Family History

John Thomas Burwill
Known not just to friends and family as Pop and Jack but by everyone who knew him The Greatest Channel Pilot.
He helped many channel swimmers cross the channel by planning their routes at his East Cliff public house. He also had a boat called the June Rose. He helped people such as Bill Pickering, Florence Chadwick, and Gus Ryder organise channel swims and swim the channel. He was also there when the Motorcycle crossed the channel.
Here are some of the comments Channel Swimmers and helped called Pop: The King of the Channel Gus Ryder
Marilyn Bell wrote this on one of her photographs she gave to Pop: To Mr Burwill, with love and many thanks Marilyn Bell He was known as the King of the Channel and was a true local celebrity.
John Thomas Burwill also known locally as Jack and Pop was born in 1890 and died on the 3rd March 1967. Hes mother and fathers names were John James Burville and Amy Elizabeth Burville (nee Atkins). The name changed because people could not spell right in the 19th century. More information can be found in a book called the White Cliffs of Dover about the Burville troglodytes in Dover Cliffs by PJ Burville and is available at most local shops and attractions.
John married a Rose Burwill (nee Whiting) and they had three children John Alfred Ernest Burwill known as Jackie, Rose Duggan (nee Burwill) who married Ernest Duggan and had a child called Owen Duggan. John and Rose also had a daughter called Beatrice May Whitewood (nee Burwill) who married a Charles Frank Whitewood. They had four children.
This article about Harry Brown was taken from the East Kent Mercury dated Thursday 5th June 1980. He was my great, great uncle as he was the uncle of my grandmother.
Harry Brown One Man who deserved a medal for his action at Dunkirk is Harry Brown, former lifeboat coxswain of the Walmer Lifeboat. Harry went to Dunkirk in his boat the Gipsy King with Alf Betts and Fred Hook, both now deceased. Fred Hook had only been married a couple of days.
The Deal boats at Dunkirk included Gipsy King and Gypsy Queen, Lady Haig, Rose Marie, Golden Spray I, Golden Spray II, Moss Rose and Britannic some of which were never seen again.
The Deal boats were bombed and shelled as they went into the beach to ferry the troops to bigger ships waiting offshore.
At one time when Gipsy King nosed in, Harry Brown saw a small pontoon around him with 14 soldiers on it sinking fast. As bombs and shells fell around him, Harry went over the side with a lifeline. He swam strongly to the pontoon; made fast the line and the Gipsy King pulled it clear of the shore and to a waiting transport.
This proves that Harry Brown was one of true lifes heros in the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940.
Harry was also in the East Kent Mercury in 1971 when the then MP for Dover and Deal, Mr. Peter Rees went aboard the Walmer Lifeboat. With Harry at the wheel, the lifeboat went to the Goodwin Sands and Mr Rees was able to see for himself the navigational hazards and the be behaviour on the international shipping lanes.
Harry was born at 33, Water Street in Deal on the 7th January 1911 and died approximately 1980. His father was a Harry Brown and his mother was Caroline Louise Brown (nee Hall). He also married a Violet Brown (nee Brown).
Frederick Charles Cleaver
Frederick Charles Cleaver was a member of the Medical team of the Royal Welsh Fusdiers. He also fought in Greece at Silonica in 1917-1918 and in the Silonica front.
He was born on the 4th September 1895. Hes father was Israel Moses Cleaver and his mother Alice Cleaver. He died in the early 1980s. He married an Ellen Cleaver (nee Fagg) known as Nelly. They had several children including Victor James Cleaver born in 1936 who married Barbara Ellen Dennis (niece of Harry Brown above), Sylvia Croud who married a Donald Croud, Frederick Charles Cleaver who married Dolly (maiden name unknown) and Frank Edward Cleaver who married Dolly (maiden name unknown).
Charles William (or Charles James) Hall
Charles was a merchant seaman and was a British prisoner of war on the Altmark. He and many other British prisoners were onboard this German ship that was getting bombarded by British war ships. Charles managed to get onto the deck of the ship and he rang the bell. This told the British ship there were prisoners of war on board. The Germans abandoned ship and the British ship saved the British prisoners of War. He was another one of my families world war heros.
Charles was born in 1877 child of Anne Lydia Hall (nee Norris) and Charles James Hall. He died on the 15th May 1945 at the Mary Hougham Almshouses in Deal, Kent. He is my Grandmothers Barbara, Great Grandmothers child.
Do you know anything more about these people or their families? If you do please contact me using the contact form.