An army veteran from Bishop Monkton, near Ripon, has received a military-themed surprise on his 100th birthday to thank him for his service during the Second World War.

Family and friends of Ernest Tindall laid on afternoon tea at the local village pub, the Masons Arms, to mark his 100th birthday.

Unknown to Ernest, they had also organised for a group of veterans to join the celebrations and to help him relive his military exploits.

Ernest’s wartime story

Ernest was just 18 when he joined the Army in 1941.

In May 1944 he was involved in the Battle of Monte Cassino, a crucial encounter as the Allies pushed north into Italy towards the end of the Second World War. In December of that year, he was injured in a grenade attack and taken prisoner.

He spent the remainder of the war in a prisoner of war camp in Austria. Ernest served with the 5th Northamptonshire Regiment, now part of the Royal Anglian Regiment.

Ernest was one of 10 children, eight of whom served in and survived the Second World War. Ernie is the last of his siblings still alive.

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At this birthday tea, several ex-servicemen living in the village got together to add a military flavour to the celebrations.

A military historian from the nearby Army Foundation College in Harrogate gave a short talk about the campaigns Ernest was involved in.

The veterans also organised military memorabilia be brought to the celebration, including a new Royal Anglian beret for Ernest.

A Harrogate academic has published a book detailing the escapades of a team of female special agents during the Second World War.

Author, academic and historian Dr Kate Vigurs documents the heroic acts of the renowned Special Operations Executive (SOE) in Mission France: The True History of the Women of SOE.

While a few of the 39 women involved are recognised as war heroes, many have been forgotten.  The ‘group biography’ tells each individual’s story.

Missions for these ordinary women-turned-agents involved parachuting into enemy lines, planting explosives, and fighting on the front lines. They were the only women in the Western Allies to bear arms during the entire war.

One such hero, Paris-born Noor Inayat Khan, was a poet, musician and writer. When the war came, she trained to become a wireless operator here in Harrogate and went on to be a notorious agent, evading the Gestapo for three years before her eventual capture in 1943.

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Dr Vigurs has been studying the Special Operations Executive for a number of years and wrote her PhD on the topic;

“I wanted to tell all 39 stories in one book as a sort of group biography; looking at their past lives, and the ways they interacted with each other. They were ordinary people who were taught to do extraordinary things. Many were housewives, thrust into a world of war.”

She has worked on a number of historical projects including writing television and stage scripts for historical adaptations and speaking on the national news.

She said she hopes to continue to study the SOE in the future and look into the lives of the many other agents who were a part of it.

The book has been praised by Military History and was also named book of the month by History Revealed. More about the novel can be found on Dr Vigurs’ website.

This History is written for The Stray Ferret by Harrogate historian, Malcolm Neesam:

On Tuesday 8^th May 1945 a full sized likeness of Adolph Hitler gazed across West Park Stray surrounded by a replica of his Mountain retreat at Berchtesgaden. It had been placed there as the crowning display of a huge bonfire and assembled by the Harrogate Home Guard, who, at dusk, stormed the display, and to frantic cheering from the assembled townspeople, captured the effigies of Hitler and his cronies, before the Mayor lit the bonfire that burned “Berchtesgaden” to the ground. Beyond this scene of rejoicing, Harrogate was a sea of bunting and the flags of allied nations, which filled not only the town centre, but nearly every suburban street as well. In the main shopping streets at the town’s centre were displayed large portraits of the King and Queen, Prime Minister Churchill and allied leaders, Field Marshall Montgomery and other military luminaries.

Street party Harrogate 1945

Joyous crowds surged through the town centre that day, whose drab and neglected appearance, the result of five years, eight months and five days of wartime austerity, was temporarily brightened by brightly coloured displays, although the need to conserve energy precluded the use of gas or electric power, exceptions being made at the Royal Baths, and Municipal Offices where Mayor G. Spenceley had greeting the crowds gathered in Crescent Gardens. People continued to surge through the centre of the town throughout the day, despite heavy rain showers, although the streets cleared in time for both the Prime Minister’s broadcast, and the King’s speech.

