Please help us contact you more easily! Membership Secretary Chris Burls is keen to record members' emails and phone numbers in the Trust's secure database.
This will allow communication with members to be made more immediately and economically. Newsletters will still be sent out by surface mail, unless electronic receipt is specifically requested. Members with email are therefore requested to send their contact details, if not already held. Members without email will be contacted as before.
Our Friend Alfred
alongside Endeavour.
He was a guest at the premiere of Christopher Nolan's film, Dunkirk where he met actor Mark
Rylance, and told the star his experiences. He also met Prince Harry at Kensington Palace ahead of the premiere where he was cheered as he marched down the red carpet.
As well as being rescued from Dunkirk in 1940 Alfred also took part in the Normandy landings
in 1944. He served with the Royal Army Service Corps. At Dunkirk he spent two days on the beach without food or water. His unit was constantly shelled and bombed. He was one of only 31 survivors out of 107 men.
Alfred waded into the Channel and managed to reach a paddle steamer. Once aboard he collapsed from hunger and only woke when the ship docked in Harwich. He went on to take part in the Normandy landings in 1944. In 2015 the French government award him the Legion of Honour, the country's top accolade for those who served with valour.
After the war Alfred was a driving instructor and a top ballroom dancer who appeared on TV.
Alfred was an honoured guest at Endeavour functions and with the late David Wightman enjoyed a trip aboard the boat.
A Successful Dinner
Local author Dick Durham proved a hit at our annual dinner held the Chalkwell Park Rooms. His
theme was based around the Forts and creeks of the Thames, all places he has sailed around for over 50 years.
Dick has sailed as mate for the legendary bargee, Bob Roberts, aboard Cambria. Dick was aboard when Cambria delivered her last cargo into Felixstowe. Since those days he has owned a series of boats, and made epic voyages.
He spent more than 20 years as a reporter on the red-tops and recalls a career that was often exciting and sometimes surreal. He covered the Seoul Olympics, the first Gulf War, and the King's Cross fire as well as royal stories. He covered crime including the Rettendon Murders.
When he started in Fleet Street he was earning as much as a judge, after he was made redundant he was offered a job as a care assistant, although only if he was prepared to get some training. Instead, he got a job with Yachting Monthly, of which he is now Editor at Large. He also wrote a series of books and last February published a thriller, A Tide for Drowning.
Currently he owns Betty II, a pretty yacht built in 1921 in Leigh by Cole and Wiggins which is also the firm who built Endeavour. Betty II was one of the boats surveying rivers and estuaries for the
invaluable sailors' guide, East Coast Rivers.
theme was based around the Forts and creeks of the Thames, all places he has sailed around for over 50 years.
Dick has sailed as mate for the legendary bargee, Bob Roberts, aboard Cambria. Dick was aboard when Cambria delivered her last cargo into Felixstowe. Since those days he has owned a series of boats, and made epic voyages.
He spent more than 20 years as a reporter on the red-tops and recalls a career that was often exciting and sometimes surreal. He covered the Seoul Olympics, the first Gulf War, and the King's Cross fire as well as royal stories. He covered crime including the Rettendon Murders.
When he started in Fleet Street he was earning as much as a judge, after he was made redundant he was offered a job as a care assistant, although only if he was prepared to get some training. Instead, he got a job with Yachting Monthly, of which he is now Editor at Large. He also wrote a series of books and last February published a thriller, A Tide for Drowning.
Currently he owns Betty II, a pretty yacht built in 1921 in Leigh by Cole and Wiggins which is also the firm who built Endeavour. Betty II was one of the boats surveying rivers and estuaries for the
invaluable sailors' guide, East Coast Rivers.
Memories from the 1940s
One, Julian Wilson, sent us the picture above of Valerie, a 48ft bawley alongside No 1 jetty opposite the Hope Hotel in Southend just after World War 11. His family owned four bawleys moored east
of the pier and also had two pleasure boats on the Marine Parade pitches. These were New Prince of Wales 1 and New Princess Maud and Mr Wilson recalls Endeavour in Leigh Creek. I remember her just after the war when Dad had reason to come up to our boats on winter lay-ups in the mud berths beyond Johnson and Jago's yard.” He also remembered weekends afloat with 3rd Chalkwell Bay Sea Scouts.
After the war Valerie was fitted out for spratting. Mr Wilson remembers secondhand gear coming from Maldon to re-rig her sails and take part in the first post war Fishermen's Regatta. LO 180 was the company apprentice’s boat. The Ministry and Agriculture and Fisheries and the Ministry of Transport gave grants to owners who took on apprentices to train as seamen. Mr Wilson was aboard and trained by Sidney Cotgrove who was lured from semi-retirement for the job and the boss's son duly became skipper. At one time Valerie held the record for the highest tonnage of sprats caught in a weekend trip.
