World War Two
I am grateful to Samuel Sjoberg, author of "Air Raid Islands: The Luftwaffe over Shetland during World War Two" (privately published, 2020) for sharing with us information on three Catholic servicemen whose funerals were conducted at St Margaret's Church between 1939 and 1942. They are all buried at the Knab Cemetery, Lerwick.
FLIGHT LIEUTENANT VINCENT MARK PAUL PAM
Text of gravestone: Flight Lieutenant / V.M.P. PAM / Pilot / Royal Air Force / 19th December 1939 Age 23 / + / Let the heights inspire / Mind and desire / To gain thy wings / For celestial things.
Vincent Pam was the pilot of a 240 Squadron Saro London flying boat operating out of Invergordon. He was patrolling waters east of Shetland on 19th December 1939 when, at about 10.30 in the morning, he encountered a German Heinkel 111 bomber. The two planes engaged in action and Vincent Pam was strafed with bullets across the chest. The second pilot, Pilot Officer Roger Hunter, managed to fly the plane back to Sullom Voe, where Vincent Pam was given emergency first aid. He died about 30 minutes after landing. The Heinkel crashed on its return to the Frisian Island of Stylt and was written off. [For a transcript of the 240 Squadron Operations Record Book and photo, allegedly showing the Heinkel 111 chasing Vincent Pam's Saro London, see Samuel Sjoberg's "Air Raid Islands" pp. 19-20.]
Extract from the Shetland News of 28 December 1939. Picture source: Shetland Archives.
There was no Catholic priest in Shetland at this time and the Brigadier had to wire for the Orkney priest to come up to conduct the funeral at St Margaret's. Fr Wilfrid Davis flew up and was brought to Lerwick in an open jeep through driving rain. Around April 1984, one of the parish sisters interviewed Miss Winnie Anderson who remembered the funeral. She said that Vincent Pam was a New Zealander and that his mother had come over to Britain to be with him while he was here. Winnie and her sister tidied and cleaned the church, and Dr Campbell's wife played soft music while the soldiers gathered for the funeral. The transcript of the interview is in the Shetland Archives (SA 3/2/91/1). We also have an account of the funeral from the Shetland News of 28 December 1939. About 150 officers and men attended the service, including units of the R.A.F. and the Army and Navy. That is almost the capacity of the church. The coffin was draped with the Union Jack, and the dead officer's cap lay on top of it. The body was conveyed to the Knab cemetery and buried near the First World War graves about three terraces up from the harbour, slightly apart from the main block of later WW2 graves in the cemetery. An R.A.F. firing party fired three rounds, the "Last Post" and "Rouse" were sounded, then pipers played the lament "The Flowers of the Forest". The priest flew back to Orkney the next day.
Wartime billet of Catholic Military Chaplains, 8 St Sunniva Street, Lerwick.
Within a week, on 1st January 1940, the first of the Army Chaplains arrived in Lerwick. He was Fr Kenneth Gillespie, O.F.M., a 39 year old Glaswegian who had joined the Franciscans in 1929 and had already done some military service in Orkney before coming to Shetland. (Most of his later ministry was in Wales and he built the Catholic churches in Llanidloes and Rhayader in the 1950s). He was billeted with the Anderson family in 8 St Sunniva Street. Their house backed on to Gilbertson Park, the town's sports ground, which had been repurposed as an army camp for the Black Watch. Winnie Anderson's father, by then in his eighties, realised that if they did not offer to take someone in, the house would be forcibly taken from them, and it became a tradition for the Catholic Padres to stay with the Andersons. Fr Gillespie probably stayed for less than one year since he was not in Shetland to celebrate Christmas in 1940; his next posting was in Orkney. Later military chaplains included Padre Oliver Patrick Conroy, CSsR, from the RAF (based at Sullom Voe and serving also Sumburgh), Padre Poltadiswiscz, and Padre William Hart (later Bishop of Dunkeld from 1955-81). Fr Hart was followed by Padre Hugh Gordon from Edinburgh. There was another military camp, the "Circus Camp" adjacent to the Catholic Church and stretching out to the tennis courts between King Harold Street and St Olaf Street. It housed a platoon of the Gordons and the Marines in a series of Nissan huts occupying the site of the present children's play park. Shetland was of great importance during the war because of its strategic position. Its role in the Norwegian Resistance movement (the "Shetland Bus") is still celebrated annually by both Shetlanders and Norwegians. The Free French were also here with their submarines. It is estimated that about 20,000 troops were stationed in Shetland during the war, effectively doubling the population of the islands.
SERGEANT RICHARD CHARLES DENLEY
Text of gravestone: 402646 SERGEANT R.C. DENLEY / ROYAL AUSTRALIAN AIR FORCE / 9th FEBRUARY 1942, AGE 23 / + / HE ANSWERED THE CALL.
Sergeant Richard Denley was an Australian airman. He was killed in a training exercise when his Beaufighter crashed near Quendale. His funeral was held at St Margaret's Church on 13th February 1942.(Information source: Samuel Sjoberg).
FLIGHT SERGEANT JOHN P.B.R. BUCKLEY
Text of gravestone: R. 56144 FLIGHT SERGEANT J.P.B.R. BUCKLEY / WIRELESS OPERATOR/AIR GUNNER / ROYAL CANADIAN AIR FORCE / 31st MARCH 1942 / + /.
John Buckley was part of an audacious military operation to sink one of Hitler's most powerful warships, the "Tirpitz", when it was anchored in a Norwegian fjord. The story is told in Nigel Smith's book, "Tirpitz: The Halifax Raids", Air Research Publications, 1994 (especially pages 83-87). On 30th March 1942, a group of Halifax bombers had set off from Lossiemouth, Tain and Kinloss in the North East of Scotland, passing over Shetland on their way to Norway. The mission was a failure because of heavy cloud cover, the ineffective attack on the Tirpitz came just before midnight. The ship sustained little damage but many of the Halifax bombers were lost on the return journey. Flight Sergeant John Buckley was on a Halifax of 35 Squadron, flying out from Kinloss. In the early hours of 31st March 1942, the plane smashed into the cliff of Fitful Head, perhaps while attempting a landing at Sumburgh airbase in the fog. The cliff face rises almost 1,000 feet vertically from the sea at that point. Two bodies, those of John Buckley and Sergeant Usher, and some wreckage were found near the top of the cliff. A third body, that of Sergeant R. Meredith, was found further down the cliff face but could not be recovered. The other bodies were never found. A monument now stands at the crash site which lists the dead. It is located on Fitful head just to the south of the radar dome.
Flight Sergeant Buckley and Sergeant Usher are buried side by side in the Knab cemetery, near the grave of Sergeant Richard Denley. Perhaps there were other Catholic war dead but at present we have no record of them. John Buckley is also commemorated in a monument to Canadian servicemen in St Magnus Church in Lerwick, Scottish Episcopal Church.
Samuel Sjoberg's researches have also unearthed a seasonal clipping from the Shetland News of 1st January 1942:
CATHOLIC CHURCH
For the first time for centuries in the Catholic Church in Shetland Mass was celebrated on Christmas Eve [24 December 1941]. Two Masses were said, one at the airport by Fr O.P. Conroy R.A.F., and the other in the chapel at Lerwick by Father Hugh Gordon, C.F. The chancel had been decorated with holly , etc., and the newly-installed electric light was used for the first time. The service, which was preceded by Christmas carols was very largely attended, mainly by men in uniform.
Fr Ambrose Flavell, 22 November 2024.
