Eric Smith wrote
to the site. "Hello JonathanYou don't know me but along with my wife I
ran the much depleted school in Little Aden from 75 to 79. I have just been
to see Beth Cato...you probably knew her and the oldest son Stephen....Dave,
the father, died years ago. Stephen had left the school by 75 but Jonathan
and Helen were there.
I did send scans in several years ago, but
heard nothing as far as I can remember. Beth says that she sent in original
photographs and she heard nothing.
I have quite a lot of photos of the school,
club and round and about. If you are interested let me know and I will scan
again.
Regards Eric Smith "
And another mail from Eric " Hello again,I
have just looked through your "missing persons" list
Meme Wiseman should not be hard to trace as
she is the wife of a general manager. We used to be in touch and I know that
Beth Cato saw her at the last reunion.I am in touch with Ingrid Taraboulsi
Ellie Gorley lives in Northern Ireland and
again I used to be in touch. I might have her address in an old address
book.I am in touch with Margaret and Joe Andrews and saw them only two days
ago.Bernadette Wilcox and her husband kept themselves to themselves and I
wouldn't be surprised if no one was in contact.
I wont give contact details without first
contacting the people concerned, but the people doing the looking are
welcome to contact me and I will do what I can to help
Eric"
] ] ]
Dave Crocker wrote to the site "My wife Kin
Elizabeth Crocker (nee Hardy) was born in Aden. Her mum and dad was Anthony
and Jean Hardy, he worked for BP around 1955 for a few years in Aden and
then elsewhere .Is it a name you remember? Many thanks Dave Crocker
her husband,"
If anyone knows the name and would like to make
contact please let me know
] ] ]
Pixie Hughes recently wrote to the site If anyone
recognizes the name please let me know and I will put you in contact with
Pixie
My name when I lived in
Aden was Adrienne Saxby, I am now Hughes. I am nearly always called
Pixie. I went to the Isthmas school until 1958 when my father was made
redundant and we had to come back to England to live. I was 7 years old
then. I remember there being an army camp a short way down the road to
us. I used to walk across the road to the school from the flats that we
lived in. I wonder if this is the same Isthmas school as you are all
talking about? I don’t know if my father worked for BP but I do know he
worked for an oil company out there. One of the teachers from the
school lived in the flat next door to us. Pixie Hughes"
] ] ]
8 Videos have been posted to the
Galleries section of the site .
Some are of recent visits to Aden and clips of old cines from the 60's. There's no audio as who wants to listen to
the ramblings of 3 middle age adolescents ( apologies ... Jackie, Don etc )
The videos are in a .wmv format and can be opened with Windows Media player.
If anyone has Aden video clips from the 60-70-80's and would like them
posted to the site please contact
Jonathan Wilkins.
] ] ]
I recently received the following e-mail from
Sattar Abdul a former BP refinery worker "
Sir,
I always go through
Little Aden Kids pages and admire the frequent
up date of pictures.I worked in BP Refinery (Aden) Ltd. and ARC .
Retired as Lab. Manager and now Lab. Manager
in Saybolt UAE. I am Yemeny , 68 years old and would like to have the
e-mail addresses of the following :- ( if possible )
Suleiman Fakira----Worked as Works Chemist in
the same Lab.
PC Ward--------------Worked as Works Chemist
in the same Lab.
J.Ansdell--------------Worked as Works
Chemist in the same Lab.
John Wilson----------Worked as Process
Superintendent.
Northey----------------Worked as Process
Superintendent.
Rgds.
Sattar. "
If anyone knows the whereabouts of the people
listed please let me know.
Jonathan Wilkins
Steven Grady contacted the site recently. Steven
was with the 45 Commando's stationed at the Bandar Sheikh camp. He writes
"hi thanks for replying, I have only just decided to trace my missing year
in aden at the time I was 18 and bitter at being there, I now realise that
it was a wonderful country and some realy hospitable people. in answer to
you question, observation hill I know I went up twice for my pay othertimes
it was in the camp near the armoury. does anybody have a plan , a picture of
the camp, its blurry but day by day and emails from people like you I am
piecing it together. I remember the beach with a small club there, and
outside the camp possibly where you lived were houses? and possibly a
library or wrvs .please keep in touch, here's a photo of me in the camp
sulking cause I couldnt have a pint, only an egg banjo. also a photo of two
women I sent home to my family, sue and jane? any ideas.
steve grady "
I wonder if anyone recognizes the faces in the
two photographs ?
