Rossendale Free Press

Wendy aims to put town war heroes in the picture

- JOSEPH RICHARDS joseph.richards@reachplc.com @RossFreePr­ess

AHISTORIAN is appealing for photos of soldiers from Bacup who died or who were taken as Prisoners of War, for her new book.

Wendy Lord, from Stackstead­s, is writing her eighth book titled, ‘Bacup at War: 1939-1945.’ She is now appealing for any photos of soldiers from Bacup who were killed in the war or who were taken as prisoners, either in Europe or the Far East.

Through her research Wendy has found at least 148 men from Bacup died in the Second World War.

Fifty-eight men were taken prisoner by the Germans, with two dying, while 26 were Japanese Prisoners of War with 16 dying in captivity and 10 returning.

Wendy, 58, is hoping to put a face to the many names she has researched.

She said: “I’ve managed to trace some of the Prisoners of War. I’ve got photograph­s of about ten of them.

“Even if I don’t get their photo I’ll still be telling their stories.

“It has been quite emotional actually researchin­g some of these stories. I just think it would be really nice to get their stories and photos out there so they’re always remembered.”

Wendy, a keen historian in her spare time who works for the Bacup Natural History Society and Museum, was inspired to write the book after hearing the story of her great-uncle’s part in the war.

Ted Jones spent three months fighting with the

French resistance in the Dordogne after crash landing in enemy-occupied territory.

Ted and his other six crew members bailed out of their plane after it developed a fault during a mission to drop off canister supplies and weapons to the French resistance group the Maquis.

He then spent three months with another resistance guerrilla group, La Brigade Rac, in the Dordogne forest before returning home.

“I knew a little bit of his story but not all of it so I started looking into uncle Ted’s story and unbelievab­ly found a photo of him in the forest with the French resistance and it snowballed from there,” said Wendy.

“I was just going to tell the story of what was happening in Bacup during World War Two, but then as I started going through the newspapers I started coming across these PoW headlines. So here I am trying to find relatives of these PoWs and those who died on the

Roll of Honour to see if I can put photograph­s to the men.”

Wendy has previously written books on Bacup during the First World War, including on the war dead in Bacup cemetery and on the Home Front but began to write about the Second World War during the first lockdown.

In the First World War pictures often accompanie­d death announceme­nts of soldiers in the newspapers, but this wasn’t the case in the Second World War.

As such Wendy has scoured a stack of Bacup Times newspapers for the names of the soldiers, but has been left without the photos.

She said: “If there are any families out there who’ve got relatives who were Prisoners of War in either Europe or the Far East or anybody that was killed, if they could get in touch with me that would be brilliant.”

Wendy is asking if any relatives have any photos that they email her at Bacuppows@gmail.com .

 ?? Wendy Lord ?? ●● Wendy’s great-uncle Ted with members of the la Brigade Rac in the Dordogne.
Wendy Lord ●● Wendy’s great-uncle Ted with members of the la Brigade Rac in the Dordogne.
 ??  ?? ●● Wendy Lord
●● Wendy Lord

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