L.A.C. James Stridiron Italy c1945

Son Gordon by headstone St Mary's Cemetery

Training at Cardington Camp 1939

Mediterranean Allied Photographic Wing RAF

Taken in hospital recovering from illness

He worked at Monkwearmouth pit where he had decided to enlist at a forces recruitment office in Burdon Road, Sunderland on the 3rd July 1939. He was called to active full time service on the 3rd of September and went to West Drayton, London (now part of London Airport).

He was posted to Cardington in Bedfordshire for training on barrage balloons. He left camp on the 30th September and was eventually posted to the North East to help protect the heavy industry along the banks of the River Tyne. He was billeted on Christ Church property, Felling and also the home of Mrs Potts at 22 Corrofell Gardens, Felling Shore, where he met her daughter, Joyce, who was eventually to become his wife and they married, he in RAF uniform, at St Mary's Church, Heworth, December 28th 1940.

After a seven day leave in 1943, he went to West Kirby and was then posted abroad on May 15th 1943. He boarded a troop ship at Liverpool and sailed to join a convoy that was assembling at Stranraer for a posting to Algiers. He became part of the Mediterranean Allied Photographic Wing RAF. Central Mediterranean Force. He stayed about 8 months and then was moved to Tunis to prepare for the invasion of Italy. Leaving from Bizerta they landed in Katannia in Sicily.

Later, he travelled to Rome and then across to Foggia on the Adriatic coast and was based at San Savero and worked with a force of USAF serviceman who were working from buildings belonging to the local university.

When the war was nearing its end he was posted back home, flying back from Naples on January 2nd 1945 to Croydon. A short time later he was staying at Bowes Moor, near Barnard Castle, then went home onto Thornaby and was later demobbed at Cardington on January 25th 1946. His service and release book show that "LAC. J.H. Stridiron was a very hard worker reliable and conscientious and has taken a great interest in his work".

He returned to his work in coalmines and worked at Wardley Colliery until 1969 when it was announced that the pit was to close. He found alternative employment at the Washington Tube Factory as a security guard and worked there until he was made redundant in 1984.

He passed away in Bensham Hospital on the 5th March 2000 aged 79, and is buried near many of his works friends at Heworth cemetery.

Source: Gordon Stridiron, son with thanks.

Lloyd Stridiron, cousin, says that at the time of his enlistment, his cousin lived in Fulwell Road. This was changed many years later to Thompson Road to avoid confusion with the Fulwell Road which runs from off the junctions at Roker Avenue to Fulwell itself.