Can anybody tell me anything about a certain Mr F.G. Tims-Collins? All I know is that he played chess in the Home Counties just prior to WWII. I shall be writing about him in our 06/15 issue. Thanks!
James Pratt
www.britishchessmagazine.co.uk
Forgotten Man
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John Saunders
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Re: Forgotten Man
I hadn't forgotten him. Here are my notes on same:
Saunders notes wrote:Francis George Tims Collins
His name appears on the WW2 war memorial in Balliol College chapel <www.balliol.ox.ac.uk> Tims Collins won the London Boys' Championship in (Jan) 1933 and was the London League's nominee for the British Boys' Championship in April 1933. He went to Aske's Hatcham School, London (BCM, June 1933, p244). In 1933 he tied first with AWJ Down for the Boys Championship (they both scored 2.5/3 in the final), but Down won the play-off. CHESS 1944-03 p85 under the title "Tims Collins Missing" - "According to Mr Du Mont, FG Tims Collins is reported missing from a bombing raid. How we hope that this genial and universally popular chess congress-ite managed to bale out!" Sadly, not so - FG Tims Collins, who won Civil Service Championship (Barstow Trophy) in 1938 and 1939, was killed on the night of 27 Nov 1943 in a Lancaster bomber (101 Squadron) over Heuchelheim, Germany (Flight Lieutenant). Bombing target was Berlin.
COLLINS, FRANCIS GEORGE TIMS. M.A. (Oxon.).
Flight Lieutenant (Wireless Operator/Air Gunner), 107924.
Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. 101 Squadron, Royal Air Force.
Died 27 November 1943. Aged 28.
Son of George William Joseph Collins and Beatrice Reading Collins (née Tims).
Husband of Derah May Collins (née Cunningham) of Harbledown, Canterbury,
Kent.
Buried Dürnbach War Cemetery, Bad Tolz, Bayern, Germany.
Grave Ref: Collective grave 11. C. 26-28.
Commemorated on the Second World War Memorial in the Chapel Passage,
East Wall, Balliol College, Oxford, Oxfordshire.
(from http://www.kentfallen.com/PDF%20REPORTS/HARBLEDOWN.pdf)
Derah May was actually PRIOR at birth (1919), married FGT Collins 1941 Bromley, and married a Walter T Cunningham in Woolwich in 1947. She died in Leeds in 1998.
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John Saunders
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Re: Forgotten Man
Personal Twitter @johnchess
Britbase https://www.britbase.info
(I prefer email to PM - contact me via this link - https://www.saund.org.uk/email.html)
Britbase https://www.britbase.info
(I prefer email to PM - contact me via this link - https://www.saund.org.uk/email.html)
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Gordon Cadden
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Re: Forgotten Man
It has to be said. First class research by John Saunders.
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James Pratt
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Re: Forgotten Man
Thank you, Gentlemen. And cheers John
James
James
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Kevin Thurlow
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Re: Forgotten Man
"It has to be said. First class research by John Saunders."
Absolutely.
it should be noted that "Tims" was a forename.
Absolutely.
it should be noted that "Tims" was a forename.
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David Gilbert
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Re: Forgotten Man
If John James has contributed already, I suppose you know Tims Collins was the winner of the Barstow Cup, the Open section of the Civil Service Individual Tournament, in both 1938 and 1939. The Cup is now incorporated in the Pimlico Five Thursdays event that starts on 21 May 2015 and is awarded to the leading player from the London Public Service League.
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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: Forgotten Man
Just to add to this, the CWGC site has for some time now included extra information such as the personal grave inscription (chosen by the family), which in this case is:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/186 ... lins/photo
This is an example of a grave that was later concentrated into the ones at Durnbach War Cemetery (it is not clear if the original grave marker is at Durnbach or Frannkfurt, probably the former - the reburial from Frankfurt Main Cemetery to the British Military Cemetery at Durnbach took place on 26 June 1948, a bit less than 5 years after they died). It is a collective grave for the five crew of the bomber. Though they have separate headstones, they are grouped close together in a row to mark the collective grave of the remains recovered from the crashed bomber.
The epitaph is from a poem by Ernest Rhys (founding editor of Everyman's Library):
Grave photos (including one of the original grave marker for the crew of the bomber he was in) are here:WITH THE WINGS OF A BIRD AND THE HEART OF A MAN HE COMPASS'D HIS FLIGHT
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/186 ... lins/photo
This is an example of a grave that was later concentrated into the ones at Durnbach War Cemetery (it is not clear if the original grave marker is at Durnbach or Frannkfurt, probably the former - the reburial from Frankfurt Main Cemetery to the British Military Cemetery at Durnbach took place on 26 June 1948, a bit less than 5 years after they died). It is a collective grave for the five crew of the bomber. Though they have separate headstones, they are grouped close together in a row to mark the collective grave of the remains recovered from the crashed bomber.
The epitaph is from a poem by Ernest Rhys (founding editor of Everyman's Library):
(Apparently this is “The New Icarus,” originally from Rhymes for Everyman. Anthologized in Icarus: An Anthology of the Poetry of Flight (1938))With the wings of a bird and the heart of a man he compass'd his flight, And the cities and seas, as he flew, were like smoke at his feet. He lived a great life while we slept, in the dark of the night, And went home by the mariners' road, down the stars' empty street.
