A Few Naval Photographs of Interest

Courtesy of the Imperial War Museum who own the copywright to all images on this page

Written by Godfrey Dykes

© RN Communications Branch Museum/Library

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  Accompanying text is the result of my research or added by me to the IWM photograph where ambiguity could arise, or is insufficient to fully describe or explain the nature of the IWM photograph. Despite the good and well intended text added by IWM employees, there are some errors although no comments on any typos!

Entertainment on the well deck

Entertainment on the well deck of a British battleship in WW1. A sailor (or marine) attempts Houdini escapism in the boxing ring. Note the rig worn by the majority of the ships company present wearing blue suits with collars (i.e., not in night clothing) called No 1's or No 2's, suggesting the vessel is alongside in a harbour and libertymen or sports parties will be landed. Note those in white duck suits a type of fine jean-cloth (working rig) might be dutymen ready to clear-up decks when the festivities are over! You'd think that, probably?

Note the men relaxing on deck, some laying full length in a sleeping position (for example, just aft of the port side double-bollards, opposite the standing sailor in duck suit and the marine in dark tunic coat and trousers. If you look carefully at the distant ship you will see what appears to be the start of a bow-wave, meaning that the battleship under observation is leading and not following the distant ship! But, in the navy the fo'c'sle, as far for'ard as possible on a long deck known as '1 deck or the upper-deck', is the recreation space for junior rates of the ships company, and first and second class Petty Officers. As far aft as possible, still on 1 deck, is the quarter deck, the recreation space for the commissioned officers. At varying small deck areas above 1 deck (on say. 01, 02, 03, 04 decks etc, midships) is the recreation space for CPO's and all Warrant Officer grades below a "ranker" which is a commissioned Warrant Officer, while Midshipmen and Cadets of the gun room relaxed in the waist of the ship, aft of the well deck, on 1 deck. Note that the heavy guard rails are in place and taught, which if the ship was cleared for action, they would be released (slackened) and lowered so as not to impede gun fire from the main turrets when firing broadsides athwartships, across the narrowest part of the ship. That way the massive recoil does not travel down the fore and aft line of the vessel, but travels port to starboard (or starboard to port) along a short distance only.

Men relaxing on the well deck

RNR (T) Skipper - a Warrant Officer RNR (T) Skipper Thomas Crisp VC His Majesty's fishing smack NELSON as a Q Ship RNR (T) Skipper Thomas Crisp VC Grave 1 RNR (T) Skipper Thomas Crisp VC Grave 2

On the 31st October 1910, RNR Skippers (T) meaning Trawler, were first introduced at varying levels, the most junior being a Warrant Officer and the most senior being a Lieutenant over eight years seniority later, in 1914 to be known as a Lieutenant Commander in both the RN and in its Reserve Forces. This is RNR (T) Skipper THOMAS CRISP VC DSC RNR who won his VC award (at that time naval VC's had a blue ribbon and not a crimson ribbon as used by the Army) on the 15th August 1917 dying within 64 days days of his dearly beloved wife Harriet whilst attempting to fight off a German U-Boat off Felixstowe Suffolk. He was the skipper of His Majesty's fishing smack NELSON commissioned as an armed vessel, the gunnery fit manned by a Royal Navy gunnery staff and a Royal Marine marksman and known colloquially as a "Q Ship". The Germans treated a Q Ship's crew shooting back at the submarine as a terrorist action and if captured were usually executed summarily (without a trial or question and answer session to allow people to claim their innocence as combative enemy forces). The submarine with a large deck gun out-gunned the fishing smack which was assailed off Lowestoft whilst out catching fish to help alleviate the food shortages caused by German's sinking mercantile shipping. By this time Thomas had asked and was granted his son, now in the Royal Navy, to be a part of the naval 'Q' ship complement in the smack Nelson. The standard WW1 German submarine deck gun of 88mm = 3.5" fired shells weighing 20-22 lbs at a great distance and high velocity with quick reloads and rapid firing. The hapless smack's main gun was a 12 pounder (3") firing shell weighing 12 lbs at short range and velocity so a submarine could easily destroy the smack before it got close enough to fire back, and then rather slowly at that. Thomas is said to have had both legs blown off and he died in his sons arms probably due to severe bleeding. The crew (none of whom other than the skipper was injured) tried to make their escape and/or their survival in a small boat carried by the smack first attempting to put Thomas in the base of the boat but Thomas refused to go or to leave his command and now dead, he was allowed to stay and the smack sank with him on the deck. Later on, in the November of 1917 that same son went to Buckingham Palace to receive his dad's posthumous Victoria Cross. As such, the picture below is taken in better days with the VC added to it three months after his death.   Rather confusingly there are two picture of the same grave shown on-line in Lowestoft Cemetery. As I have said his wife predeceased Thomas by 64 days only and Thomas now at the bottom of the North Sea in his destroyed boat by German submarine gun fire, has been added to her tomb stone. The first picture is, as one might expect today of a funeral which took place in 1917 to be overgrown and what is written on it is now at least 50 percent unreadable, the upright tomb stone is made of sandstone which will eventually crumble to dust. Next to that picture is a pristine head stone in a newly prepared grave clearly made of a most sustainable material probably fine stone or even marble. Because it is new it says the following In loving memory of Harriet Elizabeth CRISP who died June 12th 1917 Aged 39 years Though sad we watched those closing hours of her we loved so well Yet Jesus called her unto him In Heaven for to dwell Also of Skipper Thomas Crisp V.C. D.S.C. Beloved husband of the above who was killed on board H.M.S. Nelson August 15th 1917 Aged 41 years Not now, but in the coming years It may be in the better land We'll read the meaning of our tears Sometime up there, we'll understand NOTE: Academic I suppose because there was no active HMS Nelson afloat during WW1. In truth it should have read H.M. Smack Nelson, but as seen it might confuse some naval devotees!

The man on the left in the 1st picture is a 'Warrant Officer', often, on qualification, known as a ' Temporary Skipper' when employed as the senior member of a small vessel's crew (possibly the one behind him) with one of his crew members. They were members of the RNR. In WW1 and in later periods, the RNR (when serving with the navy in times of hostilities) had 'Temporary Skippers', 'Skippers', 'Chief Skippers', 'Lieutenant Skippers' and 'Lieutenant Commander Skippers' : in peace time, the first three types of Skippers usually earned their living at sea in trawlers, tugs, medium sized pleasure cruisers, ferries, coastal trading vessels etc, and when the balloon went up, quite often their small vessels were requisitioned for war service (usually for minesweeping or mine recovery, despatch boats and harbour auxiliaries, and more often than not the crew came with them. Temporary Skippers/ RNR WO's ranked with and messed with (where appropriate) RN Warrant Officers. Note the big difference between a Temporary Skipper/RNR WO and a CPO. He wears a four buttoned double breasted tunic coat the same as a naval commissioned officer & RN WO and has three buttons on each cuff but with different cuff designs to that of an ordinary CPO, who has a three buttoned double breasted tunic coat with just two small buttons on the back of each cuff. In this case the Temporary Skipper/RNR WO is wearing war chevrons above his right hand buttons and these denote his war service overseas and sometimes injuries received in service, both the same size but different colours, silver or gold: one often sees WRNS officers wearing WW1 chevrons for overseas service. Notice also his cap badge. Not at all like the much smaller CPO's badge (PO's 1st and 2nd class, didn't wear peaked caps so no cap badges). The cap badge is very similar to an RN WO's cap badge. On promotion to a Skipper, he drops the three buttons on each sleeve and dons a ½" thick dull-gold laced stripe on each sleeve, the type worn by an RN Sub Lieutenant but of the wavy-navy pattern and not straight as is the RN stripe, changes his tunic coat to rid it of the special cuffs relevant to a Temporary/RNR WO uniform tunic coat and changes his cap badge. He now lives in the RN wardroom when relevant. On promotion to Chief Skipper he changes his wavy-navy single laced stripe for a 'bright gold' single laced coloured one. He receives further RNR Skipper laced stripes as he progresses up the ladder to Lieutenant x2, and then Lieutenant Commander Skipper x2½ his highest attainable rank in the RNR. See the image on the right of RNR officers stripes. So, now you should see the bad taste of calling a senior naval RN officer in command of a warship or shore establishment a "Skipper" which is really a gross insult, although the expression 'the Skipper' is a well used and understood endearment: in the wardroom that name is usually changed to 'father'. Since all RNR and RNVR officers were called up for naval war service only, they all received and were called such, Temporary Officer status and sometimes Temporary Acting Rank status annotations. The man above therefore would be known as a Temporary WO/ Temporary Skipper RNR.

