NOV 11
Statue for war-hero pigeon that saved lost bomber crewSimon Johnson
Fri, 10 November 2023
A statue commemorating Winkie's role in the rescue of a bomber aircrew from the North Sea has been unveiled near where the pigeon lived in Scotland
A statue has been unveiled in honour of a carrier pigeon that helped save the crew of an RAF bomber that crashed in the North Sea during the Second World War.
Winkie, one of the first recipients of the Dickin Medal, the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross, has been commemorated with a bronze cast in the seaside town of Broughty Ferry, near Dundee on Scotland’s east coast.
It was awarded the medal in December 1943 after playing a key role in the rescue the crew of a Beaufort bomber that crashed the year before.
The badly damaged aircraft was returning from a mission in Norway on Feb 23 1942 when its port engine exploded, forcing it to ditch in the North Sea, some 120 miles from the coast.
The bomber broke up on impact but its crew of four managed to haul themselves into an emergency dinghy.
Carrier pigeons routinely carried by RAF
Carrier pigeons were routinely carried by RAF planes to enable airmen to send a message for help if they were shot down. However, Winkie escaped from its basket before the bomber’s crew could attach one.
They wrote down their last known position and attached it to the leg of a second pigeon, Stinkie, which flew off but was never seen again.
However, Winkie flew 129 miles back to its loft in Broughty Ferry, arriving exhausted and covered with oil. George Ross, its owner, alerted RAF Leuchars in Fife, some 30 miles south of Dundee, across the river Tay estuary.
Although Winkie was not carrying a message, airmen at the base identified the bomber’s location by calculating how long Winkie had taken to fly to Broughty Ferry from where it had to be ditched.
Crew found within 15 minutes of search launch
They took into account the wind direction and the impact of the oil on its feathers on its flight speed and, astonishingly, the crew was found within 15 minutes of the rescue mission being launched.
Winkie’s statue was unveiled by some of Mr Ross’s relatives and some local cubs, who helped campaign for the commemoration.
Norma Nicolson, whose mother was a cousin of Winkie’s owner, recalled holding the pigeon as a child aged five or six.
She told BBC Scotland that the pigeon had “always been part of the history of the family”, adding that the statue was important to “keep Winkie’s story alive”.
Steven Rome, a local councillor, said: “It will help to ensure that the story of Winkie will never be forgotten.”
After Winkie died, it was stuffed and put on display with its medal in The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery & Museum.
Anne Ponsonby, SOE wireless operator who went on to join MI6 – obituary
Telegraph Obituaries
Fri, 10 November 2023
Anne Ponsonby in 2018 after her appointment to the Légion d’honneur - Hampshire Chronicle/Solent News & Photo Agency
Anne Ponsonby, who has died aged 98, was a wireless operator with the Special Operations Executive (SOE) who first heard of the Allied landing in Normandy when one of her secret agents burst into plain language.
She was born Anne Veronica Theresa Maynard in Peshawar, India, on December 23 1924, the youngest of three daughters of Brigadier FH Maynard CB, DSO, MC, of the Indian Army. Aged 12 she was sent to England to board at New Hall, a convent school in Essex. She did not see her parents again for two years, until they returned to England on her father’s retirement in 1938, and she left New Hall with little more education than typing, cooking, first aid and French.
Her father, who as a retired officer had been by then been commissioned into the RAF, paid for a tutor to enable her to pass the school certificate and found four months’ work for her as a clerk at RAF Cranwell. There, she heard of a friend who was joining the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY), and in August 1943, sponsored by her father and the prioress of Newnham Paddox Convent in Warwickshire she signed up too, hoping to learn to drive.
Anne Maynard in her FANY uniform
But by the Second World War the FANY, first formed in 1907 as a horse-riding, nursing auxiliary, had become a recruiting ground and a cover for suitable young women as agents in the field and as wireless operators. Within a few weeks, Anne found herself in a large gloomy house near Banbury, where, after signing the Official Secrets Act, she and her fellow recruits were told about the Special Operations Executive.
The SOE, sometimes referred to as the “Stately ’Omes of England”, occupied a number of such houses and used them as training centres, research and development sites, and offices. Over the next two or three months at Station 53b, as Poundon House in Buckinghamshire was known, Anne Ponsonby practised for eight hours a day until she could send and receive at 30 words a minute, a word being a block of five coded letters and a space in Morse.
She served much of 1943 to 1945 at STS 53a, Grendon Hall near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, where her task was to listen on specific frequencies at scheduled times (known as “skeds”) for wireless transmissions from agents in the field. As the agents were frequently in danger and operating under stress in the presence of the enemy, Anne Ponsonby had to receive the coded messages accurately, first time, and not ask for repetitions.
Anne Ponsonby, second left, at Bernay Aerodrome in France, the end-point of the 2009 Band of Brothers Bike Ride: on her right is Noreen Riols, who trained SOE agents, and on her left is Bernard Maloubier, a former French Resistance saboteur and an SBS officer - PA/Alamy
Astonishingly, while she was on watch on June 6 1944, ready for a “sked”, she heard in plain language: “Vive la France, vive l’Angleterre, vive les Allies,” repeated over and over again. Calling others to listen, they realised that it must be D-Day, the start of the Allied landings in France. They celebrated with warm beer and Spam sandwiches.
