Mary and Cyril De Jonckheere

Miss De Jonckheere’s Mother Mary Bremner and her Father Cyril were married just before the war. At that time he was working as a joiner in Wick and on the outbreak of war joined the home guard. The home guard there lived a very quiet life but there was one occasion when there was a special alert and they were up all night. Eventually he was called up and joined the Royal Corps of Signals and went to Catterick to train in August 1942.

Meanwhile back in Wick Mary continued to stay with her mother in OldWick Road and saw a German long before her husband did. She was standing at the back upstairs window of the house when a German bomber came flying past so low that not only could she see the swastika but the pilot in the cockpit. After scuffing the roof of the scout hut (which later became the original glass factory) he squeezed his plane through the gap between her house and the neighbours and headed out over the North Sea.

On another occasion she remembers the day that German bombers again returning from trying to bomb the ‘drome’ at Wick offloaded their surplus bombs in the town by the Black stairs in the harbour area. This was at least half a mile away but the whole house shook from the blast of the two bombs dropped and her daughter Isobel who was a toddler at the time, sitting on a mat by the fireside, was knocked over. Her other daughter Christine slept on in her pram unconcerned. That day fifteen people lost their lives, seven children, five men and three women. It was common practice for the bombers to drop their bombs rather than carry them back to Germany. At another time her Aunt saw bombs being jettisoned over Hemprigg’s loch as the planes were returning from targeting the army base at Tannach Mains on the outskirts of Wick. As they fell one landed on the soft peaty ground where the burn entered the loch beside the old waterwork house and blew a great crater. Some of the water and debris reaching the croft house a mile away. The other bomb landed in the loch but it never exploded and still lies there to this day. Oranges were very scarce in the war but that didn’t stop her daughter Isobel throwing one back at Dr Ramsay who had tried to bribe her with one before lancing a gland in her neck.

Sweetheart brooches started in the First World War and were given by servicemen to their wives and girlfriends to wear as a ‘reminder’. These usually had the serviceman’s regiment on them. This is the sweetheart brooch that Mary got from her husband.

Sweetheart brooch

Cyril was posted to the Special Operations training Battalion and was trained as a wireless operator. He was eventually posted to 1st Special Wireless Group and was an acting Lance Corporal. The 1st Special Wireless Group was attached to the British Headquarters. He was also in the Special Wireless Section as well and they provided communication for the 21st Army Group.

He never really talked about his war years but anyone in Special Operations would have signed the official secrets act. He served in North West Europe from 6th November 1944 until 7th October 1946. He was released from the army in December of that year to the reserves but could have been called up anytime until 1959 when he was finally discharged from his reserve duty.

(Above) Katherine De Jonckheere (Left) This photograph was taken by Cyril as he was flying in over London. St Paul’s Cathedral can be clearly seen standing alone in a bombed out area.