Temporary Skipper (the man on the left) RNR Officer's Stripes

RNR Temporary Skippers RNR Skippers RNR & RNVR Uniforms

Just to give you an idea from the Navy List of October 1916 starting on page number 517kk, this is the first page of 42 such pages listing Temporary Skippers. Preceding the first page in this file in seniority, comes page 512 with just five pages showing the 'Skippers'. In this 1916 Navy List there are no Lieutenant or Lieutenant Commander Skippers listed or appointed but the rank was attainable for those suitably qualified. However, it does appear that all RNR Lieutenants and separately, Lieutenant Commanders, are listed as one group of officers without differentiating between their specialisations! Just to refresh your memory a Warrant Officer under 10 years seniority wears three buttons on fluted cuffs - no other badges or symbols - carries a WO sword - and wears a four buttoned commissioned officers jacket instead of a ratings three buttoned tunic coat. A WO over 10 years is the same except has a ¼" stripe above his three buttons. A CWO (Chief WO) the same except for a ½" stripe above his three buttons. A commissioned WO (known as a Ranker) wears a Sub Lieutenant's ½" stripe and no cuff buttons plus a commissioned officers sword: he can then start climbing the ladder on merit instead of timed advancement and dead man’s shoes. Also from a 1914 Navy List page comes this, under the title of 'Uniform Regulations'. Note the top title line but ignore the text in the left hand side.

The CO of the battleship HMS Queen Elizabeth (which wasn't at Jutland) Captain Geoffrey Blake RN, appointed in 1921. He became Vice Admiral Sir Geoffrey Blake KCB DSO - Born in Alverstoke Hampshire. He became the 4th Sea Lord at the Admiralty and at the time of the Battle of Jutland he was the Gunnery Commander in Jellicoe's flagship HMS Iron Duke. Here he is seen with a departmental group of seven CPO's (Class 1 uniform) note no cuff buttons but two small back/bottom sleeve buttons as seen on the right cuff of the CPO sitting on the left of the bench, and six Petty Officer (Class 2 uniform) -. In those far off days, the only difference between 1st and 2nd class Petty Officers was their badge worn in the middle of their left arms. A 1st class PO wore two crossed anchors with a crown above, whereas a 2nd class PO wore a single anchor above which was a crown, the symbol known as a 'killick' which means a single anchor. Both wore a sailors suit (Class 2 uniform) with bell bottoms and a round cap with a cap tally on which was embroidered in rayon thread (working caps) or with gold wire best ceremonial caps) the ships name. That rig was called square rig because of the shape of the blue jean collar hanging over the man’s shoulders/middle upper back. For those groups wearing a peak cap, jacket and trousers, collar and tie, three of them at this time expanding to four between the wars, namely commissioned officers, Warrant Officers and CPO's, the rig was called 'fore and aft' rig referring to the rig of specific sailing vessels of yore. The fourth group I have mentioned were junior rates (Class 3 uniform) of the Supply and Secretarial branches known as S&S (cooks, officers cooks, stewards, stores, victualling and writers), sickbay junior rates and Coders whether those working with the school masters in which case they wore the letter 'E' = Education on their tunic coats, or Cypher Coders working with the Communications Branch, wearing the letter 'S' = Special. Now we had two types of ratings wearing the letter 'S' on their tunic coats, one meaning Stores and the other Special. All S&S branch ratings wear a famous naval star * in which their sub-branch letter is centred but Coders, E and S have their single letter as part of a an open book as follows, with the the special also having a flash of lightening. However in WW1 the following ratings wore Class 3 uniforms (see 3rd image on the right). Class III uniforms were also worn by Coders. Coders were new comers, introduced into the navy as national servicemen post WW2, commensurate with the start of the Cold War in the late 1940's. Two types Coders, 'S' and 'E' both of whom could be called upon to be school masters for ratings educational training when necessary. However the Coder 'S' was either deployed in the wireless offices of ships engaged on codes and cyphers, or afloat/ashore using his knowledge of Russian, spoken or in Morse code in their case using the Cyrillic alphabet. Their job was to gather information on the ramifications of the cold war and to assess information gathered and present it to the command. Coders never served as regular navy personnel and in 1960, when national service ceased, they too ceased. After them came a new naval branch called TELEGRAPHIST SPECIAL chosen from the telegraphist branch (in some cases from Coder 'S' who had signed on for full career service), and from them developed the new linguists and competence in a very difficult Russian type of Morse Code. The Tel 'S' often served at sea in his own office with his own specialist equipment. He was a professional akin to a trained Coder 'S', but he started a branch with full promotion prospects for a full naval career. The Branch was formally formed under AFO 2411/59 and operated from RAF Tangmere (near Chichester in West Suffolk). At one time in the navy, we had a Chief Radio Supervisor (CRS) for Telegraphists; a CRS (W) for Electronic Warfare; a CRS (S) as explained and a CRS (SM) for submarine service. Additionally we had a Telegraphist Parachute branch and a Telegraphist (Flying/FAA) Branch. Stars on naval uniforms (see 4th image on the right) are relatively new dating from the late 19th century. At that time it was decided to use a symbol with a nautical connotation, and the one chosen was the original nautical compass rose used by the Romans. They used 12-points to 'box their compass' as we today 'box the compass' using 32-points or higher depending upon the degree of accuracy required. If you study a naval ratings star more carefully, you will note that from the centre point, the inner circle, there are twelve lines drawn out to fixed points on the outside of the star. The vertical lines point to NORTH and SOUTH respectively while the horizontal lines point to EAST and WEST respectively. The other lines, moving from NORTH clockwise, are each at 30º distance from the preceding point and thus overall, the rose covers 000º, 030º, 060º, 090º, 120º, 150º, 180º, 210º, 240º, 270º, 300º, 330º. For some inexplicable reason, the vast majority of naval ratings were never taught this and yet it is clearly documented in naval archives. Now you know !

