Ancient Web: BeanWeb Went from a 1999 Homepage to Operation Dickens

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.

One of the pleasures of an old personal website is that its menu gives very little warning about what awaits a click. BeanWeb leads from 'Where's Wally?' and mountain walks into an extensive reconstruction of a wartime tragedy.

Visit BeanWeb.

The homepage announces itself as the home of 'the original Mr. Bean' and dates its launch to December 5, 1999. It is a small table of links: favorite sites, music, photographs, a 1970-themed Wally page, Ben Nevis in 2001, family history, several 'Under Construction' labels, and a project called Operation Dickens. It even retains addresses associated with Freeserve, a British Internet provider whose free-hosting era is long past.

Follow the Operation Dickens link and the scale changes dramatically. The site records a proposed sabotage mission near the town of Ronpibon in southern Siam, now Thailand, in December 1941 as Japanese forces advanced. It describes British volunteers and Special Operations Executive personnel involved with attempts to disrupt mining and railway infrastructure.

The link table leads to a research archive

The project identifies its uncertainties from the opening paragraphs. A report made in September 1945 by SOE agent Robert Leslie Orton names missing men and describes confusion over deaths, captures, and escape attempts. Subsequent sections divide participants into those killed and captured, with names, occupations, military numbers, service details, and references to memorial records.

The main account also exposes unresolved contradictions. For one casualty, the editor explains that records appear to describe Thomas and Daniel Regan inconsistently and leaves both entries visible rather than disguising that uncertainty. Other names link toward Commonwealth War Graves Commission records, wartime publications, and recollections.

This is a continuing historical compilation, not an official government finding; some dates and biographies are tentative. Its value lies partly in making those ambiguities reviewable. The page also offers maps, accounts, an incidents section, and an old external forum link.

BeanWeb itself has a proven 1999 origin according to its homepage, but the surviving Operation Dickens research has clearly been developed beyond the site's earliest incarnation. The older Web made room for exactly this mismatch: a playful personal front door leading to a serious archive built at its owner's pace.

Start at BeanWeb and explore the Operation Dickens records.

Part of the Ancient Web Collection.