The Roostery

Chapter 7 Too many Nazis in Somerset

Introduction

Since I published the page 82 from the South Devon Railway disciplinary papers for Dick Wood, the last page of Bob Meanley’s nasty Nazi parody on those of us who stood for WSSRT Trusteeship in 2020, I have had a number of requests for the whole document. It is published below – pages 76 to 82 from the South Devon material.

I should repeat as I have done before that the SDR emerges with great credit as it acted to dismiss Dick Wood on the basis of the material which emerged from my DSAR.

It will be remembered that this is the document that WSSRT Trustee and HRA alumni Chris Austin characterised it as ‘deserving wider circulation’ and containing ‘wonderful character assassination’.

I said last week that this was particularly triggering for me. That is for two reasons. The first relates to my grandfather and the second due to my work in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (‘ED&I’).

My Grandfather

My Grandfather, Sgt Alfred White MM landed in France just after D-Day and then was at the front of the fighting across North-West Europe. He served in 8th Battalion, The Rifle Brigade, motorised infantry as part of 11th Armoured Division, usually working with the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment or 23rd Hussars, both tank formations. Battle honours included Hill 112, Operations Epsom and Goodwood, St Martin-des-Besaces, Villers Bocage, the Falaise pocket, the advance to Amiens, the Albert Canal, Antwerp, the Battle of the Bulge and the Rhine crossing.

He, and the rest of both sides of my family, lived before the war in London’s East End and the docks. Still and ethnically diverse area today, in the 1930’s many German jews had come to live in the area. When called up in 1943, grandfather’s best mate was Harold Shutz, a German jew, who had come to London with his parents from Germany in the early 1930’s. They were corporals together until Harold died tragically but dropping his sten gun in late ’44 just after being awarded the MM for the Albert Canal action. He is buried in a CWGC cemetery in Leopoldville in Belgium and I visit every one in a while, as my grandfather asked me to.

Wind the clock forward to April 1945 and the 11th Armoured Division were at the front of the advance into Germany. Grandfather was the 3rd British serviceman into Begen-Belsen, the death camp. He was demobbed in 1946 and retrained as a bricklayer. He died (all too young) at age 68 in 1983. I used to sit with him and soak up his stories of life in the East End before the war (grinding poverty, the struggle to survive) and his war experiences (comradeship, heroism, achievement, bravery, loss). But he would never talk about Bergen-Belsen and what he had seen there.

Two weeks before he died, I got a message that grandfather (who we knew was seriously ill) wanted to see me. I spent two days with him unburdening himself of what he had seen. The piles of bodies, the living skeletons, the smell, the horror. He hadn’t spoken of it for 40 years but said that he had thought about it every day. He asked that I do what I could that it not be forgotten. And I have.

ED&I Work

I was privileged to have a multi-cultural upbringing and have always regarded difference as interesting. Both when I worked for British Railways and since in my legal work as a discrimination barrister, ED&I has always been important to me. I appointed the first female Chief Clerk on a station on British Rail’s Southern Region, and the first black supervisor west of Reading on the Western Region.

In my legal work I was involved in the work which prompted the addition of harassment into equality legislation, and, more recently, protection for non-binary folk in the workplace.

I have been privileged to give evidence to the relevant select committees of both the UK and Scottish parliaments.

In autumn 2022 I was recognised for my ED&I work by Chambers & Partners, who rate the legal profession, after being nominated for a second year. The award has given me the standing to do more ED&I work.

In the heritage railway world I have done thousands of hours of legal work supporting organisations and individuals, without charging a penny.

Nazi Iconography

So, when a group of us stood for election as Trustees to attempt to change the direction of the WSR, to find ourselves (and me in particular) characterised as Nazi’s, was especially personally hurtful and completely thoughtless.

Its not a laugh, its not amusing. Its horrific.

Pages 76 - 82 in full

The Roostery

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