She was discharged from the FANY in August 1945 and returned to India to see her sisters, who were married with children, and she worked briefly in the Viceroy’s office. Back in England, she was recruited to MI6 and in 1948 she was posted to Egypt, where she met Myles Ponsonby, a former Green Jacket who had joined the Foreign Office. They married in 1950 and his postings included Cyprus, Beirut, Indonesia, Nairobi, Rome, and as Ambassador in Ulan Bator, Mongolia.
In 2015-16 Anne Ponsonby successfully lobbied to correct a long-standing wrong and, with many of FANY colleagues who had also been denied, was belatedly awarded the 1939-45 war service medal. In 2019 she was also appointed to the Légion d’honneur by the French government.
Anne Ponsonby’s husband, and a son, Air Vice-Marshal John Ponsonby, predeceased her and she is survived by two daughters, Belinda, a diplomat’s wife, and Emma, who with her husband Bryn Parry founded Help for Heroes.
Anne Ponsonby, born December 23 1924, died October 3 2023
Telegraph Obituaries
Fri, 10 November 2023
Anne Ponsonby in 2018 after her appointment to the Légion d’honneur - Hampshire Chronicle/Solent News & Photo Agency
Anne Ponsonby, who has died aged 98, was a wireless operator with the Special Operations Executive (SOE) who first heard of the Allied landing in Normandy when one of her secret agents burst into plain language.
She was born Anne Veronica Theresa Maynard in Peshawar, India, on December 23 1924, the youngest of three daughters of Brigadier FH Maynard CB, DSO, MC, of the Indian Army. Aged 12 she was sent to England to board at New Hall, a convent school in Essex. She did not see her parents again for two years, until they returned to England on her father’s retirement in 1938, and she left New Hall with little more education than typing, cooking, first aid and French.
Her father, who as a retired officer had been by then been commissioned into the RAF, paid for a tutor to enable her to pass the school certificate and found four months’ work for her as a clerk at RAF Cranwell. There, she heard of a friend who was joining the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY), and in August 1943, sponsored by her father and the prioress of Newnham Paddox Convent in Warwickshire she signed up too, hoping to learn to drive.
Anne Maynard in her FANY uniform
But by the Second World War the FANY, first formed in 1907 as a horse-riding, nursing auxiliary, had become a recruiting ground and a cover for suitable young women as agents in the field and as wireless operators. Within a few weeks, Anne found herself in a large gloomy house near Banbury, where, after signing the Official Secrets Act, she and her fellow recruits were told about the Special Operations Executive.
The SOE, sometimes referred to as the “Stately ’Omes of England”, occupied a number of such houses and used them as training centres, research and development sites, and offices. Over the next two or three months at Station 53b, as Poundon House in Buckinghamshire was known, Anne Ponsonby practised for eight hours a day until she could send and receive at 30 words a minute, a word being a block of five coded letters and a space in Morse.
She served much of 1943 to 1945 at STS 53a, Grendon Hall near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, where her task was to listen on specific frequencies at scheduled times (known as “skeds”) for wireless transmissions from agents in the field. As the agents were frequently in danger and operating under stress in the presence of the enemy, Anne Ponsonby had to receive the coded messages accurately, first time, and not ask for repetitions.
Anne Ponsonby, second left, at Bernay Aerodrome in France, the end-point of the 2009 Band of Brothers Bike Ride: on her right is Noreen Riols, who trained SOE agents, and on her left is Bernard Maloubier, a former French Resistance saboteur and an SBS officer - PA/Alamy
Astonishingly, while she was on watch on June 6 1944, ready for a “sked”, she heard in plain language: “Vive la France, vive l’Angleterre, vive les Allies,” repeated over and over again. Calling others to listen, they realised that it must be D-Day, the start of the Allied landings in France. They celebrated with warm beer and Spam sandwiches.
She was discharged from the FANY in August 1945 and returned to India to see her sisters, who were married with children, and she worked briefly in the Viceroy’s office. Back in England, she was recruited to MI6 and in 1948 she was posted to Egypt, where she met Myles Ponsonby, a former Green Jacket who had joined the Foreign Office. They married in 1950 and his postings included Cyprus, Beirut, Indonesia, Nairobi, Rome, and as Ambassador in Ulan Bator, Mongolia.
In 2015-16 Anne Ponsonby successfully lobbied to correct a long-standing wrong and, with many of FANY colleagues who had also been denied, was belatedly awarded the 1939-45 war service medal. In 2019 she was also appointed to the Légion d’honneur by the French government.
Anne Ponsonby’s husband, and a son, Air Vice-Marshal John Ponsonby, predeceased her and she is survived by two daughters, Belinda, a diplomat’s wife, and Emma, who with her husband Bryn Parry founded Help for Heroes.
Anne Ponsonby, born December 23 1924, died October 3 2023
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