FOLLOWING the Andover Genealogy Society’s report on Railway Ancestors published in the Andover Advertiser in September, the society was pleased and fortunate to welcome Peter Olliver and his family to their November meeting.

Peter contacted them through the newspaper regarding the career of his great-grandfather John Beaven Smith saying that he had his passport issued and signed by Lord Derby, countersigned by the Brazilian embassy and also showing the stamp of the consul in Rio de Janeiro.

John went to Brazil to survey the country in 1876 prior to the building of railways there. Not only did the meeting have sight of the copy of the passport but also copies of letters written by Peter’s wife, Maggie Olliver, from her grandparents during the WW1 and those written by her parents in WW2, which gave members present an insight into what life was like in Europe during those wars.

John Bowman then gave a presentation about his search for one Leonard Webber, from Devon, married to his mother’s best friend in Basingstoke in 1941 and, after three days of marriage, going back to his ship HMS Repulse which then sailed for Singapore. The ship was sunk in December 1941 and the 500 plus survivors were landed in Singapore. There was great confusion when the island surrendered in February 1942 and like so many other service personnel Leonard never returned home.