HMS Queen Elizabeth Coder 'S' Badge Class III Uniform Star

Admiral Sir David Beatty and Captain Ernie Chatfield

Admiral Sir David Beatty and the CO, Captain Ernie Chatfield of the battleship HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH on its bridge with other officers in WW1, on the day Germany surrendered. The Queen Elizabeth missed the Jutland Battle because she was in dry dock undergoing maintenance. She survived the war and was sold for scrapping in 1948. Beatty went on to become an Admiral of the Fleet and so did Chatfield who at this time was three ranks below Beatty. Beatty himself chose the Queen Elizabeth as his flag ship because she was one of the fastest ships in the fleet and could arrive at any rendezvous or point of combat more speedily than most ships could. He established two precedents; one being the youngest ever Admiral of the Fleet, and two, that he was the longest serving 1st Sea Lord. He served as a pall-bearer (note, not coffin-bearer) at the funeral of his Jutland boss, Lord Jellicoe in 1935, he himself dying in 1936. Chatfield died many years later at the end of 1967, the end of era without precedent.

The ceremonial unveiling of the Guards Memorial on the St James' Park side (west side of Horse Guards Parade) central London. The text on the IWM site associated with this picture runs entirely contrary to that of other records of the event, so here is what appears to have happened. Before we do that, it is only fair to say that this IWM page shows the Memorial in a much better light and should be visited to achieve a fair balance IWM Memorial The event took place on Saturday the 16th October 1926, unveiled by HRH Prince Arthur the 3rd son of Queen Victoria and brother of Edward VII, who was a Field Marshall in the British Army during WW1: Princess Elizabeth was just a few months old being born in April 1926. This is a quote from Wikipedia's site on the subject matter. The Prince "accompanied by the 100-year-old veteran of the Crimean War General Sir George Higginson, with a dedication by Rev. H. J. Fleming, who became senior chaplain of the Guards Division when it was formed in 1915, and a benediction by the Chaplain-General to the Forces, Rev. Alfred Jarvis, and a march-past by 15,000 serving and former guardsmen. The memorial suffered bomb damage in the Second World War, and some was left unrepaired as "honourable scars." As one can see from the picture on the right, Beefeaters also attended the ceremony as did many members of the Royal Family including the Prince of Wales. At the unveiling the two union flags, one covering the front and one the back of the Memorial collapsed to reveal the beautiful shrine. Most of us will know about the Victoria Cross and that it was made from the bronze in melted down Chinese guns at least from 1914, and not, as originally thought, from Russia guns engaged in the Crimean War in the mid-19th century. Here is another case of melted down enemy guns to salvage the bronze element, for the bronze name plates on the Guards Memorial come from German captured guns in WW1. This very small page also should be read, especially the note on an old post card at the bottom Guards Memorial Horse Guards Parade

The ceremonial unveiling of the Guards Memorial

HMS St Angelo Grand Harbour Valletta Malta

HMS St Angelo Grand Harbour Valletta Malta looking into Dockyard Creek and part of the famous Three Cities in the background with the busy dockyard top right. In 1942 the mighty walls of the fort were reduced to rubble by almost continuous aerial bombing by the German Luftwaffe and the Italian Regia Aeronaurica. Note the quay under the curtain wall has been totally destroyed with the flotsam floating in the Creek which led around to the Stores Depot. Note how the sailors negotiate a thoroughfare by staying very close to the bottom of the curtain wall when immediately opposite the damaged vessel.

HMS Wakeful arrives Malta

1955 and HMS Wakeful arrives Malta towing an American USAF Grumman aircraft which appears to be serviceable and in fine fettle. RN Rescues Rescuer. 15 July 1955, Malta. HMS Wakeful a frigate of the Mediterranean Fleet arrived at Malta towing an American Amphibian Rescue Aircraft which had been abandoned following a rescue operation at sea. The plane was damaged after answering a call for medical assistance from the merchant ship Las Piedras, 18 miles east of Malta. HMS Wakeful was ordered out to tow the aircraft back in to Malta when she had to be left behind and her crew taken on board the merchant ship.

November 1952 and C-in-C Mediterranean's Yacht HMS Surprise passes Grand Harbour's breakwater carrying the outgoing C-in-C Admiral Sir John Edelsten (1950-1952). He was replaced by Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten (1952-1955). In the background is HMS (Fort) Ricasoli and beyond it the aerial-farm used by RNWT Transmitting Station Rinella. Over to the extreme right is Bighi Bay. HMS Surprise was heading back to the UK taking Sir John with it and leaving the new C-in-C without a flagship*. The reason, she was to be prepared at Portsmouth as the Royal Yacht for HM Queen Elizabeth II Coronation in June 1953 and this required many modifications including taking her main armaments out of the ship and replacing it with a splendid viewing gallery for HM. She returned to the Mediterranean in the summer of 1953 to resume her duties as C-in-C's Yacht and participant in fleet exercises. *During Surprise's absence from the Mediterranean Station Lord Louis used the cruiser HMS Glasgow in which to fly his flag. He was the first flag officer to be air lifted out of a flag ship, and on this first occasion to return to his office in Malta, instead of using the normal admirals barge for a waterborne transfer. His air transport was a Sikorsky Whirlwind helicopter and he was winched into it from the deck of the Glasgow.

C-in-C Mediterranean's Yacht HMS Surprise

Lonely Malta	1942. Lonely Malta the most bombed heavily populated small island in the world, then and since.

The first reserve officers to be appointed to command British submarines. Campbeltown Scotland - Lieut Commander Frederick Sherwood, DSC, RCNVR, of Ottawa, first "VR" officer to be given command of submarine (P 556), with Lieut Edward Young, DSC, RNVR, 29 year-old London Publisher, second to be given a similar command.	Lt Cdr Frederick Sherwood and Lt Edward Young

RNVR Submariners - Names not known

Next a story about the exploits of Lt R G P Bulkeley RN as the CO of a very busy submarine called HMS Statesman operating mainly in the Indian Ocean based on Trincomalee in WW2. Her logs are of course explicit and comprehensive but parts are missing, or photographs wrongly categorised which are said to be of Statesman's crew members and well might be but wrongly dated with an incorrect story applied! That the Statesman had several sick people aboard over time is not in doubt, and the first entry is on the 9th July 1944 when two crew members were landed on a diversion to Karachi reported as being very unwell. Statesman sailed on her patrol without them. This picture above also claims that these two RNVR officers were operated on for acute appendicitis whilst at sea in the Indian Ocean. It seems unlikely that the stated medical procedures were performed in a tiny 'S' Boat which didn't at all carry a medical man whether at sea or not, and it is strange to note that the picture is dated 10th November 1944. According to her war log she sailed from Trincomalee on this date for a new war patrol. What is factually shown in the log is that the first Lieutenant of the boat Temporary Lt R F N Strouts RNVR was transferred in rough weather at sea to the Australian destroyer Quickmatch on the 2nd October 1944 in which he was immediately operated upon for acute appendicitis and his life saved. As far as I know, there was only one major surgical procedure (a gangrenous appendix) carried out on a submarine at sea on a war patrol and that was in a USN Boat carried out by a 1st Class Pharmacy Mate, a CPO who had witnessed this operation and had even assisted a surgeon in doing one or two (no doctor aboard) which was totally successful the patient soon returning to duty. So beware of even the ultimate picture library (IWM), that's why I am adding my own commentary! The names of the officers shown are not known.

