Holland
28/09/1944 Erps-Kwerps Belgium
29/09/1944 Mill Holland
01/12/1944 Winkel St Elois Belgium
09/12/1944 Gravelines France
20/12/1944 Brussels Belgium
21/12/1944 Beers Holland
17/02/1945 Reichswald Forest Germany
05/03/1945 Calais France Embarked ‘Canterbury’
It was during a 9 day period of leave 5th – 13th March 1945 that Albert returned to Dorset and married Peggy Lake
06/03/1945 Lyme Regis Dorset England
14/03/1945 London England Embarked ‘Canterbury’
14/03/1945 Calais France
15/03/1945 Pfalzdorf Germany
01/05/1945 Brussels Belgium
05/05/1945 Obermormter Germany
03/08/1945 Rotterdam Holland Embarked ‘Duke of York’
04/08/1945 England
16/08/1945 Harwich Essex England Embarked ‘Duke of York’
17/08/1945 Hook of Holland
18/08/1945 Rinteln Germany
31/10/1945 Brussels Belgium
04/11/1945 Hanover Germany
09/11/1945 Hook of Holland Embarked ‘Duke of York’
10/11/1945 Dorchester Dorset England
22/11/1945 Harwich Essex England Embarked ‘Duke of York’
23/11/1945 Hook of Holland
24/11/1945 Rethem Germany
16/01/1946 Tournai Belgium
17/01/1946 Tilehurst Berkshire England
18/01/1946 Taunton Somerset England MDU
23/02/1946 Sidmouth Devon England Demob Leave started
11/05/1946 Dorchester Dorset England Officially Demobilised
Troopships during the Second World War
The many voyages between these theatres of war involved a variety of troop ships most of which I have been able to identify and find photographs of.
Oronsay
The troop ship Oronsay was built in 1924 and became a troop ship during the war. Finally being torpedoed and sunk by an Italian submarine ‘Archimede’ off Liberia in 1942
Canterbury
TS Canterbury was launched in 1928 and was converted to a troop ship in September 1939. She was painted grey overall and had one mast .
Andes
Andes was built in 1939 and served as a troop ship during the war. She was converted to a cruise ship in 1959 and finally scrapped in 1971.
Fiona and Rodi
I have not been able to locate any information or photographs of the two vessels which transported him between North Africa and Cyprus, ‘Fiona’ or ‘Rodi’. It is possible that both these ships were locally commissioned to transfer troops and supplies along the coast of North Africa and as far as Cyprus. If this is the case then there may not be any extant records of their existence.
Strathnaver
SS Strathnaver was built in 1931 with 3 funnels which were reduced to one during a post war refit.
Durban Castle
Durban Castle was built in 1938 and after use as a troop ship served on the Union Castle line until she was broken up before 1962.
LST II (2824)
Landing Ship Tank, abbreviation LST, was a naval ship specially designed to transport and deploy troops, vehicles, and supplies onto foreign shores for the conduct of offensive military operations. LST's were designed during World War II to disembark military forces without the use of dock facilities or the various cranes and lifts necessary to unload merchant ships. They gave the Allies the ability to conduct amphibious invasions at any location on a foreign shore that had a gradually sloped beach. This ability permitted the Allies to assault poorly defended sectors, thereby achieving operational surprise and in some cases even tactical surprise.
Dorchester 1946 – 1981
Albert joined the staff at Dorset County Council in the Primary Section of the Education Depeartment on 6th May 1946 some 6 days after his interview and just 5 days before his War Service finally came to an end. He was to remain there for the whole of his working life up to his retirement on 28th February 1981 transferring from Primary Section to Secondary in March 1957. Albert and Peggy lived at 9 York Terrace until 1949 when they moved into a new build Council staff property at 18 Garfield Avenue. They remained there for the whole of their married life where they raised two children. Mark was born in 1947 and spent the first 18 months of his life at York Terrace. This small property was quite crowded as although it had 3 small bedrooms at the time it was occupied by Reginald and Edith Shepard, Their son Reginald (Rex), Albert, Peggy and Mark.
Albert Bernard Loosemore retired in 1980 and sadly died in Dorchester 14th April 2006
Albert was baptised on 22nd December 1918 at the same church in which his parents had married, St Michael’s Church, Stockwell. During his childhood he lived with his parents at ‘The Lodge’ Hayes Court on Camberwell New Road. His father worked as a Janitor at the building which was divided into flats.
Albert was educated at Loughborough Central School in London from April 1930 until March 1st 1935 having previously attended Cormont Road School presumably from 1923 until 1930. I have copies of his school reports for the period at Loughborough Central School.. I know that at one point he did sit a scholarship examination for the Blue Coat School more properly known as Christ’s Hospital which had moved from its original site in Newgate to Horsham in Sussex. I understand that he was successful in the examination but for some reason was not able to take up the scholarship.
