About

At the very end of 2019 I started this new blog. It is about my father Rowland Bott (1918-1993).

I made it immediately 'live' so forgive errors and lack of information for now. This will gradually be updated when I can.

My name is Pam Woolliscroft (née Bott). I am the youngest of his 3 children - my brother is Paul and my sister, Valerie.

I usually blog about ceramics history and also, occasionally, my garden so this is a new venture.
Rowland Bott aged 3 1921
Rowland Bott (No. 2342915) served in the Royal Signals during World War II in Egypt and, just afterwards, in Palestine. I feel it is rather nice to start the blog just as we approach centenary of the Royal Signals in June 2020.

My original idea was that this story would be mainly pictorial, simply told using Dad's collection of photos which I inherited. It has, however, grown and expanded beyond just the story of his army life.

For the army photos particularly I will use Dad's descriptions on them and sometimes include the back of the photo with his caption. Some of his captions are contemporary; others were labelled after his retirement in the 1970s/1980s. I believe you can usually tell which is which from the change in handwriting - see Palestine Page on photo of Switchboard Cabling. But if the army photos were not taken by Bott then there may also be others who captioned the images.

I have cropped some of the photos for neatness but have otherwise left them as the original. Some are of poor quality but I still think worth including. I also want it gain, and share, a wider understanding of his time in Egypt and Palestine and hope that too will become clear with some specialist research at a later date (written June 2020).

The family photos will, I hope, be enhanced with further research to find some of the locations mentioned in his notes about family homes and little businesses. Also further perhaps I will find time to do further family research.
Rowland Bott aged 26 1944
Wedding Day 28 June 1947 
In 1947 he married Joan Evelyn Lydeard at St Bartholomew's Church, Blurton, Stoke-on-Trent. In the wedding photo you can see that he looks much older than in the photo of just 3 years earlier and that the war years had taken their toll. He was still in his twenties.

Known as Rowland, Ro (yes "RoBott"!) and Roly or Rowley (the latter seen on the back of some of the photos), Dad would be amazed to be the star of this blog. But I wanted to share his photos of his life in the army for those interested in the Royal Signals and for veterans and their families to perhaps see some people they knew or to whom they are related. It would seem a shame to keep these images hidden away.

A very practical and skilled man, my earliest memories of Dad are of him behind that newfangled machine he had built himself - the television. As a hobby and with a passion for new technology he built radios, televisions and HiFi. He even considered setting up a business once, getting as far as the letterhead for "Tru-Sound".
Letterhead 1950s
He was amazed by the Sony Walkman... and, what he would think now of the technology in 2020 that can play music in a way he would never have imagined, I am not sure... but I think he would have loved it!

More later...