Is that a scuttle I spy? Wrens at sea? Well, possibly!, but in the mean time, they are working in 1942 aboard the submarine depot ship HMS Forth correcting navigation sea charts. At this point in the war Forth was stationed in Scotland looking after submarines working-up in the Holy Loch. The WRNS were accommodated in nearby private shore accommodation and went ashore at the end of each day. Later on she was stationed in different parts of the world including Canada (Halifax) and Trincomalee (Ceylon).

WRNS at Sea? - HMS Forth

WW1 R.N. Hospital Train

A WW1 R.N., hospital train heading for a RNH. Note the (SBA) Sick Bay Attendant lighting of a cigarette for a patient. The hanging chains you see support sky-cots, rather like slinging a hammock! Thought I'd mention that just in case some of you were thinking that they were 'communication cords'. Note also that the carriage appears infinitely better than most of the passenger carriages running on main lines today, now over 100 years ago!

Picture 26. An 'old school' Admiral from a stiff upper lip Victorian upbringing and a quintessential Edwardian naval officer! Rear Admiral (from 1911)Rosslyn Wemyss taken in 1917. He became a very famous Admiral of the highest possible rank and appointments. He died in 1933. He did something no other naval officer has ever done which was to take the Duke of Connaught (brother of King Edward VII) all the way to South Africa just to open their State Parliament, in a luxury liner (the SS Balmoral Castle) with the Admiral as its captain (Master). Admiral of the Fleet Rosslyn Erskine Wemyss, 1st Baron Wester Wemyss, GCB, CMG, MVO (12 April 1864 – 24 May 1933), known as Sir Rosslyn Wemyss between 1916 and 1919, was a Royal Navy officer. During the First World War he served as Commander of the 12th Cruiser Squadron and then as Governor of *Moudros before leading the British landings at Cape Helles and at Suvla Bay during the Gallipoli Campaign. He went on to be Commander of the East Indies & Egyptian Squadron in January 1916 and then First Sea Lord in December 1917 (taking over from the sacked and humiliated Lord Jellicoe of Jutland fame), in which role he encouraged Admiral Roger Keyes, Commander of the Dover Patrol, to undertake more vigorous operations in the Channel, ultimately leading to the launch of the Zeebrugge Raid in April 1918. The Admiral was a tour de force both as a champion of 'Rule Britannia', as well as a champion of 'Pax Britannica'. *Moudros is a town and a former municipality on the island of Lemnos, North Aegean, Greece.

Rear Admiral (from 1911)Rosslyn Wemyss

Admiral Sir Guy Herbrand Edward Russell and General Archibald James Halkett Cassels

Admiral Sir Guy Herbrand Edward Russell GBE KCB DSO (14 April 1898 – 25 September 1977), being briefed by General Cassels one of our famous soldiers Archibald James Halkett Cassels, soldier: born 28 February 1907; DSO 1944; CBE 1944, KBE 1952; GOC 51st Highland Division 1945-46; GOC 6th Airborne Division, Palestine 1946-47; Director, Land-Air Warfare, War Office 1948-49; Chief Liaison Officer, UK Services Liaison Staff, Australia 1950-51; CB 1951, GCB 1961; GOC 1st British Commonwealth Division, Korea 1951-52; Commander, 1st Corps 1953-54; Director-General of Military Training, War Office 1954-57; Director of Emergency Operations, Federation of Malaya 1957-59; GOC-in-C, Eastern Command 1959-60; C-in-C, British Army of the Rhine and Commander Nato Northern Army Group 1960-63; ADC General to the Queen 1960-63; Adjutant-General to the Forces 1963-64; Field Marshall 1968; married 1935 Joyce Kirk (died 1978; one son), 1978 Mrs Joy Dickson; and he died in Newmarket 13 December 1996. Both the officers, unknown today as national heroes, were just that, as well as being popular and charismatic.

Admiral Sir Geoffrey Layton GBE, KCB, KCMG, DSO the son of a Liverpool solicitor. He was a high profile submarine Commanding Officer in WW1 having several boats overtime under his command. At the end of WW1 after a period in a German POW camp from which he escaped returning to Britain disguised as a sailor, he was awarded a DSO. Betwixt the wars he migrated through promotions to various appointments in general service via being Admiral Superintendent Portsmouth, eventually serving in capital ships, battle cruisers and battleships flying his flag at one time as a Rear Admiral in HMS Hood leaving his flagship in August 1939 as the war started. On the 3rd September he took over the 1st battle squadron having the battleships Warspite, Malaya and others under his command, After a year in command of 1st battle group, he was appointed to Singapore as C-in-C Far East. Six months later he was relieved by Admiral Tom Phillips, and after a very brief turn over Admiral Phillips took the battleship Prince of Wales and battlecruiser Repulse out to sea as Admiral Layton prepared to travel home. The next day Admiral Layton was informed of the loss of the Prince of Wales and the Repulse in which Admiral Phillips died; Admiral Layton had to stay to continue being C-in-C Far East. Soon afterwards Admiral Sommerville became C-in-C Far East with Admiral Layton becoming C-in-C Ceylon with Admiral Mountbatten's HQ on the Island fighting the Japanese in Burma. The appointment was a poisonous chalice for the defences of the whole Island were a shambles and an easy target for Japanese bombers; he was still there in 1945 at the end of the war, pulling his hair out to get things ship-shape as the hapless C-in-C! At this stage he was promoted to full Admiral. On return to the UK he became C-in-C Portsmouth retiring in 1947 and dying in 1964 aged 80.

Admiral Sir Geoffrey Layton

Admiral of the Fleet Sir Frederick Laurence Field

Admiral of the Fleet Sir Frederick Laurence Field, GCB, KCMG born to English parents serving with the army in Ireland. Served from 1884 until 1933, qualifying as a torpedo specialist. He was involved in the Boxer Uprisings in China in 1900 and in WW1 he was the CO of the battleship HMS King George V engaged at Jutland as the flagship of Admiral Martyn Jerram who Beatty publicly criticised for not supporting him as darkness fell - Admiral Jerram retired in 1917. Admiral Field was applauded for the great skill shown when handling the KG V under great difficulties. He went to be the C-in-C Mediterranean and then the First Sea Lord. He had a very active career with much time spend at sea in capital ships (battlecruisers and battleships). For his services he was awarded many foreign high honours. Promoted to rear Admiral almost immediately after the end of WW1. He is famously known for his command of the Empire Cruise flying his flag in the Hood, which lasted for 308 days. I show pictures of that cruise on my web page HMS Hood World Cruise. He more than ably handled the Invergordon mutiny of September 1931, forcing the Admiralty Board to a rethink on the severity of the proposed cuts in pay. He encouraged the banning of the 10 year rule in which planning and defence spending were geared to what a committee thought would happen in the next ten years before increasing navy estimated. Quite often they decided peace would prevail, often getting it badly wrong. He died of cancer at the end of WW2 at his home in North Yorkshire. He was 74.

Admiral Sir Claud Barrington Barry KBE CB DSO who in 1942 was appointed as Rear Admiral Submarines. His career spanned 47 years. In WW1 he commanded several submarines in hostile conditions, and in 1918 transferred to the RAN. On his return to the RN he continued commanding submarines until 1934, subsequently appointed as chief of staff to Rear Admiral Submarines. From the early days of WW2 (October 1940 - May 1942) he commanded two battleships, the Queen Elizabeth and the Valiant until becoming the operational boss of the submarine fleet, an appointment he was extremely well qualified to undertake. After the war he was appointed as naval secretary, an important job controlling all personnel matters, today a job done by the 2nd sea lord. His last appointment was Director of Dockyards from which he retired in 1951. He died on Boxing Day 1951 at the relatively young age of just 60.