Harrogate residents pose for VE day 1945

The borough court continued to function on VE Day, the main business being concerned with granting licences for dancing and extensions for liquor and music, all essential aspects of the coming celebrations on the following Sunday, which at the request of the King, would be a day of national thanksgiving and prayer. A service was planned at St. Peter’s Church attended by the Mayor and full Corporation, followed by a brief ceremony at the War Memorial in remembrance of the fallen. In the afternoon, a grand parade was to occur on West Park, when participants would include American military personnel, units of the Home Guard and Civil Defence, representatives from the British Legion, St. John Ambulance Brigade, the Scouts and the Guides. Flag bearing youth groups present included the Sea Cadets, Army Cadet Corps, Air Training Corps, Girls Training Corps, Boys Brigade, and the Civil Defence Messengers. After a short open air service, the parade marched via West Park and Parliament Street to the Municipal Officers in Crescent Gardens, where the Mayor took the salute from a specially constructed platform. The Mayor’s rousing speech reminded the townspeople of the ordeal they had undergone, and that until Japan had been overcome, the resolve of the people must be continued. He ended his speech with the sincere thanks of the entire Corporation for what the townspeople had achieved through their great sacrifice.

This History is written for The Stray Ferret by Harrogate historian, Malcolm Neesam:

At the outbreak of war on 1st September 1939, Harrogate’s population experienced the greatest transformation of its history. There was a big influx of evacuated civil servants and their families from London and other major cities which the government feared would immediately be subjected to mass bombing. In addition, hundreds of evacuated children were billeted in the town. And then, within weeks, the town was made the centre for the allied pilots training scheme, whereby hundreds of pilots and other airmen – British, Australian, Canadian, New Zealanders, Indians, French, Polish etc. – eventually received training in the struggle against Hitler. Within weeks, Harrogate was crowded, the air being filled with often strange accents, some recognisable, others unfamiliar. 

Then there were the new norms to be observed. Strict rationing of food, fuel and power, and the disappearance of many valued consumable objects from the shops, where queuing became an unwelcome practice. Conscription emptied the town of its young men, and so many of its young women took on new and unaccustomed work roles that the older generation predicted a social revolution after the war. 

Harrogate’s schools were provided with air raid shelters, and staff and pupils drilled in what to do in case of an attack.  All children had to carry gas masks, as the horrors of the First World War were still within living memory.  

Ploughing on the Stray 1941

Within a month of the start of hostilities, the Stray was used to graze sheep, but in June 1940, the Council agreed to plough 102 acres to grow crops. The Valley Gardens flower beds were converted into vegetable plots, but as the local dogs caused too much damage, the beds were planted with annual seeds instead. Land throughout the town was used to provide allotments, including areas of the Stray at Leeds Road, the railway sides, the Granby and Empress. Several huge water tanks were put up around the town to fight fires, with one of the biggest located on the Stray opposite Victoria Avenue. 

Salvage was collected assiduously, with most of the town’s ornamental railings being torn up and carted away. Pig bins became a common site, and even the grandest of houses kept a bin where scarp food was stored for weekly collection, although these soon became a source of complaint as they became smelly. 

The town received a visit from a solitary Nazi bomber on 12th September 1940 when bombs were dropped on the Hotel Majestic, destroying the hotel’s great Wintergarden, a house in Swan Road, and blowing out nearly every shop window in the town centre. Naturally this only stiffened morale, which received a great boost when Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Field Marshall Montgomery visited Harrogate in 1944, where they were photographed with the Mayor at the railway station. 

The bombing of Swan Road Villa 1940

 Although the Royal Hall and the town’s six cinemas were all closed at the outbreak of war, due to fear of mass bombing, they soon reopened and provided much needed entertainment throughout the conflict. Many local amateur groups flourished, as did groups from the evacuated civil servants and the various military forces stationed in the town. At the highest of professional levels, all the big London theatres sent their shows to Harrogate, and in 1941 alone, visits were made by the Royal Opera House, Sadler’s Wells, The Royal Ballet, the Old Vic, and the London Symphony Orchestra.  

Humour thrived, and the British Restaurant chain became the butt of many jokes about gristle, bone and lumpy custard, Harrogate’s British Restaurant being housed in Wesley Chapel’s School Room. At an official level, the Council agonised about the future of the Spa, and everyone knew that things would never be the same again when peace was declared.                                  

Malcolm Neesam- Biography

Malcolm Neesam was born in Harrogate and graduated from the University of Leeds as a professional archivist and librarian. He subsequently worked in Hereford, Leeds, London and York where, for twenty-five years, he was North Yorkshire’s County Music and Audiovisual Librarian.  Malcolm is a much-published author. In 1996 Harrogate Borough Council awarded Malcolm the Freedom of the Borough for his services as the town’s historian.

This is the first time Malcolm has written for The Stray Ferret- and we will be publishing much more from him in the future as he has kindly agreed to write many histories of Harrogate for us in the coming year.  We hope you enjoy reading them.