WWII memorial board rededicated & remembered

When tidying up the cupboard under the stairs in September, members of Pinner Synagogue discovered a long-lost Second World War memorial board. The board had been created c1946 to honour 11 servicemen from the Jewish Community of Harrow who died in the conflict, and the Pinner Synagogue Community wanted to rededicate and duly honour those named on it. In addition they wished to invite members of the families of the 11 servicemen to attend the redication ceremony. Two of the names on the board, Sgt Bernard Schneider and Captain Simmon Latutin were identified right away, but the remaining nine were a mystery. This is where the skills of genealogist Laurence Harris were called upon to help locate the others, using a combination of tactics: word-of-mouth pleas for information through the local Jewish community, the tree-tracing resources on www.myheritage.com, the military records on the Commonwealth War Grave Commission website, www.cwgc.org, the chaplaincy cards held by the Assocation of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women, the Royal Air Force Museum, and the Air Historical Branch of the Ministry of Defence. These resources identified the relatives of a further six names. And for the final push, Laurence called upon a couple of fellow members of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain. Working collaboratively, using shared online trees and research created on MyHeritage, they managed to locate family of the final three. All this was completed, despite several instances of unusual changes of surname, in time for the board to be rededicated at a ceremony attended by the relatives on Remembrance Sunday.

The names of those on the Second World War memorial board, located in Pinner Synagogue are:

Sergeant Bernard Schneider

Captain Simmon Latutin

Flight Sergeant David Isadore Cohen

Reverend Solly Hooker

Sergeant Bertram Frankal

Sergeant Alfred Sandow

Sergeant Hillier Field

Fusilier Hyman Ruttman

Flight Sergeant Joseph Israel Shaer

Flight Sergeant Sidney Newton

Corporal Harold Simmons