BP Aden Kids

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Re: Street shootings in Crater

Hi Guys,

The man who was sadly killed was Albert Donnelly. He got out to attend to something, I believe, rattling at the back of his car in Crater.

His wife is Mildred and my parents keep in touch with her. She now lives in the Middlesborough area. There are 2 daughters Pamela and Linda and a son (whos name I cannot remember).

Mildred married again some years later (her husband now sadly deceased). With her family she now has many grandchildren, great grandchildren.

If anyone remembers Albert, he used to breed budgies, and I remember being taken to the back of their house to pick my budgie.The Donnellys lived in Surrey St.

Hope this may jog some memories.

Cathy

Email: cathyconcorde@btinternet.com

Re: Street shootings in Crater

It was was indeed Mr Donnelly. He was my brothers Godfather, and he had a daughter (possibly other kids)who was about my age, I remember going her birthday party only shortly before.

I do remember Mum and Dad talking about it, and that it was a bit controversial at the time because there was trouble in crater at the time.

I have since discussed it with Mr Moran, who remebered it well. it seems Mr Donnelly was sure that he would be safe with his family with him, as at that time there been no attacks on BP personnel and there were not expected to be.

He was not recognised as a BP employeee for one reason alone, and that was that he was recognisable for wearing khaki shorts instead of the BP standard issue Whites; and the terrorist concerned mistook him for Army.

It was absolutely tragic, and a great shock to all at the time.

It was not long afterwards that the Isthmus School bus became controversial and the decision made to pack us all off to Boarding School.

Email: gordon-clark@blueyonder.co.uk

Re: Street shootings in Crater

Gordon
Do you remember the soldiers who accompanied us on the school bus to Khormaksar. Great fun when your a kid. Do you remember you and I collecting the leaflets they dropped over Little Aden offering a reward if you turned in your weapons.

JPW


PS. Where are all these pictures you promised me years ago !!

Email: n606jp@comcast.net

Re: Street shootings in Crater

Hi Jonathan
Army escorts to the Isthmus School......I can remember the very first one when it all started to kick off in 1960....we had a couple of Ferret Scout cars,one in front and one behind, the heaviest weapon being a browning machine gun in the turret!! Mind you this was effective as no one had a go at us!!
Not that we expected anything to happen, being BP kids we felt immune to the troubles!

Move on four years later and I was the military guard riding shotgun on the school buses running the kids to or from Khormaksar School to Maala with only a Lea Enfield .303 rifle and 5 rounds of ammunition...Rambo I was not, however the gravity of the duty fell heavily on the shoulders of a nineteen year old airman, who for once had no eyes for the teenage girls on the bus!!!!!!!!
Regards
Roddy

Email: rodwade@chelseachop.fsnet.co.uk

Re: Street shootings in Crater

I remember the bus having a lousy engine/gearbox and breaking down near Al Ittahad.
Also the army escort seemed a bit hopeless as I was well aware how easily bullets go through windows let alone grenades. Not much consolation that they might shoot the culprit afterwards!

When I got to university i joined the Officers Training Corps and got to drive the Saladins saracens and Ferrets straight away and went on to be trained in gunnery then being a commander. Even the weapons were similar, the SLR being an updated Belgian FN as depoloyed in Aden, and the SMG being the Sterling also as used in Aden.

Our Sergeant major had served in Aden, though I never let on that i had been brought up there.

Re photos, yes its about time I got mine scanned and submitted.

Email: gordon-clark@blueyonder.co.uk

Re: Street shootings in Crater

Reading these posts reminds me of the last time that I was in Crater. I went to Aden for the last time in December 1965 for the Christmas holiday. I had my UK Driving Licence and I wanted to convert it into an Aden licence for the holidays so that I could drive Dad's car as well as a Honda 50 motor bike that Derek Johns had kindly lent to me. I was taken in a BP marked car by a local Adeni manager to the police station at the Aden end of the causeway where, after a suitable present was handed over to the police superintendent, I was asked some questions on the Aden highway code (yes, they did have one!) and was then given a piece of signed paper. I was then taken into an office in Crater to get my licence. This was scary! I stood there in the public area while my chaperone disappeared to get the licence, accompanied by another "present". The stares and looks I got were openly hostile and I must admit to having the heebie-jeebies! Bearing in mind the question about clothes, I was told to wear white shorts and a white shirt, and absolutely nothing military! Being a rising 18 year-old, I would otherwise have looked like a perfect British squaddie. I was very, very relived to get back into the car and get away! My chaperone thought it was quite funny - I guess that "protection" had been paid somewhere along the way!

Email: alan.budd@martindales.biz

Re: Street shootings in Crater

I would like to add a comment to the posting. I wasn't a BP kid in fact I was an NCO with the Khormasar RAF police from 1960 to November 1962. Sometime during our second year there my wife and I visited the Donnelly family at Little Aden . We didn't at that time know them but one of there relatives used to have a shop in North Ormesby, Middlesbrough across the road from my wife's mother and it was she who asked us to visit them so after we contacted them we did. Little of the memory of that occasion is left but remember we rented a car from Ma'alla and drove there and spent the afternoon with them. We remember hearing about it at some date when he was shot dead and I was back in the UK and demobbed by then. I remember discussing it with one of her family when I was asked to do some work at there place in Ormesby. I was a Plumber in Civvy Street. It was a very sad occasion and I have never forgotten about it. Coming across this posting I realise how it also affected many others.
By the way at Little Aden did they also have a Naval base there as I recall having to attend a Court Marshall of a young seaman there in 1962 or am I mistaking the location


cathy
Hi Guys,

The man who was sadly killed was Albert Donnelly. He got out to attend to something, I believe, rattling at the back of his car in Crater.

His wife is Mildred and my parents keep in touch with her. She now lives in the Middlesborough area. There are 2 daughters Pamela and Linda and a son (whos name I cannot remember).

Mildred married again some years later (her husband now sadly deceased). With her family she now has many grandchildren, great grandchildren.

If anyone remembers Albert, he used to breed budgies, and I remember being taken to the back of their house to pick my budgie.The Donnellys lived in Surrey St.

Hope this may jog some memories.

Cathy

Email: dbolton12@yahoo.com.au