People

Joseph Norman Polland

Sergeant | 1485923

Sergeant Joseph Norman Polland died on 19th December 1943 while taking part in a container dropping training exercise over Henlow Airfield, Bedfordshire.

Leslie Ernest Winston Rendle

Able Seaman | D/JX 249360

Able Seaman Leslie Ernest Winston Rendle was born in 1914 in Devon. He died in a tragic training accident in Belfast, Co. Antrim on 18th December 1941.

George Fletcher

Private | 4918522

Private George Fletcher was training with 7th Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment in Northern Ireland at his time of death there on 17th December 1942.

Matthew Chalmers Dowds

Fusilier | 3130510

Fusilier Matthew Chalmers Dowds served in 1st Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers when he died on 17th December 1940. His grave is in Belfast City Cemetery.

John Thomas Brown

Flying Officer | 156611

The RAF suffered heavy losses on the night of 16th-17th December 1943, known as "Black Thursday". Belfast-born John Thomas Brown was one of many losses.

Stanley Nicholson Gray

Flight Lieutenant | 125739

Flight Lieutenant Stanley Nicholson Gray was one of many men in Bomber Command lost on what became known by the RAF as "Black Thursday", 17th December 1943.

Ruth Kohner

Jewish Refugee

Ruth Kohner made a life in Northern Ireland after escaping to Millisle, Co. Down in 1939 due to Nazi persecution of Jews in her homeland of Czechoslovakia.

Franz Kohner

Jewish Refugee

Franz Kohner was a Jewish refugee who escaped to Northern Ireland from the Sudetenland. There, he took on an important role on a refugee resettlement farm.

Erwin Jakobi

Jewish Refugee

Erwin Jakobi was a musician from a medical family in Austria. He was responsible for the health and welfare of the refugee children at Millisle, Co. Down.