M&LFHS: Donald Higson, Bolton's Hero of Telemark - 5th March 2025 - In-person an

The Bolton branch of the Manchester & Lancashire Family History Society have this talk coming up in the new year, it looks as if it will also be online.  mlfhs.uk/bolton/events/meetings  

Donald Higson, Bolton's Hero of Telemark5th March 2025 - In-person and onlineThe Story of Operation Freshman, and the previously unknown role of Flight Lieutenant Donald Higson, Bolton´s own Hero of TelemarkDr. Bruce A. Tocher was born in Forfar, Scotland and is a graduate of Aberdeen University. He has a PhD in Geology and was a lecturer at Plymouth Polytechnic and Aberystwyth University for 10 years before moving to Norway to join their largest oil & gas company, Statoil. He spent 20 years there working in their Research & Development Division, before taking early retirement in 2016. He then spent two years as an International Trade & Investment Senior Executive with Scottish Enterprise before deciding to focus full time on military history, in particular Operation Freshman. Bruce, who is based in Stavanger, Norway has spent five years researching this topic with the aim of publishing a new book on the raid. One of the key aims of the book project has been to trace the families of the 48 soldiers and airmen who took off for Norway on that fateful evening of the 19th of November 1942. The idea is to tell the story of these incredibly courageous young men through their lives, and the lives of their families, rather than more conventional histories which focus primarily on the events themselves.  Since the start of 2020, the project has managed to establish contact with relatives of 38 of the 48 soldiers and aircrew who took part in Operation Freshman, and in 2022 he guided 67 Freshman family members on an 8 day tour of Freshman sites in Norway to mark the 80th Anniversary of the raid.He has lectured extensively on the subject, as well as actively contributing to museum exhibitions, including the new Heavy Water exhibition at the NIA Museum in Vemork. This year has seen the publication of a post on Operation Freshman on the Imperial War Museum website, an appearance on Norwegian TV (NRK), and most recently he was interviewed for the BBC Scotland radio programme - Good Morning Scotland.

• Date: 5th March 2025
• Wednesday 7.30pm
• Donald Higgins - Bolton's Hero of Telemark
• Speaker: Bruce A. Tocher
• Meeting at Great Lever & Farnworth Golf Club & Online via Zoom
• Attendance in person at Great Lever & Farnworth Golf Club - no booking required
• Zoom - Booking required -  tickets will be available from 6th February.
• Members of MLFHS – free, Non-Members of MLFHS - £5

Please note: All events are subject to last minute changes due to circumstances beyond our control.  Please check our monthly Newsletter and Facebook page for any last minute changes, as that is the only way we can contact people.

This talk on ZOOM yesterday was excellent, the speaker now lives in Norway so is familiar with many of the locations. Relatives of one of those murdered by the Germans were present in Bolton and I think relatives of another person had hoped to be there but do not seem to have been able to get there. The speaker had found that Donald Higson had been an Old Boy of his (and my) old school.