Mr Wilson's father and his partner Albert Brand had bought a LCT - a Landing Craft (Tank) vessel - which they used as a mothership for the firm's four bawleys and smacks. Mr Wilson said: “We’d shoot our nets, recover them when the cod-end came to the surface, call up the LCT on the e-army sets Dad had fitted on the boats.
The LCT would come alongside and we'd swing the cod-end across into her tank deck, release the haul there before going back to shoot the trawl again.” When fishing stopped the LCT went up river to Billingsgate Fish Market where Mr Wilson senior had pre-sold the fish. Later the boats went white weeding which was big earner for boats when fish were scarce.
Sadly Valerie became 'nail sick' and needed complete re-caulking. Repairs carried out during the war had been hastily carried out using available material. Local competition was tough and contracts
from canneries were running out and sprats had stopped shoaling off the Estuary. Valerie was sold to Norfolk for conversion to a yacht. It is not known if she survives.
Mr Wilson has also written a downloadable document about the experiences of the Southend fishing boats that went to Dunkirk, including Endeavour.
Contact website@endeavourtrust.co.uk and we’ll pass your request on.
Endeavour Comes Ashore
Endeavour has left the water in order to undertake the annual checks and
maintenance on her hull. You can see her in the cradle that lifts her
from the water, then at rest on the hard.
Endeavour Colouring Book
The following article was published in the Leigh Times: The Leigh-on-Sea Endeavour Trust is a charity established to ensure that Leigh's very own Dunkirk Little Ship, The Endeavour, is maintained to the highest possible order for future generations.
Although the Trust has a variety of sales items, it had been clear for some time that there was a need for something aimed at younger people. It all came together when Paul Gilson, Endeavour's skipper, met Amy Ellen, a young, talented, and local illustrator at the Leigh Town Council Youth Market event in July.
They both saw the potential of designing and producing a children's colouring book about the Endeavour story, and the team immediately set out to scope the project.
The A4 colouring book is now complete and available to buy! It is 28 pages and made up of many illustrations of Endeavour's activities – examples below.
The excellent colouring book can be bought for only £5 from rob@endeavourtrust.co.uk – with free delivery in the Southend area or postage from just £1.50 or call/text 07854610777 for further details.
All the proceeds from our sales go towards the upkeep of Endeavour. She is currently undergoing her yearly maintenance in Leigh Marina, and will be back on her mooring between The Peter Boat and Osborne's in the spring. The Endeavour Trust has been very impressed with the professional work that Amy has produced and we hope to work with her again in the near future on other projects for the Trust.
Check out our website for further details, where you’ll find our shop: www.endeavourtrust.co.uk and you can see more of Amy's work on her website: www.amyellenillustrator.co.uk
Can you identify these people on Endeavour?
If you know any of the people shown here with Endeavour, please drop us a line and let us know!
Endeavour and Pudsey Bear
Endeavour cropped up in a section of a special Children In Need show called Pudsey's Quest, broadcast to an audience of children at Basildon's Towngate Theatre.
From the sea defences outside Osbourne's, Finlay Marshall gave Pudsey an excellent potted history of Endeavour and her part in the Dunkirk evacuations, rescues from Canvey during the '53 floods and up to her rediscovery and restoration by the Trust.
There are lots of lovely shots of the boat on the Estuary, so well worth setting the screen to maximum size!
The Leigh-on-Sea Endeavour Trust would like to thank Mark Hardie at BBC Essex and BBC Children in Need for their permission to use this section of their show on our website.
2019 Calendar Available
The Leigh-on-Sea Endeavour Trust has produced a
quality A4 calendar for 2019, featuring an eclectic mix of photographs by
various photographers. Photographs include Endeavour at past and recent events
and vintage black and white photographs.
The calendars are for sale at £8.50, with free
delivery in the Southend borough, and are available now.
All proceeds will be used towards the
maintenance and running costs of Leigh’s Dunkirk ‘little ship’ Endeavour.
Trust members will be able to buy at the Annual
dinner on November 29th at The Chalkwell Park Rooms…
Please contact Rob Everitt at Robert@everitts.org for more information, including P&P details,
and to place an order.
AGM Documents 2018
Papers for the 17th AGM of the Leigh-on-Sea, Essex Trust are below.
The AGM will be held on Friday 9th November 2018 at 7.30 pm in Room 5, Leigh Community Centre, 71-73 Elm Road, Leigh-on-Sea SS9 1SP.
AGM Agenda
AGM Chair's Remarks
Remittance Advice and Reminder 2018
Annual Accounts 2017-18
AGM 2017 Minutes
The AGM will be held on Friday 9th November 2018 at 7.30 pm in Room 5, Leigh Community Centre, 71-73 Elm Road, Leigh-on-Sea SS9 1SP.
AGM Agenda
AGM Chair's Remarks
Remittance Advice and Reminder 2018
Annual Accounts 2017-18
AGM 2017 Minutes
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