Readers with links to the Kilkeel area have been asked to take part in a quest which could connect the local descendants of a man who took up model boat building to try and help cope with the horrors he witnessed helping free people from a concentration camp.
THE contents of an old wooden crate, which arrived in Glasdrumman after years of being stored in a house in England, holds a secret, and locals are being asked to help play an important part in seeing it handed into the care of relatives of a former Kilkeel man with a poignant backstory stemming from the Holocaust.
This crate contains the parts for a model boat, plus the image of a second, completed model boat, and a black and white photograph of the fishing vessel on which it was based, moored at Kilkeel Harbour.
There was also a short-handwritten note which simply reads ‘? McIntosh built Kilkeel trawlers’ and what may well be a military issued drill cane or what was known as a ‘swagger stick’.
The crate was destined for a dump-run, but the man who found it instantly realised it held a special significance and could not bring himself to take the crate and its contents to the tip.
He has now appealed for people to see if they can help identify descendants of the model builder, or descendants of the fishing boat’s owners.
Equally, if this does not – for whatever reason – materialise, Kevin McVeigh has appealed for anyone with an interest in model boats and the local fishing industry to take this project on and see the to-scale version completed.
Acknowledging there was a sense of destiny that this model would fall into his possession, Kevin, who spent his childhood summers in the village before relocating here to his late father’s homeplace, said he felt compelled to keep the crate’s contents until the time was right to start this quest.
Kevin, whose late granny would post a copy of the Mourne Observer each week to his parents when they lived in England, said that although it has taken several years for him to get around to this attempted reunion, he knew from the outset that he needed the help of our readers!
Having spent more recent years setting up home in Mourne, Kevin now feels the time is right to try and pass this model on to the right person, or people for that matter.
Outlining how the crate and its contents came into his possession, Kevin explained that it was about 10 years ago, when he was working at a house in the village of Chalfont Saint Peter in Buckinghamshire, that he struck up a conversation with its owner which led him on this mission.
“This lady asked me to take stuff to the dump, and this crate was amongst it.
“She said her late husband’s father had links with County Down, and a town called Kilkeel, and as soon as I heard that, well of course I got even more curious,” he said.
Having explained that his roots stemmed from a village just a few miles along the coast, the lady was delighted to be able to share some more, but admittingly scant, details about the fishing boat and the pieces which would, hopefully, make up its completed model version.
“Her husband’s father was very troubled by what he witnessed during World War Two. He suffered terribly, probably with amongst other things what would be described as post-traumatic stress disorder, and maybe even survivor’s guilt, as he was part of the Allied Forces that helped liberate at least one concentration camp, possibly Belsen or Auschwitz.
“This was extremely traumatic.
“Later in life, he built models as a diversion, as a way of trying to deal with things. I suppose you could say it was his own form of therapy,” Kevin continued.
During this chat with the lady, whose name Kevin cannot recall, she also outlined that her late father-in-law’s family had sold coal in the Kilkeel area, and this included to boat owners and businesses around the harbour.
“I know this is very vague, but I still want and need to give this a shot,” he continued.
Hoping that the tight-knit community of Mourne will be able to find the missing pieces in this puzzle, and that those with a history of the local fishing fleet going back to the era in question may be key to the bigger picture, Kevin said he would love to see the model and photographs get to their “rightful” owner or owners.
“I don’t even want to think what horrors this man endured, and I hope that he got some comfort by focusing in and getting distracted while working on these intricate models,” he continued, adding that it looks like work to motorise this specific model was carried out.
“A lot of time, effort, patience and skill went into this boat. Given the background, it’s only right that I give this a shot, and see if we can complete the story, and hopefully a sense of closure.”
Kevin added that if descendants of the gentleman cannot be traced, or for whatever reason are unable to take on this boat-building challenge, that he hopes there’s a chain reaction and a model building enthusiast or someone with close ties to the harbour offers to get involved.
“The man who started this project put a lot of effort into it. Everything has been carefully cut out and crafted, and you can tell it meant a lot to him – and probably in more ways than any of us can imagine.
“I think it’s only right and proper that this project is completed; it will honour his memory in a sense.”
Anyone who has more information or believes they are a descendant of the man responsible for these models can send an e-mail to lisa@mourneobserver.com or call (028) 4372 2666. Details will be forwarded to Mr McVeigh.
