Selected Biographies

Ruse, Frederick Henry – Born: Long Melford, Suffolk on 27.9.1912.[1]  Parents: Henry Ruse (Butcher) [see details below] and Florence Lilian [née Chapman].  Family Connections: Brother to Herbert Ruse [b1914] and Janet Elizabeth Ruse [b1918]; also, brother-in-law of Reginald Norman Harvey [b1898].  Home: Hall Street, Long Melford (1921 to 1939).  Married: Phyllis Meade in 1939.  Service Record: Frederick was a Sergeant with the Local Defence Volunteers in Long Melford, being part of ‘H’ Company, 10^th Battalion, Suffolk Home Guard when it was formed in August 1942.  His name is recorded in the official tribute to the organization entitled The Lion Roared his Defiance, photographed in and around Long Melford in 1944.[2]  In 1949 he was elected to the Long Melford Parish Council.[3]  Died: Long Melford, Suffolk on 15.9.1999.[4]

Ruse, Henry – Born: Duxford, Cambridgeshire on 16.2.1859.  Parents: Teverson Ruse (Butcher) and Hannah [née Marking].  Family Connections: Father to Frederick Henry Ruse [b1912], Herbert Ruse [b1914] and Janet Elizabeth Ruse [b19180; also, father-in-law of Reginald Norman Harvey [b1898].  Home: Butcher’s Shop, Hall Street, Long Melford (1861) to [1916].  Occupation: Butcher (1881) to [1916].[5]  Married: Florence Emily Achurch [d1911] in 1899 and Florence Lilian Chapman in 1912.  Service Record: Henry was a founding Committee Member of the Long Melford Volunteer Training Corps in 1915.[6]  Died: Long Melford, Suffolk on 10.11.1918.[7]

Ruse, Herbert – Born: Long Melford, Suffolk on 2.1.1914.[8]  Parents: Henry Ruse (Butcher) [see details above] and Florence Lilian [née Chapman].  Family Connections: Brother to Frederick Henry Ruse [b1912] and Janet Elizabeth Ruse [b1918]; also, brother-in-law of Reginald Norman Harvey [b1898].  Home: Hall Street, Long Melford [1914].  Married: Dorothy Wison in 1950 and Stella D. Tongs in 1970.  Service Record: Herbert enlisted on 23.1.1930 as N^o.564378 with the Royal Air Force.  By the beginning of the Second World War, he had risen to the rank of Warrant Officer with 37 Squadron as part of N^o.3 Bomber Command stationed at RAF Feltwell in Norfolk.  On 18.12.1939 six Vickers Wellington bombers left their Norfolk base tasked with attacking enemy warships in the harbour at Wilhelmshaven in Germany.  Having already run the gauntlet of anti-aircraft fire and strafing from enemy aircraft, the North Sea port was found to be empty of suitable targets.  The journey home proved just as hazardous with only one plane making it back to England.  Wellington N2936 piloted by Flight Sergeant Ruse was badly damaged and in flames, with two of the five man grew dead when it made a forced landing on Borkum Island, at the western end of the East Frisian archipelago.[9]  Herbert was incarcerated in a series of Prisoner of War camps: Dulag Luft Oberusal, Stalag 12^A at Limburg, Stalag 8^B at Lamsdorf, Stalag Luft I at Barth, Stalag Luft III at Sagan, Stalag Luft VI at Heyderkrug and finally Stalag 357 at Fallingbostal. The foregoing information was given by Herbert in a questionnaire to Military Intelligence section M.I.9. on his repatriation to England in June 1945.[10]  Died: Bournemouth, Dorset on 15.9.1993.

Ruse, Janet Elizabeth – Born: Long Melford, Suffolk on 24.2.1918.  Parents: Henry Ruse (Butcher) [see details above] and Florence Lilian [née Chapman].  Family Connections: Sister to Frederick Henry Ruse [b1912] and Herbert Ruse [b1914]; also, sister-in-law of Reginald Norman Harvey [b1898].   Home: Hall Street, Long Melford (1921 to 1939), 3 The Ceders, 36 Cordell Road, Long Melford [1976].  Service Record: Janet was a Nurse in the Voluntary Aid Detachment during the Second World War.[11]  Died: Long Melford, Suffolk on 27.3.1976.[12]

Related Biography

Harvey, Reginald Norman – Born: Plymouth, Devon on 8.9.1898.[13]  Parents: John Henry Harvey (Clerk) and Agnes Mary [née Fuge].  Family Connections: Brother-in-law of Herbert Ruse [b1914] and son-in-law of Henry Ruse [b1859], both of Long Melford.  Home: 50 Gibbon Street, Plymouth, Devon [1898], 18 Peverell Terrace, Plymouth (1911), Nasib, 4 Ross Road, Plympton St Mary, Devon (1939), 133 Fen Hill Avenue, Parkstone, Dorset [1953].  Occupation: Wine, Spirit, and Beer Dealer (1939), General Dealer [1953].  Married: Edith Lilian Ruse of Long Melford in 1941.  Service Record: Reginald was conscripted in 1917 as an officer trainee PJ14587, being commissioned in July 1917 as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Flying Corps.  From September 1918 until his discharge in 1919 he served at various air stations in Canada.[14]  Died: Plymouth, Devon in 1971.

Notes – [1] 1939 Register.  [2] Published by Marten & Son, Ltd., of Market Hill, Sudbury, Suffolk in 1946.  [3] Suffolk Free Press 17.5.1949.  [4] National Probate Calendar.  [5] Business recorded in Kelly’s Directory for Suffolk 1916.  [6] For Training Corps article see Bury Free Press 20.2.1915, Suffolk and Essex Free Press 10.3.1915.  [7] National Probate Calendar.  [8] Date of birth taken from his M.I.9. questionnaire.  [9] I am grateful to the research of Kate Tame for the website https://aircrewremembered.com/ruse-herbert.html.  [10] Liberated Prisoner of War Questionnaires, 1945-1946 [WO 344/274].  For details of the living conditions and experience of life behind the wire and the hellhole that was Fallingbostal see John Nichol and Tony Rennell, The Last Escape [Penguin/Viking: London, 2002].  [11] 1939 Register.  [12] National Probate Calendar.  [13] Date of birth from his RAF Record.  [14] Air Member for Personnel and predecessors: Airman’s Records [AIR 76/214/81], see also Passenger List RMS Arundel Castle 20.2.1953.