Admiral Sir Claud Barrington Barry

Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser

Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser (Later Admiral of the Fleet 1st Baron Fraser of North Cape) hero of the Christmas 1943 destruction of the German pocket battleship Scharnhorst off North Cape tip of Scotland which sank, bow first, with just a handful of survivors out of a huge complement. His flagship was named after the Duke of York who became King George VI. After the Scharnhorst was sunk (the last battleship to see a battleship engagement) Sir Bruce became the CinC of the BPF (British Pacific Fleet) and with his flagship was present in Tokyo Harbour for the Japanese surrender.

Admiral Sir Herbert (second name Goodenough) King-Hall CinC Cape of Good Hope during the whole of WW1. He came from a very famous naval family, his father Sir William an Admiral, his older brother Sir George was an Admiral, and his nephew was a naval officer playwright and politician called Stephen. He fought in the second Boer War - which ended in 1902 - afterwards commanding British warships from the Cape (Simons Town) until appointed CinC Cape in 1913. He died in 1936.

Admiral Sir Herbert (second name Goodenough) King-Hall

Admiral Sir Hugh Evan Thomas

Admiral Sir Hugh Evan Thomas and his dog, Jack. His flagship was the battleship HMS Barham and was at the battle of Jutland. He died in 1928 aged 65. Jellicoe wrote a tribute to Evan-Thomas saying, "If I had one loyal and splendid supporter during the Great War in the Grand Fleet, one who never failed me, one who led his ships magnificently, and not only led them magnificently but brought them to a pitch of efficiency that was a pattern for the whole of the Grand fleet, It was Admiral Sir Hugh Evan-Thomas."

The Mediterranean submarine bosses (1st submarine flotilla) in 1943, the Captain S/M G B H Fawkes RN and Commander S/M E F PIZEY RN in the submarine depot ship HMS Maidstone, based in Algiers, Algeria, North Africa, under the overall eastern command of Vice Admiral (later Admiral) Sir Harold Martin Burrough, in 1943-45 Flag Officer Commanding Gibraltar and Mediterranean Approaches. After a year in Algiers she was transferred to Ceylon to the Eastern Fleet with the 8th flotilla and finally towards the end of the war to Fremantle (Perth) Western Australia, to operate in the Pacific against the Japanese.

Captain S/M G B H Fawkes RN and Commander S/M E F Pizey RN

Wrens versus base officers at Cricket	August 1943 Harwich Base Essex UK. Wrens versus base officers at Cricket. Lots of pretty slim young women against many middle and elderly aged portly men. Wonder who won?

April 1944 at the launch of HM Submarine Affray. Wife and baby of the boats engineer officer Lieutenant (E) A E CORTLETT RN watch on and take in the excitement. The Affray was lost in the English Channel with all hands in 1951 whilst at sea exercising.	Lieutenant (E) A E Cortlett RN with wife and baby

Boy Telegraphist Edward Henry Hollamby	Boy Telegraphist Edward Henry Hollamby kia 20.1.1918 HMS Raglan, a monitor, sunk by SMS Goeben and SMS Breslau. In WW1 the German fleet was like ours, a Royal Navy, their monarch being Kaiser Wilhelm the Second. SMS is their equivalent to our HMS. Many naval boys served and died in WW1!

Milton Thomas, Able Seaman, kia in WW1 26 Oct 1917 RNVR RND Howe Battalion	Milton Thomas

Under 20's club in Alexandria Under 20's club in Alexandria	Boys from different ships and units serving in the Mediterranean, attending a Christmas dinner in the under 20's club in Alexandria Egypt 25th December 1941.

Charles Godfrey MVO Esq

A friendly and kindly looking Headmaster. Charles GODFREY MVO Esq. A tutor at the RN College Osborne Isle of Wight, home of Her Majesty Queen Victoria in bereavement. The schoolmasters who in 1921 were left without teaching posts when the college closed, were offered employment at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. In this way, Charles Godfrey became the head of Mathematics at Greenwich, with the title of Professor, having been headmaster at Osborne College and continued to teach there.

Christopher Haynes Hutchinson Commander RN WW2 Cdr S/M Malta Flotilla (later on, a Rear Admiral). He joined the submarine service in 1929 and had many appointments in that service as well as in capital ships, including the Hood, as he was promoted up the ladder to a brass-hat. His war service was almost totally commanding submarines or as a staff officer ashore to flag officers of different theatres/commands. Promoted to the rank of captain in June 1950 and rear Admiral in January 1959 retiring in January 1962.

Christopher Haynes Hutchinson

Captain MacLachlan	Captain MacLachlan inspecting divisions of the quarter deck of the battleship HMS Royal Oak. Note her secondary weapons (5"?) top right trained on the beam.

Picture 44. A WW1 picture in the period Feb 1918 to April 1919 in the Light Cruiser HMS Lowestoft, at Fiume, Italy. Captain The Hon Thomas Caryle Freeman-Mitford R.N. recorded in naval documents simply as Mitford was the CO. His father was David Bertram Ogilvy Freeman-Mitford 1st Baron Redesdale, plus he had an elder brother. On the death of David the father, the elder brother became the 2nd Baron. He had seven children, 6 daughters and one son who was killed in WW2. Those daughters became internationally famous as the high society Mitford Sisters. Our man (Thomas, who was born in 1880) was therefore their uncle. General Gordon, Lieutenant General Henry Gordon Bennett (yes, unfortunately Gordon Bennett) was an Australian general who fought at Gallipoli and the Western Front in WW1 and in WW2 in Malaya and Singapore. This picture was taken in the Eastern Mediterranean so may have some connection with Gallipoli. Note the sleeve stripes of Commodore Kelly! He was a first class Commodore, who for all practical purposes could be taken as a Rear Admiral. A second class Commodore (the rank we have today although simply called a Commodore) has a single broad stripe and just one row of 'scrambled eggs' on the peak of his cap. He also carries Royal Navy behind his navy title whereas Admirals do not. The navy ceased having a 1st class Commodore's in 1958 and then the 2nd class, now called simply Commodore's, became an appointment for temporary jobs around the fleet. In 1997 a Commodore's rank became a substantive rank and from that year many have been appointed in lieu of a Rear Admiral, thus reducing the cost (wage bill) albeit not amounting to a fortune! The vast majority of these Commodores have shore appointments.

Captain The Hon Thomas Caryle Freeman-Mitford R.N., Lieutenant General Henry Gordon Bennett and Commodore Kelly

Captain W R Patterson	Captain W R Patterson, CVO, RN, "Flag Captain" of the WW2 Battleship HMS KING GEORGE V, the big hitter which with another big hitter the battleship HMS Rodney effectively destroyed the German battleship Bismarck, before the heavy Cruiser HMS Dorsetshire was ordered to put her to the seabed with several close range torpedoes. Note the captain has been served a meal in his sea cabin!.

