Squadron Leader Henry Maudslay DFC Blue Plaque unveiled The youngest Squadron Leader of the Dam Busters, and one of the youngest pilots, was a local man. Henry Eric Maudslay was born at 1 Vicarage Road, Lillington on 21 July 1921. The Maudslay family had been involved in various branches of engineering for several generations. An … Read more
Leamington History Group is very grateful to Dick Fisk for allowing us to display this amazing map on our website as we will soon celebrate the centenary of the end of the First World War (The Great War, The War to End Wars). You will probably find it quite overwhelming and will need to zoom … Read more
In the Summer term of 1926, Arnold Thornton the headmaster of Leamington College made a surprise announcement following a morning assembly in the Great Hall. He had received a request from the Air Ministry to grant the boys a half-holiday in celebration of the award of a cadetship at RAF College Cranwell to a former … Read more
Freedom of the Borough for Viscount Montgomery, 1947 During the hundred years of its existence, the Borough of Royal Leamington Spa awarded the Honorary Freedom of the Borough to sixteen individuals and three military establishments. Of those individuals, all were men who had had a close relationship with the town but there was one notable … Read more
Corporal William Amey VC, MM, – the Man William Amey was born on the 5th March 1881 at Duddeston, in the Aston area of Birmingham, the last-but-one of the eight children of Charles & Elizabeth Amey. When he left school he worked as a chandelier maker for Verity’s Ltd, electrical manufacturers, so presumably had some … Read more
Josef Kalaś was born in Czechoslovakia and served in the Czech army before the outbreak of WW2. During the 3rd Reich Occupation, he fled via Poland and joined the French Foreign Legion. He was released to fight with his countrymen at the outbreak of war, and eventually, having survived the last battle to stem the … Read more
Thursday 18 June marked the 73rd anniversary of Operation Anthropoid and the mission of the seven Czech soldiers to assassinate the Nazi tyrant Reinhard Heydrich. The Friends of the Czech Memorial Fountain, including many living relatives of the 4000 soldiers billeted in and around Leamington in WW2, gathered in Jephson Gardens on Sunday 14th June to … Read more
I was posted to Christmas Island in the territory of Australia in 1957, from RAF Wyton in Huntingdonshire, just after getting engaged to my future wife, Evelynn. Plans for marriage were put on hold, and my fiancée and her cousin Doreen spent the time while I was away making a wedding dress and preparing for … Read more
The Poppies or Barbed Poppies – The New Memorial in the Jephson Gardens At 11.00 am on 11th November 2014 a memorial was unveiled in the Jephson Gardens, between the Aviary and Willes Road entrance. The memorial will remember all those who played any part in World War One, including the widows and orphans and those who … Read more
In October 1940, a fresh-faced young American named John Buccellato, just out of his teens, enlisted in the United States Army Infantry. His parents who were middle-class Sicillian immigrants lived in an apartment block facing Central Park in New York City. His mother was a milliner. Within two years ‘Butch’ Buccellato found himself in … Read more
The photograph to the right, taken in Leamington in 1865, is of former crewmen of the Confederate naval ship, the Shenandoah. What circumstances brought these sailors to Leamington at a time when fellow Americans were celebrating the ending of the Civil War? Four years earlier, the Confederate President, Jefferson Davis, sent his representative, James M … Read more
Long before Concorde went into service and as long ago as 1943, the Coventry firm of Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth developed an experimental, tail-less jet aircraft, the AW52 which became known as the Flying Wing. This aircraft had no fuselage or tail section and was essentially a large fixed wing powered by two Rolls … Read more
Contact the Secretary, Margaret Rushton: secretary@leamingtonhistory.co.uk
September 9, 2026
August 12, 2026
August 8, 2026