] ] ]
Nick Ward has been busy scanning his fathers
photographs and copies of
Jottings. Click on the thumbnails to download copies of July 15th 1965 and
May 5th 1966 issues. Nick has also sent in pictures of Ghadir before and
after the refinery construction. These can be seen at the following link.
Ghadir Bay
Thanks Nick
] ] ]
Philip Johnson sent in his collection of Aden
currency . These are the Fils and Dinar notes which replaced the East African
Shillings. If anyone has any of the E.A Shilling bank notes I
will be pleased to add them to the site. The notes can be found at the
following link.
Currency
] ] ]
If anyone is looking for information regarding a
visit to Aden. Please contact the web site. There has been 6 group visits
made in the past 2 years and a lot of information is available regarding car
hire, hotels, airlines and general information on Aden and Little Aden.
] ] ]
Alwin Davis has sent in pictures of his family .
Alwin's father and mother were nurses at the BP hospital from 1960 to 1985.
His pictures can be seen at the following link. ADavis
] ] ]
Phil Worrall has sent in pictures. Phil and
his family were in Little Aden during the early days of the refinery
contruction. If anyone can help identifying the faces on the pictures please
contact Jonathan Wilkins. Phil's pictures can be seen at the following
link.
Phil Worrall
] ] ]
There has been some discussion on the message
board regarding birth certificates. Stephen Turtle sent in a copy of
his birth certificate recently sent to him by the Yemen authorities. Click
on the thumbnail for details
.jpg)
] ] ]
David Harrington has created an excellent
web site relating to his time in Aden from 1961 to 1966. David worked for
the Marconi International Marine company. His site can be found at the
following link
David Harrington
] ] ]
Jackie Degg returned back to Aden in September
2007 after a 33 year absence. Here is the first part of his trip journal. My
Return to Aden.
If anyone is interested in returning to
Aden and would like information on how to plan it, please contact the site.
There is a wealth of information available from a number of travellers
who have made the journey and are willing to share their knowledge and
experiences.
] ] ]
Nick Ward has been busy scanning
his father's collection of Aden memorabilia, which he has kindly donated to
the site. Click on the links below to see copies of Jottings, BP
Aden telephone directories programmes and photographs of the Queens
visit to Aden in 1954.
Nick Ward
"Thank you Nick" jpw
] ] ]
Nick Ward recently contacted the
site and sent in the following e-mail and a copy of the internal 1962
BP Telephone Directory
(The directory is in a PDF format) "
Hi Jonathan,As you probably gathered from my lack of
response after last March, I wasn’t able to join any of last year’s
expeditions to Aden, but it is good to see from the BP Aden kids website
that you had a good time. If any others are going this year and are looking
for others to join them, I may well be interested in coming along, so please
let me know if you hear of any planned visits. My father worked for BP for
over 30 years and my parents were in Aden from 1954 until 1967. My father
was a very keen amateur photographer and took thousands of photos of all
aspects of life in Aden, covering people, places and events. He was the
wedding photographer at many of the early weddings in Aden and I believe
that he was also the semi-official refinery photographer. He therefore took
many photos of the refinery, including quite a few of its construction. From
mid-1954 when he bought his first Leica, he always had the best equipment,
which is reflected in the quality of many of the photos. In the early years
he took almost entirely black and white photos (and did his own developing
and printing) but in later years he took mostly colour. Fortunately for
almost all of the colour photography he used Kodachrome slide film and most
of the slides look as good today as when they were first developed. Regards
Nick
To
download a free copy of an Adobe PDF reader click on the icon
Jane Brown sent in a collection of photographs
taken between 1966 and 1970. Jane and her family lived on Marine Drive . Her
father Alan was BP's Marine Superintendent .
Jane Brown
] ] ]
Kevin Sumbler recently contacted the site and sent the following e-mail
along with some pictures.
"Hi, We had recently discovered your website and it has brought back a
number of memories of our time there.
