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These links will take you to various websites where additional information,
related to the story of Anne Hughes' Diary, may be found :
Good Life Press
A new edition of 'The Diary of a Farmer's Wife 1796-1797' is now published. The new publishers are 'The Good Life Press', www.goodlifepress.co.uk,
the book publishing arm of 'Home Farmer' magazine : www.homefarmer.co.uk
Buy the book: (supporting Alzheimer's care)
Copies can be purchased direct from the publishers :
- online: Click here
(or via Good Life's Ebay shop. Look for : ‘thegoodlifepressltd’)
- by telephone: 01772 652693,
- or by writing to: The Good Life Press Ltd., PO Box 536, Preston, PR2 9ZY, UK
Or you can buy online from
Amazon.com in the U.S.A. after 15th Dec 2009,
or from Amazon.co.uk in Great Britain,
or order a copy from your local bookshop in the UK.
Emma Brown is the book illustrator for the new edition :
www.emmabrownillustration.com
Age Concern Woodley
90% of the royalties from the re-issue of 'Diary of a Farmer's Wife'
are being donated to the charity that gave help to Jeanne's daughter Molly
and assistance to her family.
Based near Reading in Berkshire, UK, Woodley Age Concern gives practical assistance
to dementia sufferers and their carers :
www.ageconcernwoodley.org.uk
Museum of English Rural Life
For more information about life in the English countryside in bygone days
the Museum of English Rural Life at Reading may be able to help :
www.reading.ac.uk/merl
The WW2 US Sixth Armored Division
This site is THE site to go to for more about the Super Sixth,
as the US 6th Armored Division of WW2 was known.
There is a wealth of information here about many of its units and its history,
from its training days in America,
through many battles such as 'The Normandy Breakout' and 'The Bulge',
to its meeting up with the Russian Army in what became East Germany.
When you read about the actions of Combat Command B you are reading,
in part, about the men of its Headquarters and Headquarters Company,
some of whom, for a while, shared their lives with the local people of a quiet English hamlet,
and some of whom would not be going home :
www.super6th.org.
The actual unit history of Combat Command B from their arrival on UTAH Beach onward is here :
www.super6th.org/CCB/ccb_history.pdf
The WW2 US 38th Engineer (& G.S.) Regiment
To our knowledge, there is no dedicated website for the 38th Engineers, covering their entire period of service during WW2,
which is a shame given their achievements.
But there is an interesting account of them building Wideawake Airfield
and its facilities on Ascension Island on the website of the Ascension Heritage Society :
www.heritage.org.ac/HS1frameset.htm
See parts 11, 12 & 13.
For wartime photos of the work on Ascension :
www.heritage.org.ac/HS9frameset.htm
Photos of the 1995 visit of 38th Engineer veterans to Ascension Island are back online. (If anyone can put us in touch with these veterans we'd be delighted to hear from you.)
www.n-b-wideawake.co.uk/vets_index.htm
New:
And there is now a super website/blog all about the "Wideawake Engineers". It was created by TV journalist and author Robin Chapman, the daughter of one of the 38th Engineers' officers. Her father, Ashley Chapman, was a platoon commander in the 38th during the airfield construction phase, but he remained on Ascension when the 38th left for Africa. Excerpts from his papers give a fascinating insight into life on the island during his time there.
www.ascensionislandwideawakes.blogspot.com
REME Museum of Technology
The Museum of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers at Arborfield, near Reading in the UK, houses a fascinating collection and also holds the REME archives. If you want to know more about REME, this is the place to go :
www.rememuseum.org.uk
NPRC - National Personnel Record Center, the home of Military Personnel Records in the U.S.A.
The building housing these records is located in Overland, a suberb of St. Louis, Missouri :
http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/
Tim Frank - military history researcher Tim provides military history research services in the U.S.A., specialising in Washington DC based records, among others. He was able to provide us with fast, efficient access to key information about individual soldiers held in WW2 Army General Orders. Tim is happy to accept payment via Paypal, making payment from the UK a simple process, assuming you have a Paypal account. :
http://www.militaryresearchassociates.com/
Churchill and Sarsden Heritage Centre If you are interested in other aspects of the local history of the place where Jeanne Preston lived, transcribed Anne Hughes' old diary and entertained soldiers in WW2, then this site will provide you with a wealth of information. Better still, you can visit the museum in the former old church and pay your respects to some of the people we've mentioned, such as Winnie Griffin who is buried in the surrounding churchyard. Other more famous names associated with Churchill and Sarsden are William Smith, known as the father of Geology and Warren Hastings, the first Governor-General of India :
http://www.churchillheritage.org.uk/
Cornwall's Regimental Museum Located in Bodmin, Cornwall, this Museum tells the story of the county regiment from 1702 to the present date. The Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry (DCLI) had it's origins in the 32nd and 46th Regiments of Foot and in 2010 became part of The Rifles. Recent museum acquisitions include items for the collection featuring Sir John Moore who commanded in the first Peninsular War and played a significant role in the development of both the light infantry and the famous 95th Regiment of Foot on which the 'Sharpe' books and TV series are based. :
http://www.cornwalls-regimentalmuseum.org/index.html