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Kevin Thurlow
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Re: Forgotten Man
Well found Chris. Searching the poetic epitaph led me to :-
https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/104627
The source Chris quoted said Tims was a Wireless Operator/Air Gunner, (which I would have thought was slightly unusual), whereas the one above says he was a Navigator, which is something else again. It seems unlikely that a Flight Lieutenant would be a gunner, unless he took over in an emergency.
A story of Tims and the Barstow Cup is related in my forthcoming book on the History of Civil Service Chess.
https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/104627
The source Chris quoted said Tims was a Wireless Operator/Air Gunner, (which I would have thought was slightly unusual), whereas the one above says he was a Navigator, which is something else again. It seems unlikely that a Flight Lieutenant would be a gunner, unless he took over in an emergency.
A story of Tims and the Barstow Cup is related in my forthcoming book on the History of Civil Service Chess.
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Kevin Thurlow
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Re: Forgotten Man
http://www.aircrewremembered.com/bennet ... ordon.html
You need to read a lot of this (info on Tims interspersed with info on his colleagues) - but near the bottom is a photograph from BCM in 1933. Link does confirm he was the Navigator.
(edited for grammar)
You need to read a lot of this (info on Tims interspersed with info on his colleagues) - but near the bottom is a photograph from BCM in 1933. Link does confirm he was the Navigator.
(edited for grammar)
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Matt Mackenzie
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Re: Forgotten Man
IIRC there was a quick loss of his in the first ever issue of CHESS magazine in 1935.
"Set up your attacks so that when the fire is out, it isn't out!" (H N Pillsbury)
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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: Forgotten Man
Many thanks for the links, Kevin.
Quoting the bits on Tims (or is it Collins?):
He is commemorated on the IBCC memorial.
They took off from Ludford Magna (wherever that is).
Two of the crew survived and were POWs (one subsequently died).
I would quote bits from the other site, but it seems they have disabled copy-paste.
Additional info includes his profession ("an economist to the Export Credit Department [Board of Trade]") and details of his daughter (Christina F. Collins, born 1944 in Hammersmith).
It is not clear if the bomber excavated in Germany in 1976 is the same one (date of 1944 conflicts with the 1943 crash date).
Can anyone confirm details of Christina F. Collins?
Might the surviving crew member (Alexander McKeeman) still be alive? ("thought to be Scottish" and about 19, born 1923/24.)
Quoting the bits on Tims (or is it Collins?):
He is commemorated on the IBCC memorial.
They took off from Ludford Magna (wherever that is).
Two of the crew survived and were POWs (one subsequently died).
I would quote bits from the other site, but it seems they have disabled copy-paste.
Additional info includes his profession ("an economist to the Export Credit Department [Board of Trade]") and details of his daughter (Christina F. Collins, born 1944 in Hammersmith).
It is not clear if the bomber excavated in Germany in 1976 is the same one (date of 1944 conflicts with the 1943 crash date).
Can anyone confirm details of Christina F. Collins?
Might the surviving crew member (Alexander McKeeman) still be alive? ("thought to be Scottish" and about 19, born 1923/24.)
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Kevin Thurlow
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Re: Forgotten Man
Ludford Magna is in Lincolnshire
http://www.bcar.org.uk/ludford-history
https://www.lincolnshirelife.co.uk/post ... -squadron1
http://www.leamingtonhistory.co.uk/wp-c ... text01.pdf
Interesting that Ludford Magna later housed Thor nuclear weapons - if USA and USSR had gone to war in the 60s, some of USA's weapons would have been launched from UK bases, and hence UK would have been a target for USSR.
I had noticed that the Lancaster Collins was in had a crew of eight, one more than usual. The eighth one was a special wireless operator who was in charge of the new and very secret electronics (as in the second link above). This man was Spofford, who survived the crash, became a POW and then committed suicide several months later in the POW camp. This seemed rather strange, until I realised what his job was. Did he worry that the Germans would work out he wasn't a normal crew member and torture him for information?
TC was named "Francis George Tims Collins" , rather than "FG Tims-Collins", so the mother's maiden name became a forename. Perhaps he didn't like Francis or George as names. The daughter was Christina F Collins (and John Saunders and I wondered if the F stood for Frances as a tribute.) She seemed to be alive five years ago, although John found three Christina F Collins that might be the right person based on birth dates. That's where we left it, as it was unlikely that she could provide any information, and she might be upset by any questions, which was much more worrying obviously.
http://www.bcar.org.uk/ludford-history
https://www.lincolnshirelife.co.uk/post ... -squadron1
http://www.leamingtonhistory.co.uk/wp-c ... text01.pdf
Interesting that Ludford Magna later housed Thor nuclear weapons - if USA and USSR had gone to war in the 60s, some of USA's weapons would have been launched from UK bases, and hence UK would have been a target for USSR.
I had noticed that the Lancaster Collins was in had a crew of eight, one more than usual. The eighth one was a special wireless operator who was in charge of the new and very secret electronics (as in the second link above). This man was Spofford, who survived the crash, became a POW and then committed suicide several months later in the POW camp. This seemed rather strange, until I realised what his job was. Did he worry that the Germans would work out he wasn't a normal crew member and torture him for information?
TC was named "Francis George Tims Collins" , rather than "FG Tims-Collins", so the mother's maiden name became a forename. Perhaps he didn't like Francis or George as names. The daughter was Christina F Collins (and John Saunders and I wondered if the F stood for Frances as a tribute.) She seemed to be alive five years ago, although John found three Christina F Collins that might be the right person based on birth dates. That's where we left it, as it was unlikely that she could provide any information, and she might be upset by any questions, which was much more worrying obviously.