My father, Reg Sumbler, was employed as the Computer Manager at the
refinery. We arrived in Aden in the summer of 1965 and left in the
summer of 1967, but my father stayed on for an additional year. We
attended Isthmus school during this period.Looking at the website made
me dig through all the old black & white photo's to see if there were
some I could send. Unfortunately most of the Aden memories I have are
either on slides or cine film but i did find a few. I attach a file of 6
photo's: "
Kevin Sumbler
] ] ]
Jane Waller contacted the site
recently " Hi Jonathan, We too lived in Wiltshire Crescent.
My mother, brother and I left in '61 but my father, Frank, stayed on for a
couple more years. I can't find my BOAC log but I did find my
international vaccination certificates book of all things - have attached a
copy of a page! As I mentioned, my memories are very vague so I really don't
remember anyone. My parents were friends with, I think, Jim and Betty Adair
but that's about as far as the little grey cells will stretch. As for photos
I'll have to ask my brother's wife if she has any. My brother was the family
photo archiver but unfortunately he died a few years ago. Alas I am the last
of the "Wallers in Aden" clan. Keep up the good work on the web site. It's
funny how we start reminiscing as we get older isn't it?
Best Regards Jane Waller .
BP Health Certificate.
] ] ]
Stephen Turtle sent in the
following e-mail along with a number of pictures from the late 50's
and early 60's . These
can be seen at the following link
" Stephen Turtle "
Hi Jonathan,I recently came across this
site after finding Fred Collinson's videos on You Tube.On scanning through
the pages I came to
Peter Toppings page and looked at the first photo:"Elizabeth, Bob and Phil at
Peter Topping's christening"The "Phil" in the photo is my dear old dad, Phil
Turtle.I was born in Aden in '55 and Mum (Margaret), Dad, Myself and three of
my sisters(Eileen, Joanna and Marian) lived there until '62. My youngest
sister (Kate) was born there in February of '62 not long before we left. Mum
and Dad are happily still with us and living near Caloundra in South East
Queensland, Australia. The rest of us are in various parts of Queensland
mostly concentrated in the South east corner, although Joanna seems to prefer
the warmer north (Townsville).We went
back to England and stayed in Eltham for about two years after we left Aden
but decided we were far too used to the warmer weather so Dad applied for
work and an assisted passage and we ended up here. My memories of Aden are
hazy, but improving as I look at this site, although I do recall that life
seemed primarily to exist of sitting on the beach, swimming and drinking
coke! The pictures of the beach and the kiosk looked immediately familiar!
We have some photos that Dad took and has kept so I will see if I can
digitize them and send them on. Thanks so much for maintaining this site and
bringing back so many happy memories! Cheers,Stephen "
] ] ]
Harold and
Mark Izzard sent in 2 photographs taken in the 60's showing the Refinery, Ghadir and Bandar Sheikh. Harold was
one of the
refinery accountants from 1956 - 1962. Click on the following
link for the photographs.
Izzard Photo's
] ] ]
Ibrahim Khalaf Hassan Ali, very
kindly donated a booklet to the site. The booklet details the refinery's
operations and the amenities provided for the staff. The booklet was
printed in 1962. If anyone wants any of the pictures in a high definition
format please contact the site. Click on the picture for the booklet.
] ] ]
Doug Pitchford sent in the
following e-mail and picture. Doug was there at the beginning !
"New Year
greetings from California to all the BP Kids. Before there was you guys
there was us....the Bechtel Brats.
I arrived at Little Aden as a 13 year old school drop-out in March of 1953.
Never finished the 8th grade. No schools in Little Aden. Other kids would
arrive, in June, but I was the first dependent on site. Later came the two
dozen or so U.S. and British (Bechtel-Wimpey), Dutch ( harbor dredging
subcontractor) and Lebanese (Consolidated Construction Company - Beirut).
Spent my first night at the job site in a tent sleeping on a canvas cot.
Woke up with numerous abrasions...from so much sand in the sheets
Attached please find a photo my Dad took about September 1952, showing the
area where the family housing prefabs (I lived in A-10) would eventually be
assembled. His notes are on this and a series of other photos of the barren
rocks of Little Aden.)
The beach depicted was mine alone for two months. I did not have to share
it with anyone but wild dogs, hermit crabs and the local fishermen, whose
nets would be dropped into the sea from those narrow little craft they
favored as the pearly gray dawn was giving first light. (Who wanted to work
in heat of the day? Only mad dogs and you know who.) Those of us on shore
(men, women and children) would haul and heave to the rhythm of chants as
old as the days of Sheba.
