80 Years after V-E Day, volunteers honor British soldiers buried locally
'You could actually see ships burning against the night sky in Virginia Beach during that time,' said Military Aviation Museum CEO Keegan Chetwynd.
The U-boat offensive sank nearly 500 Allied vessels and killed roughly 5,000 merchant seamen and U.S. Navy sailors. Nazi Germany brought the war to our shores and we needed help fighting them off our coast. Thankfully, our neighbors across the pond were no strangers to the 'U-boat menace.'
Their help would come at a cost. Several ships, including the HMS Kingston Ceylonite, were sunk off the coasts of Virginia and North Carolina.
'Her majesty's trawler the Kingston Ceylonite was one of several ships that were converted from fishing vessels that were crewed by Royal Navy sailors who traveled over here to try and help the situation,' Chetwynd said.
On June 15, 1942, the HMS Kingston Ceylonite struck a German mine and sunk, killing 18 of the 32 men on board. Leading Seaman Charles R. J. Grimmer was one of the soldiers killed.
'So this man had come over here as a part of a group of sailors who were here to help us drive the Germans back off shore to buy us the time to get it together,' Chetwynd said, 'which was time that was well used because after the first six months of 1942, this really stopped happening.
Grimmer is buried in Oaks Lawn Cemetery in Norfolk, nearly 4,000 miles away from his home country. Unlike American soldiers, British soldiers killed during conflict are buried where they died. But Cheywynd and countless volunteers across the U.S. have spent the last couple months working to get a piece of these soldiers back home.
'The project is to basically get gravestone rubbings from British personnel that were killed either off the coast of the United States or in the United States during World War II,' said Zack Baughman, volunteer coordinator at the Military Aviation Museum.
'Project Bring the Boys Back Home' sent volunteers to 12 cemeteries across Hampton Roads and North Carolina. The rubbings are all collected by hand, and three copies of each grave are needed for the project. One copy goes to a museum in England, another to a genealogical project, and the final copy to any surviving family member of the soldier. Volunteers collected rubbings from 42 gravestones.
The Commemorative Air Force out of Dallas, Texas began the nationwide effort, and altogether, they will be flying more than 400 rubbings back to England. Last month, the Military Aviation Museum welcomed a Douglas R4D aircraft, sent by the Commemorative Air Force, to collect the rubbings and fly them 4,000 miles back home.
'When we heard that there was a group of people mustering to do this and to offer thanks in this way,' Chetwynd said, 'it seemed a really appropriate way to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.'
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Boston Globe
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The Prospect boasts a pewter bar – the longest of its kind in Britain — where the infamous 'Hanging Judge Jeffreys' is said to have watched the many hangings that took place at the nearby 'Execution Dock.' Early on, the pub was known as the Devil's Tavern due to its association with thieves and smugglers. A hanging noose outside serves as a reminder of the pub's grisly history. It 'feels like such a pocket of history in London,' Godwin said. 'So much of London's East End feels very new and trendy, and the Prospect feels like it's barely changed.' Challenging times for the pub industry British pubs have always been at the center of social life, with locals coming together over a pint, even in times of war and economic hardship. But the last five years have been challenging for the industry as pubs contended with the COVID-19 pandemic and rising costs. This year an estimated 378 venues are set to shutter across England, Wales, and Scotland, according to the British Beer and Pub Association. 'When a pub closes, it puts people out of a job, deprives communities of their heart and soul and hurts the local economy,' said Emma McClarkin, head of the BBPA. Pubs across the country have been forced to find new ways to attract customers. History is a big draw for pubgoers, with a trip to a traditional British pub coming in high on tourists' London bucket lists, raising the stakes of the Prospect and the Mayflower's competition. A 'loving rivalry' The Prospect claims it was established in 1520, with its original flagstone surviving an arson attack in 1666 — the same year as the Great Fire of London. The pub was outside of the city limits at that time and was not affected by the conflagration that gutted the medieval city. Justin Billington, assistant manager at the Prospect, said some people date the pub to its full reconstruction in 1774 after the 1666 fire. But he doesn't see it that way, noting that it operated continuously. The day after the fire, the workers rolled out a barrel of beer that had survived the flames and locals showed up with their tankards, drinking vessels, and enjoyed a drink on the spot. There were several reconstructions in the pub's subsequent history, but none withstood the salt water and shifting foundations of the Thames, Billington explained. Not, that is, until 1774 when the retired captain of a merchant ship called 'The Prospect' rebuilt it using the ship. 'This rebuild held and continues to hold on for dear life,' he said. If the pub was actually established in 1774, that would make the Mayflower — established in the 16th century — older. But there are no hard feelings between the pubs as Billington described their competition as a 'loving rivalry.' 'We compete against each other to be the oldest, and to serve the best food and drink,' he said. The search for the oldest pub in London But the question remains: How can either pub definitively claim the title? Unlike the title of the 'Oldest pub in England,' held by the Porch House in southern England, which is said to date to the 10th century, there is no official certification for the oldest pub in London. Guinness World Records said it has not formally awarded the title because of the complexities created by numerous name changes, relocations and reconstructions. 'There are lots of very old pubs that might make a claim to being oldest, but it could be contested because it could be argued they weren't always in 'London,'' English historian and author Jacob Field said. 'Many pubs have changed name over time, making it hard to claim they are the oldest.'