Engineer Commander S A MacGregor OBE R.N. Flotilla Engineering Officer Malta.	Engineer Commander S A MacGregor

Chief Wren Mrs M J Evans MOBE Crossed Quill

Chief Wren Mrs M J Evans MOBE Note two buttons on end of each cuff and collar badges indicative of the rate of a chief Petty Officer. Her badge is crossed quill signifying that she is a Chief Writer. This is a WW1 lady and she is wearing a MOBE = Member of British Empire the forerunner of the BEM. Dig those pretty shoes. Note the small buttons on the end of the cuffs. These were worn in lieu of three buttons on each broad cuff which Chief Petty Officers began to wear much later on.

Commanding Officer of HM S/M Stonehenge Lieutenant David Stuart McNeile VERSCHOYLE-CAMPBELL DSO (Post Humous) DSC and Bar R.N. 25th February 1944 sailed from Trincomalee Ceylon for 3rd war patrol to the northern end of the Malacca Straits west of Malaya. The boat never returned and was declared lost although reason was not known.	Commanding Officer of HM S/M 'Stonehenge

Commander Lionel Kenneth Phillip Crabb GM OBE RNVR, seen diving off Gibraltar. He was a professional frogman in the navy and later was in the employ of the intelligence service MI6. On the 16th April 1956 at Portsmouth, he dived under the hull of a visiting Russian Sverdlov-class Cruiser called the Ordzhonikidze's on a courtesy visit, to gather intelligence on its new propeller technology . He never surfaced in the appointed place and the Russian warship sailed as planned without any sign of the Commander. Fourteen months later, a fishing vessel in a shallow harbour a few miles distant east of Portsmouth (Chichester), caught a foreign object in its nets and brought it to the surface. It was the headless and handless body of a man dressed in divers kit, so impossible to identify with 1950 style technology. It was believed to be the body of Commander 'Buster' Crabb, named so after the famous American movie star and Olympic swimmer Buster Crabbe (with a 'e').

Commander Lionel Kenneth Phillip Crabb

Commodore Reginald Yorke Tyrwhitt and Lady Tyrwhitt

Commodore Reginald Yorke Tyrwhitt and Lady Tyrwhitt onboard the Royal Navy's light cruiser HMS Centaur in 1914. Another 1st Class Commodore, not a Rear Admiral. He became an Admiral of the Fleet, and a Knight of the Realm, and later was elevated to the Peerage as a Baron. During WW1 he was the Commander at Harwich and led ships attached to the port out into the north sea where he did much damage to German war ships and Zeppelins. Their son, Admiral Sir St John Reginald Joseph Tyrwhitt joined in 1919 and commanded ships in WW2. The name St John in pronounced as SIN-jin. He became a second sea lord, and assumed his father's title becoming the 2nd Baron.

The senior executive rating of a British submarine until the early 1970's was a CPO from the Operational Branches of the service and known as THE COXSWAIN (Coxsun) of the submarine, colloquially, the BOAT. This Coxsun (Swain even) was CPO Johnson of the WW2 submarine Taku. After 1972, at least on nuclear submarines, the Coxsun was probably a FCPO, a Warrant Officer first class in all but name, until the MOD pulled its finger out and rightly renamed them from FCPO's to WO's in 1987. The senior technical rating was the Chief ERA. Submarine Taku was very famous in the years March 1942 to 1944 and was known as the most elusive submarine in the Mediterranean, much hunted by Axis Powers because of the damage inflicted by her on Germany and Italian assets. She survived the war and was finally beached on the mud flats inside Falmouth harbour awaiting a tow to a breaker's yard in the Summer of 1945.

CPO Johnson of the WW2 submarine Taku

Lieutenant A J W Pitt	Lieutenant A J W Pitt, RN, Commander of HM Submarine TAKU, from 10th October '42 to 7th May 1944

Submariners on camera. Ships Company members of the British submarine SIBLY. Note the two choices of cap ribbon one H.M. S/M and H.M. SUBMARINES. Note the sailor in his full uniform and the four chevrons on his right lower arm. Depending upon their colour (gold or silver and that isn't clear in this case) gold is for injuries sustained in battle and silver for time spend overseas in wartime. I hail from Lower Wharfedale in the Yorkshire Dales and I have never seen a referral to any sailor from it either in war of peace. Imagine therefore my surprise and delight when I read of a man from OTLEY my home town. Members of the SIBYL's crew. Left to right: Signaller W Gough, of Bolton; Able Seaman L Stone, of Manor Park, London; Able Seaman T Paley, of Otley, Yorks: Leading Seaman J McLean, of Newcastle; Able Seaman T Perks, of Sholten, Cheshire; Able Seaman L Rawson, of Burnley.

Ships Company members of the British submarine SIBLY

Doctor Mary BELL Two Women Doctors Acquitted

Doctor Mary BELL MB BS WRNS in WW1. Mary was the first WRNS Deputy Medical Director appointed 1st October 1918. Sadly, there is precious little to tell you about her or for that matter what she did, but I have found a useful reference to women doctors per se in WW1,and what I believe to be a reference to her post WRNS service. But first, women surgeons, doctors and many other specialists (and nurses) pestered authorities to be allowed to tend to the wounded in many parts of the front, often, although it beggars belief, funding make-shift hospitals themselves and into the bargain, actually building the hospital infrastructure themselves. They argued that saving lives and lessening pain and infested wounds plus treating diseases was not military work, and with a shortage of male doctors, it was very much a job for medical personnel of either gender, in the Services or civilians. Eventually they won the day and performed miracles becoming in the truest sense, angels from heaven working in the mire of hell. As we know, there was much male bias in all areas of society which treated women as second class people. That stopped abruptly when the through put of their work was recognised. Now for the reference found. "In addition, as the war dragged on, new posts became available to women doctors in connection with the new women’s services, the WAAC, the WRNS, and the WRAF. During the war the necessity of providing the country with doctors forced the medical profession to allow women access to medical schools previously the preserve of men. The London School of Medicine for Women also played its part, expanding rapidly until, by 1919, it was the largest medical school in the country. In How to Become a Woman Doctor, published in 1918, the author optimistically wrote that ‘War-time appointments at large hospitals have given great satisfaction and done much to break down old conservative ideas’. However, with the return to peace, the forces of reaction regrouped. The Royal Free once again became the only London teaching hospital offering clinical instruction to women. Women doctors, even those who had gained extensive experience in all aspects of medicine during the previous four years, were relegated to the type of position that they had held before the war. Although doctors such as Louise McIlroy, Frances Ivens and Isabel Elmslie had distinguished post-war careers, these were not based on the practical experience they had gained during the war. The war-work of women doctors was quickly forgotten. It is only in the last decade or so that detailed research on the subject has been published. This has been facilitated by war diaries and collections of letters donated to archives either by the women medical workers themselves or by their descendants." Now back to my script. My subject Mary Bell, based on that quote, was evidently well thought of and highly trusted, but dealing with women's medical problems only, not allowing her full access to a doctor's work. I searched the records, all the records available, and can only find one reference to a woman doctor called Mary Bell Ferguson. Was this her, and had she married a man called Ferguson? In this news clip from The Times in May 1948 Mary Bell Ferguson is 60 years of age so that would fit, making the period from her post WW1 appointment 30 years later putting her age on appointment at 30.

Flight Sub Lieutenant Reginald Alexander John Warneford VC	WW1 Flight Sub Lieutenant Reginald Alexander John WARNEFORD VC RNAS. Death: 17 June 1915. Killed in Action flying back from Dunkirk when his machine overturned and he was thrown out onto the Western Front.