I, too, intend to return someday to revisit Silent Valley, the RAF lookout
and a cove so dear to my heart which I claim as my own secret fishing spot
(at low tide).
If this reaches you intact and you wish other photos of the jobsite and
Queen's visit in 1954, drop me a line.
Cheery bye.
Doug Pitchford
(yep, we're descended from a landed English family from Shropshire. Check
out crusader knight Sir Ralph de Pitchford's tomb, replete with all the
spooky symbols described in The Omega Code." Click on the
image for Doug's picture
] ] ]
Mark Izzard sent in a copy of his
BOAC Junior Jet Club log book. The log book can found at the following link
>>
BOAC Junior Jet Club.
Thanks Mark.
If anyone else wants to
share their Aden travels with the site I will be delighted to post
your logs and travel accounts . Does anyone remember the MEA flights via
Jeddah and Beirut ?
] ] ]
Pictures and an account of the
September 2007 Aden trip taken by Aidan and Jackie Degg, Don
Stephenson and Jonathan Wilkins can be found at the following link >>
Aden September 2007
] ] ]
Two new articles reprinted from the
Port of Aden journal can be found at the following links >>
"The Queen's
Visit 1954"
&
"Building a Harbour in 25
Months"
] ] ]
During the trip to Aden in
September 2007, Jackie Degg, Aidan Degg, Don Stephenson and Jonathan
Wilkins were invited to tour the refinery and power station. Pictures of the
visit can be found at the following link >>
Refinery Visit
] ] ]
Martyn Tesky sent in his
collection of 'Jottings" reprint photographs. Martyn's father John was the
refinery assistant GM. Martyn's photographs can be found at the following
link >>
Martyn Tesky.
] ] ]
Aidan Degg has sent in his
account of his first trip to Aden in September 2007 . Aidan is Jackie Degg's
son. Aidan's account can be found at the following link
"Aden Account " Pictures to follow
] ] ]
Dermot Tippins has sent in
his account of his trip to Aden in April 07. Dermot was accompanied by
SheilaThoy (Moran), Kathleen Wooler (Moran) and Bronwen Reynolds. His
Aden diary and pictures of the trip can be found at this link Dermot Tippins.
] ] ]
Peter Topping contacted the site
recently.
Hi there My name is
Peter Topping and I was born in Aden in 1959. I lived full time there until
1965, although we returned in 1966 and again for my last visit there in
1968. My dad left Aden in 1969 - he was taken ill.I came across this site
(which I have spent the last two hours scrolling thru') while putting
together material about my parents' lives. They were Vince and Connie
Topping - both died in the 1980s. I remember the Wilkins brothers as being
older than me. My contemporaries were Paul Duffy (son of Joe and Margaret or
Mary Duffy) and Christopher Copus and Ron Richards' children..
Anyway, I attach a few pics to this email and will send some more in if I
have time. I live in England but worked in Hong Kong in the 1980s. Regards
and congratulations on the site - amazing!
Peter T. Click here for
>
Peter's
Pictures
Here is a second e-mail from Peter
Jonathan
Here are a few more pics if you wanted them for the site - I don't have that
many because we unfortunately lost a lot of pictures during a flood at my
Dad's house - he retired to Lancashire in the early 1980s after my Mum died
(in Blackpool) and lived pretty happily with his dog, and came out to HK to
see me every 18 months or so and then going on to places like Japan.
I'm not sure who people are in these pics except my brother and myself and
our parents of course, but there were some brief notes in the photo album
that these came from. The one of some Arab policemen is one from when my Dad
went up country in the late 1950s - they seemed to go in a landrover as I
have an old cine film with some clips. The memory that comes to me of our
time in Aden was those endless days swimming off the beach at the BP Club,
going as close up to the shark net as we dared, diving off the buoys and the
diving platform and then back to get some dinars from my Mum to go and buy a
pepsi from the beach kiosk - which I instantly recognised from one of the
pics of recent visits by you!
I have one copy of jottings from 1955 which I will scan and post to you. I
don't know why there is only one copy - my Dad was quite a hoarder, and has
all the letters my mother sent him after she came back to UK, and the
letters I sent him from when I was in the Hong Kong police in the 1980s. So
I can only guess that the rest went with the floodwater.