It is interesting that a long standing bequest related to Christ’s Hospital was influential in helping my maternal great grandmother survive hard times in Dorchester during the early part of the 20th Century. The details of this are contained in Nigel’s researches.
Enquiries indicate that the Cormont Road School buildings are now the location of the Charles Edward Brooke C of E Girls School. The buildings are on the North West corner of Myatts Fields Park in Camberwell. From the road the school seems to have the same appearance as it would have done during the 1920’s.
The Loughborough Central School was situated on Minet Road from 1928. Apparently the original school buildings no longer exist in this location. It has been replaced by the relatively modern Loughborough Primary School.
I made enquiries with the London Education Authorities and have been advised that the school records for Loughborough Central school are held at the London Metropolitan Archives.
London 1934 – 1939
Albert started work at the Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane in the administration offices probably at the age of 16 and continued working there until the outbreak of war in 1939. I have no more details as to how he fared in this occupation but as he resumed an administrative career after the war it seems that office life probably suited him well.
During his lifetime Albert kept diaries of the more significant events and these have been very useful in identifying where his war service took him around the world. Unfortunately his first entry is in 1939 and so they do not shed any light on his time at the Grosvenor House Hotel.
Military Service 1939 – 1946
I have summarised below the movements Albert made during the war. His diaries give details of the exact towns and locations in which he spent his time but I have reduced the entries in this instance to an overview of countries visited and the dates he arrived in each country. From these I have produced maps which show his travels at that time, the paler lines indicate sea voyages and the black lines are travels undertaken on land.
The table below shows his rapid promotion up the ranks from his enlistment at the end of 1939 to the end of the summer in 1940 by which time he had achieved his highest rank until he was granted a commission in the Home Guard during the 1950’s.
18/10/1939 Enlisted in 295th Field Coy RE Oakleigh Park N10
13/01/1940 Promoted Lance Corporal
06/04/1940 Promoted Corporal
24/08/1940 Promoted Lance Sergeant
31/08/1940 Promoted Company Quarter Master Sergeant
The last few months of 1939 and most of 1940 were spent in the United Kingdom and it is during October 1940 that Albert started his overseas service with the Royal Engineers. His first major posting overseas was as part of the Middle East and North African Campaigns which started with a long sea voyage around the Cape of Good Hope in order to arrive in Egypt. The shorter route through the Straits of Gibraltar was avoided at that time because of the threat of hostile attacks in the Mediterranean Sea.
North Africa 1940 – 1943
The North Africa campaign involved travel throughout Egypt, Libya, Jordan, Palestine and Cyprus.
05/10/1940 Glasgow Scotland Embarked ‘Oronsay’
26/10/1940 Fleetwood Lancashire England Embarked ‘Canterbury’
14/11/1940 Douglas Isle of Man Embarked ‘Andes’
29/11/1940 Freetown Sierra Leone
12/12/1940 Durban Natal Province
29/12/1940 Port Suez Egypt
12/02/1941 Bardia Libya
09/03/1941 Mersa Matruh Egypt
24/03/1941 Ridotta Capuzzo Libya
15/04/1941 Mersa Matru Egypt Embarked ‘Fiona’
03/07/1941 Port Fuad Egypt Embarked ‘Rodi’
04/07/1941 Famagusta Cyprus
08/04/1942 El Quassassin Egypt
16/04/1942 Beersheba Palestine
18/04/1942 Damascus Syria
29/06/1942 Nazareth Palestine
01/07/1942 Ismailia Egypt
23/11/1942 Tobruk Libya
26/12/1942 Sollum Egypt
09/06/1943 Suez Egypt Embarked ‘Strathnaver’
15/06/1943 Akaba Jordan
16/06/1943 Akaba Jordan Embarked ‘Strathnaver’
17/06/1943 Fayid Egypt
Sicily and Italy 1943 – 1944
In the middle of 1943 he moved out of North Africa and took part in the campaigns in Sicily and the south of Italy.
30/06/1943 Suez Egypt Embarked ‘Strathnaver’
10/07/1943 Mazamemi Sicily
12/09/1943 Gallico Marina Italy
23/09/1943 Sapri Italy Embarked ‘Strathnaver’
24/09/1943 Augusta Sicily
23/10/1943 Augusta Sicily Embarked ‘Durban Castle’
25/10/1943 Algiers Algeria
In October 1943 Albert embarked for the United Kingdom and remained there until D-Day June 1944.