Now a couple of baddies! German Admiral Von Capelle who was appointed Naval Secretary on the 17th March 1916 just before Jutland, after the resignation of Admiral Von Tirpitz. His job as Secretary was to oversee the German naval operations in the last three years of the WW1, which mainly concentrated on U-Boat warfare, with not too many naval surface actions all of them bloody but very brief, often one-dayers!

German Admiral Von Capelle

German prisoners in France in WW1	German prisoners in France in WW1. The scoreboard just out of view says 1-0 and shows the next match (if you can call it a match) as 12th May 1945 when we are hoping for a 2-0 victory! At that point Germany will drop to a lower league - for ALL TIME! Amazing how few are wearing the proverbial steel helmet and for that matter how even fewer are bare headed.

German sailors enjoying themselves fishing from their surrendered ship at Scapa Flow in the Orkneys north of Scotland in late November 1918. What a rag-bag outfit.	German sailors enjoying themselves fishing

German U-Boat Ace Joachim Schepke

German U-Boat Ace Joachim Schepke. Ace maybe, but he didn't survive for long dying early in the war on 17th March 1941. He was a zealot Nazi and also seemingly a liar alienating other U-Boat commanders by exaggerating the tonnage he claimed to have sunk. He was cocky and over confident, a lap dog for Hitler. In March 1941 he surfaced astern of a convoy ready for the kill when an escorting destroyer HMS Vanoc detected a surface radar contact at 1000 meters. Vanoc altered course, increased to full speed and rammed U100 cutting her in half sending her and him to a watery grave. It was the first U-Boat destroyed from radar data.

German Admiral Reinhard Scheer of the Kaisers Royal Navy, the Kaiserliche Marine. Scheer, was no slouch and from the onset of WW1 until June 1916 was at sea in various senior ranks in charge of battle groups. He was in charge of the major German battle fleet at Jutland, Jellicoe's direct adversary. He directed his ships well and sank more British ships than we sank his. He also killed in excess of 6000 RN personnel in a period of just over 24 hours, far more dead than in the German fleet. At an opportune time after dusk, he ran away from the Jutland battle scene and made full speed back to his North Sea naval ports. Back in Germany he was a hero without parallel and in number of hits scored in both materiel and personnel terms, he was the obvious victor. The RN lost the battle but won the war, for it was the last time the German fleet in any number went to sea and without a naval presence Germany was eventually starved to death without fuel, food, ammunition or provisions and surrendered, its fleet crossing the North Sea to Scapa Flow in disgrace. Scheer died at the end of November 1928, having twelve years to reflect upon the ignominy of overseeing a harbour-bound fleet and the resolve of the British total and crippling blockade. Jutland became his nemesis rather than his victory, ergo, the British won the day after all!

German Admiral Reinhard Scheer

German naval machine guns	German naval machine guns unit parading for the Kaisers visit in 1904.

1912 Portrait of First Lieutenant Hellmuth von Mucke, the First Officer of the German light cruiser SMS Emden. At the beginning of WW1 Emden was on detached surface raiding duties in the Indian Ocean as part of the German East Asia Squadron based in China. Whilst there she captured many ships and also sank many, some warships. She also attacked the port of Penang sinking a Russian cruiser and a French destroyer. From there, she visited the Cocos Islands (north west of Australia) and landed an armed boarding party there to destroy British assets, chiefly a W/T Station on Direction Island: it was led by this officer von Mucke. What the Emden didn't take account of, was that the telegraphists in the W/T station had spotted the smoke from Emden's funnels on the horizon and had radioed the sighting which the heavy, fast, powerful Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney picked up and responded to. The date was the 9th November 1914. On arrival, the Sydney let into the smaller less powerful Emden and virtually destroyed it killing 133 of a crew of 376. The captain drove the Emden ashore to save it from sinking. The rest were taken as POW's all except for the 56 in the boarding party. Meanwhile, on an Island out of sight to both cruisers 17 miles distant, von Mucke had commandeered a 97 tons, three masted derelict schooner which over time he made sea worthy, and when it was safe to do so, started the longest escape ever achieved of over 11,000 km by land and sea, back to Germany ostensibly to fight another day. Of the 56 in total landing party, he lost one man to disease, and three to enemy action, a remarkable achievement. It took them six months to complete the journey! If you are at all interested in this boys' own escape route, this next paragraph will give you a flavour of the escape. Initially, Mücke sailed his small command (numbering five officers, one surgeon, and 47 Petty Officers and men) to the Dutch port of Padang on the west coast of Sumatra. There he arranged a rendezvous with a German freighter in port, the Choising, which transported them to the Ottoman Empire's port city of Hodeida, Yemen. Once on the Arabian Peninsula, Mücke and his men experienced months of delay securing the financial assistance of local Turkish officials to return to Germany. At last he decided to lead his men on an over-water voyage up the east coast of the Red Sea to Jeddah, and thence to Medina, then the southern terminus of the Hejaz Railway. A retired Ottoman official and his young wife travelled with them, as that was part of the deal. However, one of his small dhows sunk on the coral reefs near the Farasan Islands, and they commenced a dangerous overland journey along the Red Sea. Approaching Jeddah they were beset by hundreds of armed Bedouin tribesmen in a three-day battle that claimed one officer and had two enlisted men killed. They were eventually relieved by the Emir of Mecca. Mücke believed the hostile Bedouins had been hired by the British, based on weapons captured from killed Bedouin tribesmen.(3) While guests of the Emir of Mecca at Jeddah, Mücke grew uneasy and feared being held as a hostage for political bartering. He sent one of his Arabic speaking enlisted soldiers to the Jeddah harbour in order to arrange for a Dhow. Under cover of night Mücke and his sailors sneaked away and made it by Dhow to the northern Hijaz fishing town of Al Wajh. From there they marched further inland until they reached the Hejaz Railway. Finally in May, 1915, Mücke and 48 other survivors boarded a train at Al Ula Oasis, and eventually reached Constantinople, the capital of Germany's ally, Turkey, from which they returned to Germany. For 36 years the hull of the Emden was pounded by the waves until in 1950 the remains were salvaged. Von Mucke at first was rightly acclaimed a hero by several nations, got married, had six children, wrote two books about his escape and enjoyed his fame. However, it didn't last because Germany lost the war, its navy in much disgrace on surrendering in 1918. This turned his head and he became disillusioned joining many parties in revolt and finally became a devout Nazi. However, in 1929 he became disillusioned (again) turned against Hitler and became a pacifist. In 1933 as Hitler became the Chancellor he stupidly upped his anti against him. His books were banned and he was slung into a prison camp (a concentration camp) for political dissenters. At the start of WW2 he volunteered to join the Nazi Navy but was considered unsuitable and unstable and sent back to the camp where he stayed for the whole of the war. Afterwards he was transferred to a civilian prison in Hamburg but after a short period the jailer, considering him a hero, released him against his superiors orders. He, his wife and family were relocated in a different part of Germany where from 1946 until his death he lived. Von Mucke was heartbroken when his eldest son was killed on the Russian front in 1943. After WW2 he continued with his pacifism opposing rearmament in West Germany in 1950. He died of a heart attack on the 30th July 1957 aged 76. In his time, before the loss of the Emden he assisted in the killing of many scores of men in their hapless ships and like all warring Germans deserved to die young as were many of his victims. That he didn't is down to his luck and good fortune. However, one can't help admiring a man of his ilk.

