Cecil Barton Memorial

I was lucky enough to be asked to take pictures at a recent unveiling of a memorial to Cecil Barton at the new Ryhope Hospital which will be opened later this year,

I've always lived in the North East and lived in this area for the last twenty years but I'd heard very little of Cecil. which was a surprise. Cecil was a great British hero during the 2nd World War, yes you may say there were a few and I agree but  in my opinion fewer still that matched the heroics of Cecil Barton.

March 30 1944 late in the evening the RAF launched an offensive to bomb Germany, Cecil 22 whose target was Nuremburg was stationed at Burn North Yorkshire and piloted a Halifax of  578 squadron. On that day in March a huge strike force set out toward their given objectives, by the time they reached the target over 60 bombers had fallen, but for Cecil the worst was to come. the Halifax was attacked by German fighters a Junkers followed by a Messerschmitt this riddled the plane with holes, no intercom, three engines and a weeping fuel tank was the result of the attack. Because the plane seemed to be dying and with no intercom a number of the crew bailed out. Cecil fought to bring the plane under control and then incredibly limped onto the target, he then released the bombs himself before he turned for home. Weaving past enemy search lights and flying blind Cecil used a tiny hand held compass for bearings to arrive back at the British coast, amazingly only 90 miles north of his home base. As they crossed the coast it was our turn to bombard the Halifax we had wrongly identified  it as a German bomber, evading this friendly fire the last drops of petrol evaporated. Cecil used his last remaining strength in a supreme effort to  land the plane as safely as possible, saving hundreds by missing Ryhope by inches he went on to crash on colliery ground. Rescuers quickly enveloped the scene pulling survivors out, but the nose was wrenched from the front of the Halifax and Cecil died.

Cecil received a posthumous Victoria Cross for his actions.



Meeting Cecil's sisters during the unveiling allows an insight into how normal people rise to give the ultimate, this man gave that ultimate possession for others. Imagine if you will the conscious decision made to ensure the job was done and after all else to ensure he stayed with the plane to save others a truly modern hero.

As used by Churchill "never have so many".

Sarah Louise

Hi

On Saturday I had the pleasure of doing a studio shoot with probably my youngest model to date. This little girl is only 9days old and already gorgeous. She modelled to perfection slept for the first 45mins woke up briefly took some food went back to sleep for most of the rest of the shoot. We moved her dressed her moved toys around her, no reaction to busy growing.

Bill

Nicola and Matt

In September Nicola and Matt organised a party for their wedding. The bride and groom had tied the knot a couple of weeks earlier in the Dominican Republic and wanted to get all of the family and as many of the friends as possible who weren't able to go together in order to celebrate this happy occasion with them. The night went exceptionally well with the revellers enjoying the extensive facilities that the Beamish Park Hotel had to offer, excellent food, music, dancing, family chat as only these get togethers allow, going on to well into the night.



As an aside the couple decided to use some of the pictures brought back from the wedding with some of the evening and we put together a coffee table book combining both to record the celebrations.

Bill

Update

Hello

Apologies for not posting any blog updates for a while , the year has been very busy, here is an update:

The following are just a few of the wedding, portrait, party sessions completed over 2012. I'll start with a 21st birthday party completed at the end of March. Rachael wanted me to do a photo booth set-up to get a few portraits using her own ideas for a novelty photo of all the guests as they were arriving, a great way to start this round up:

 

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This next on is from a christening done in April the weather was reasonably kind to us but as with the rest of this year we did get a period of rain just out of the church. I think we covered most of what the client wanted with some that they did not expect included:

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This shoot was a departure for me asked to do some shots for a new bar "Lola Jeans"  opened in Tynemouth. The owner needed some shots for his web site to advertise the bar on line, the shots requested included food, cocktails and cover of a "new menu" party night. A few of the pictures are shown here but have a look at the site http://lolajeans.co.uk/  for the result, call in and try the food I can vouch for the menu.



 

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Next a wedding held during June at St Gabriels church in Sunderland the event was very much governed by the weather with the heavens opening which required most of the shots to be taken indoors. Lynsey and David booked the Roker hotel for the reception who are more then adept in coping with problems thrown up by the rain.

 

 

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The last one, for this round up I'd like to highlight is a wedding in July in South Shields at the town hall. a great venue Paula and Rob had arranged a reception for the Lakeside at Whitemarepool but again (story of this year) the Lakeside was hit by the storms and flooded. So one week before the wedding  a hasty rearrangement was in order. This after a lot of searching, it was July! a room at the Seaview hotel was found, the guests still enjoyed the day with Paula looking stunning.

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Cheers
Bill