Peter T "
] ] ]
Degwell Morgan has sent in an
account of his life in Little Aden 1982- 1983) after the refinery was
nationalised. The account can be found at the following link
Degwell Morgan
] ] ]
More pictures have been
added to the Misc Images
page. If
anyone can supply names to the faces I will be pleased to update the page.
] ] ]
I have just returned from another
trip to Aden. This time, the group consisted of Jackie Degg, Aidan Degg
(Jackie's son) and Don Stephenson. We all had cameras and videos. Shortly we
will be posting the pictures to the site together with some video clips. (
Crater at night etc !!) On this trip we managed to get
into the club, the community centre and were invited into the refinery for a
tour of the power station. Jackie's father worked at the power station
during his 20 years in Aden. We met some wonderful people and had a
terrific time. If you have ever thought of returning to Aden do so, it is
well worth the journey. Accounts of the trip will be posted shortly.
Click on the pictures below for a preview of the visit. JPW
]
] ]
Clifford Waring has made contact
with the site and sent the following e-mail
"hi there, just came across
the aden site, looked in "searching for" and saw my name.now who could be looking for
an old codger like me. had a good look round the
site, brought a few memorise back.saw the pics of dermot
tippins return to aden, how things have changed. i got a pic of dermot
and myself taken at the old community centre, where we did a comedy
double together.keep up the good work.
cliff waring
If you wish to get in
contact with Clifford. Please send me an e-mail and I will pass on his
address..
]
] ]
Martin Dunbar wrote into the
site. Martin was born in Aden and lived there until 1980.
"Hi I have really enjoyed a
browse through the Aden Kids site. I have enclosed a short (very
short) poem for inclusion if it is suitable. Well done on the site, I shall
continue to browse around it, and show my kids where I grew up. The poem Waves
was written around 1980 (I think) and is a memory of myself
sitting at the front of our house in Little Aden watching the waves in the
bay after having been told (that evening) that the family was moving back to
the UK. I have a couple of other pieces somewhere, but those are
really song lyrics rather than poems, so I don't know how they would stand
up to just reading. Keep up the good work. Regards, Martin
Dunbar.
Waves
]
] ]
Don Stephenson sent in some
photographs . Don's father was the manager of the Camel Club Naafi at
Khormaksar. Don is known to a number of the BP kids as we attended the
Isthmus school together. The photographs can be seen at the following link
Don Stephenson
]
] ]
Robert Ward sent in the following
links to video shot in Aden by his late uncle Fred Collinson. Fred
lived at J2 in Bandar Sheikh between 1957 - 1962.
A Drive around Aden circa 1960
A
BOAC Brittannia lands at Aden
airport circa 1960
Little
Aden Children's Sports Day circa 1960
Bandar
Sheikh and Aden scenes circa 1960
Queen's
Own Hussars Children's party 17th November 1960
Little
Aden military display circa 1960
Little Aden beach scenes
Philip Johnson kindly donated
some Aden stamps to the site. These can be found at the following page :
Aden Stamps
]
] ]
Eric Mears who runs the
Khormaksar school (forces) web site recently visited Aden with 5 other ex pupils.
Eric has written a journal of his trip along with Margaret Hansard and
Jenny Egelnick.
The journals can be viewed at the following locations. Please note these
are in Adobe PDF format. Eric has also added hundreds of photographs of the
visit at the following link.
http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mears_ssw@btopenworld.com/my_photos
Click here for Eric's Journal
To download a free copy of an Adobe PDF reader click on the icon
Click here for Margaret's Journal
Click here for Jenny's Journal
]
] ]
Bill Morton kindly donated his copies of the Aden
Port Trust magazines to the site. The magazines date from 1950 - 1967. We intend to periodically copy the articles and publish them to the site
as they give an excellent view of life in Aden. Thank you
Bill.
] ] ]
A big thank you to everyone who
has sent in pictures and articles to the web site. Please keep them coming
in. If anyone has access to copies of "Jottings" and any other articles
related to Aden and Little Aden and would like to publish them to the
site please contact us at
N606JP@comcast.net
] ] ]
JPW
18/11/08
..
A guest list will be added to the
event page in the New Year.