From Ceylon to Sri Lanka: my father's quest to trace his family history

In a slight departure from the usual content of my blog, today I'm posting about a fascinating aspect of my family's history and my father's journey to discover more about his childhood.

My grandfather Richard Hall

My grandfather, Richard Hall (b.1917- d.1969) enjoyed a long and distinguished career in the Royal Navy. Joining at the astonishingly young age of 15, and after training in signals and spending time on cruisers and aircraft carriers, he volunteered to go sub-marine in July 1937. Throughout the Second World War, he served on submarines, most notably from 1940 on HMS P36. HMS P36 was sunk on 1st April 1942 by Luftwaffe bombing whilst docked in Sliema Harbour on the island of Malta. My grandfather survived, although we don't know whether he was on board or on shore at the time the vessel sank- like so many others, he never spoke about it, or, in fact, any of his war service. Soon after this, he was involved in mine laying and mine sweeping in the North Atlantic which he did until the end of the war. Shortly after the end of the war, Richard was based at HMS Highflyer (the name given to the “stone frigate” naval base) in Trincomalee, Ceylon, where he developed a great love for the island. He remained in the navy until 8th January 1948, probably timed with my father's impending birth on 16th May 1948.

Some recent forays into the digital world

As regular readers will be aware, I've long had an interest in digital methods of both conducting and disseminating historical research. Recently, I've been involved with several projects which have got me thinking digitally again.

First up, I had a short post published on the Environment and Society Portal, a site created by the Rachel Carson Center in Munich, which aims to make digital multimedia in the environmental humanities freely and openly accessible to academic communities and the public. My piece, an overview of the 1953 North Sea floods, was part of their Arcadia series on the site, which offer illustrated articles on subjects relating to both nature and human society.

A screen shot of the Environment & Society Portal's interactive map

Snow Storm Fears (The Weather Channel must die. Long live the Weather Channel!)

Yesterday, as I pottered about my daily business, I became aware, via the modern osmotic process of absorbing social media trends, that the GTA (Greater Toronto Area - for my readers from further afield) was due to receive a substantial snow fall come that evening and into Friday morning.

After sating my giddiness for fresh snow with a little dance, I did what I suspect many across Canada and the N.E of the US did at some point yesterday, and flicked on the Weather Channel. (Hardcore Canadians forgive my giddy response to snow, I grew up in Manchester, England where slush comes but once a year and real snow is rare.) Now, I understand the limitations and challenges of any 24 hour rolling  news format, but the Weather Channel's Storm Watch coverage (which is still on now- quick, flick to channel 23) just smacks me as ridiculously sensational.

The Weather Channel's Storm Watch

60 years on: remembering the North Sea Flood of 1953

Today is the 60th anniversary of the most catastrophic flood that struck the UK in the twentieth century. The North Sea Flood and the associated storm system, which occurred on 31st January - 1st February, 1953, was responsible for over 400 deaths in the UK and nearly 2000 in the Netherlands.

The scale of the devastation caused that fateful January night forced the government to investigate wider flood and disaster protection measures in the UK, leading to many major features of today's flood defences and disaster policy, including both the National Severe Weather Warning Service and the Thames Flood Barrier (clued up readers will note the error in the 1st paragraph of the Wiki article I link to, if you do leave me a comment!)

To commemorate the 60th anniversary of such a catastrophic and influential event, I have created the below video which introduces the harrowing events from 1953 and revisits some of the afflicted regions today.

As seen in the video, the below images from Wells-next-the-Sea in Norfolk highlight how little has changed in some of the regions worst effected by the flooding in 1953:

How do you know the weather?

Well, its been a while since my last blog post, a combination of (successfully!) completing my PhD and moving across an ocean have meant blogging slipped down my priority list. Moving away from Manchester, a city I'd lived in all my life, made me realise how much of my understanding of day to day weather conditions was tacit knowledge specific to the city and the North-West of England. Whilst my general understanding of meteorology may be slightly geekier than the average citizens', here in Toronto, my lack of knowledge on how the current weather conditions may develop during the day has left me feeling surprisingly disoriented.

For example, in Manchester if I was cycling down Oxford Rd out of the city centre and rain began to hit me coming in from right to left, I may stop and get out my waterproof jacket as I'd know a large downpour was on the way.