27/10/1943 Algiers Algieria Embarked ‘Durban Castle’
04/11/1943 Greenock Scotland
07/11/1943 Ely Cambridgeshire England
05/06/1944 Lymington Hampshire England Embarked ‘LST II (2824)’
06/06/1944 Anchored off Normandy France
Being in the Royal Engineers Albert obviously did not go in with the first wave of infantry regiments but did arrive in France aboard a Landing Ship Tank ‘LST II’ Number 2824 on D-Day when they were anchored at sea off Gold beach. They must have come ashore late in the day or probably the following day as he records that on the 7th June they were in the area of Ryes some two miles inland from the beachhead at Arremanches and five miles from Bayeux where he arrived on 11th June.
France and Germany 1944 – 1946
03/09/1944 Enghien Belgium
18/09/1944 Valkenswaard Holland
28/09/1944 Erps-Kwerps Belgium
29/09/1944 Mill Holland
01/12/1944 Winkel St Elois Belgium
09/12/1944 Gravelines France
20/12/1944 Brussels Belgium
21/12/1944 Beers Holland
17/02/1945 Reichswald Forest Germany
05/03/1945 Calais France Embarked ‘Canterbury’
It was during a 9 day period of leave 5th – 13th March 1945 that Albert returned to Dorset and married Peggy Lake
06/03/1945 Lyme Regis Dorset England
14/03/1945 London England Embarked ‘Canterbury’
14/03/1945 Calais France
15/03/1945 Pfalzdorf Germany
01/05/1945 Brussels Belgium
05/05/1945 Obermormter Germany
03/08/1945 Rotterdam Holland Embarked ‘Duke of York’
04/08/1945 England
16/08/1945 Harwich Essex England Embarked ‘Duke of York’
17/08/1945 Hook of Holland
18/08/1945 Rinteln Germany
31/10/1945 Brussels Belgium
04/11/1945 Hanover Germany
09/11/1945 Hook of Holland Embarked ‘Duke of York’
10/11/1945 Dorchester Dorset England
22/11/1945 Harwich Essex England Embarked ‘Duke of York’
23/11/1945 Hook of Holland
24/11/1945 Rethem Germany
16/01/1946 Tournai Belgium
17/01/1946 Tilehurst Berkshire England
18/01/1946 Taunton Somerset England MDU
23/02/1946 Sidmouth Devon England Demob Leave started
11/05/1946 Dorchester Dorset England Officially Demobilised
Troopships during the Second World War
The many voyages between these theatres of war involved a variety of troop ships most of which I have been able to identify and find photographs of.
Oronsay
The troop ship Oronsay was built in 1924 and became a troop ship during the war. Finally being torpedoed and sunk by an Italian submarine ‘Archimede’ off Liberia in 1942
Canterbury
TS Canterbury was launched in 1928 and was converted to a troop ship in September 1939. She was painted grey overall and had one mast .
Andes
Andes was built in 1939 and served as a troop ship during the war. She was converted to a cruise ship in 1959 and finally scrapped in 1971.
Fiona and Rodi
I have not been able to locate any information or photographs of the two vessels which transported him between North Africa and Cyprus, ‘Fiona’ or ‘Rodi’. It is possible that both these ships were locally commissioned to transfer troops and supplies along the coast of North Africa and as far as Cyprus. If this is the case then there may not be any extant records of their existence.
Strathnaver
SS Strathnaver was built in 1931 with 3 funnels which were reduced to one during a post war refit.
Durban Castle
Durban Castle was built in 1938 and after use as a troop ship served on the Union Castle line until she was broken up before 1962.
LST II (2824)
Landing Ship Tank, abbreviation LST, was a naval ship specially designed to transport and deploy troops, vehicles, and supplies onto foreign shores for the conduct of offensive military operations. LST's were designed during World War II to disembark military forces without the use of dock facilities or the various cranes and lifts necessary to unload merchant ships. They gave the Allies the ability to conduct amphibious invasions at any location on a foreign shore that had a gradually sloped beach. This ability permitted the Allies to assault poorly defended sectors, thereby achieving operational surprise and in some cases even tactical surprise.
Dorchester 1946 – 1981
Albert joined the staff at Dorset County Council in the Primary Section of the Education Depeartment on 6th May 1946 some 6 days after his interview and just 5 days before his War Service finally came to an end. He was to remain there for the whole of his working life up to his retirement on 28th February 1981 transferring from Primary Section to Secondary in March 1957. Albert and Peggy lived at 9 York Terrace until 1949 when they moved into a new build Council staff property at 18 Garfield Avenue. They remained there for the whole of their married life where they raised two children. Mark was born in 1947 and spent the first 18 months of his life at York Terrace. This small property was quite crowded as although it had 3 small bedrooms at the time it was occupied by Reginald and Edith Shepard, Their son Reginald (Rex), Albert, Peggy and Mark.
Albert Bernard Loosemore retired in 1980 and sadly died in Dorchester 14th April 2006