Portrait of First Lieutenant Hellmuth von Mucke

HRH Princess Elizabeth aboard HMS King George V	Good old Liz! HRH Princess Elizabeth aboard HMS King George V and watched by HRH Princess Margaret her younger sister, climbing down the side of one of the battleship's 14-inch quadruple gun turrets, whilst wearing court-shoes.

HMS Glenmore requisitioned paddle steamer engaged on minesweeping duties, seen here at Harwich with Peggy the ships pet. She claimed to have shot down a flying bomb (doesn't say which one V1 or V2), but the Admiralty's word (claimed) makes me wonder if it was indeed a real 'kill'? In June 1941 she had a name change to HMS Glenmore because of signalling problems with similarly named vessel which caused untold confusion. I experienced that same thing when I was a submariner. We had a submarine called TOTEM and one called TOKEN. They were referred to as TOTEM (T) and TOKEN (K).

HMS Glenmore

Millers Hotel Portsmouth Map

Millers Hotel Portsmouth in WW1. WRNS Quarters before DOK barracks came on stream. Situated in a handsome part of town called Hampshire Terrace now the home of organisations like solicitors for example, but also well known and well used basement pubs and clubs. See map. The officers had the ground floor, the senior rates the middle and the top floor the junior rates. The large sprawling basement had many areas, some devoted to dining, galley and servery, with others for offices, stowages and recreation purposes.

The Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany

The Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and Prussia taken in Frankfurt in 1902 He was a megalomaniac and like so many of history's omnipotent leaders, considered himself a God. History shows him as being many things, but most of all he was darn right evil. It stunned the world when in 1918, the Dutch nation gave him protected sanctuary instead of turning him over to the Allies which they adamantly refused to do. It was indicative that Holland had had an easy war at least as far as the ruling authorities viewed it compared to all other European countries not aligned to Germany, and found the Kaiser a quite pleasant and affable type of chappie, much maligned by the Allies! Whatever you may think about the Dutch people today (and I helped to train their navy over a two year period 1973-75 at our war work-up base in Portland Dorset, so saw a great deal of them and liked them immensely, they had a dark past in both world wars. In WW2 the Dutch Army surrendered almost immediately to the Nazis (May 14 1940) but the country raised a regiment of Dutch SS Storm Troopers ready and willing to fight in all respects (and were mobilised accordingly) on the side of Nazi Germany and its leader Hitler. What makes a country do things as bad and as inhuman as that? Mind you, we in GB tolerated a man called Oswald Mosley, an extreme fascist not of the thug-class but a cultured gentleman with both feet in the upper-classes, who overtly led a group of mainly men called "the brown shirts", but they were never armed or co-opted into the Germany armed forces as were the Dutch. Every move made by Oswald and his followers was closely monitored by MI5 and MI6 and at no point were they ever a military fascist threat to Great Britain either in or out of war conditions. The Dutch also had a detestable maniac called Anton Mussert and a large following throughout Holland, his number two being an equally detestable man called Cornelis van Geelkerken. He led an extreme hard right wing fascist group affiliated to Nazism with its HQ in Utrecht (from as early as 1931 mind you) having a full-on Nazi model with its own newspaper, youth group, paramilitary wing, and ideology. Mussert maintained this position with much Dutch support until the end of WW2, hence the dark cloud of which I speak! It is claimed that the Dutch fascist paramilitary party was not anti-semitic and even had Jewish members, but I take that with a pinch of salt! Some add that they held back on that hate until 1936, but again, that's difficult to accept. No real attempt was made to take him out, and remember he wasn't a British-styled fascists, but a man in a Nazi uniform (as were his paramilitary group) but with Dutch flashes and badges. That in itself implicates many Dutch people which at one stage had an overt following of 100,000 but the covert following was never quantified. However, the Germans reported that early in the war (July 1940) Anton Mussert's brother, a Lieutenant in the Dutch Nazi system was assassinated, and that his body had been found in a room with two Dutch people. They were arrested, and under Anton Mussert's personal directive were executed by Dutch Nazis. Throughout WW2 Mussert was as a thorn in the flesh for the majority of "silent Dutch people" clearly in fear of him and his organisation with its direct contacts with Berlin. But come the end of the war, and his threat which diminished leaving him isolated, the true spirit of the Dutch as we know it today (although as I have stated not the same in WW1 and WW2 which temporarily put them in bad light) came to the fore, and Anton Mussert was arrested, tried for crimes against the nation and executed on the 7th May 1946. The people of Great Britain hated the Kaiser with a vengeance as they did anybody with a German sounding (or actual) German name. He belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and so did our own Royal Family. It beggars belief that his mother, Princess Victoria was the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria and he was the Queen eldest grandchild, totally integrated by blood and birth with our Royal Family. He belonged to the House of Hohenzollern and ruled supreme until the German defeat in 1918. This led to the German revolution and he and all Hohenzollern's were deposed and discarded never again to return to influence in Germany. The English people voted with their feet to show the King, the most loyal of all with many peers but none who could transcend that loyalty and love of country, that Germanic words, artefact, produce etc would not be further tolerated. King George V reacted almost immediately and changed the Royal family's surname to the House of Windsor: later it was changed to Mountbatten-Windsor, Mountbatten itself earlier changed from Battenburg. Despite the finger pointing and the occasional reminder of the past, Germany has no claim on ANYTHING in Great Britain, it being a foreign nation, a foreign place, and over two world wars, a by-word for all things evil. This evil man had a long life which he denied millions of others having, and died aged 82 in 1941 in an area of the Netherlands occupied by the Nazis called Huis Doorn, Doorn in which he is buried. Maybe it's my imagination, but I can see at a very quick glance the word DOOM DOOM simply by stretching the the top of 'r' over to the top of 'n'. Were that the case, how fitting that his epitaph is just that, DOOM² = DOOM squared or double DOOM! He was the very personification of Lucifer.

King George V on the quarter deck of the battleship HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH of the Grand Fleet. George V is an Admiral of the Fleet (a 5 star officer) who wears a broad stripe nearest to the cuff of the jacket above which are four thinner stripes: Note. not called rings! The guns you see have stoppers or plugs pushed into the end of the gun barrels on which is the badge of the ship. These are called tampions analogous I would think to tampoons . This ship of the WW1 period did not fight at Jutland because it was in a dockyard being refitted. Note the crowds on onlookers (sailors and marines) on top of the gun barbette and the calibration marks on the barbette (in degrees and parts thereof - you can see 15) outboard of the lower starboard gun which indicate the relative bearing to the ships fore and aft line of which the system is aligned: barbettes were latter replaced by gun turrets. Relative bearings are expressed from 0 to 180 degrees (in this case dead ahead to right astern) as either RED (for port) or GREEN (for starboard) so that all eyes are turned to the shout (by a look out) on sighting a target without the need to know the azimuth compass bearing or ships head steering course. For example, were a ship on the port beam to be sighted, the lookout would called "ship RED 90" whereupon all binoculars would be trained to look for the target at an undefined distance from the ship on the port side at right angles to the ship. Were that call to be "aircraft, GREEN 135, high, distant, moving left to right" the binoculars would search the skies over the starboard quarter of the ship looking for a distant target high in the sky moving on a flight course not dissimilar to that of the ship, where it could observe the ship from a safe distance.

King George V

Miss Evelyn Olive Perrett Scallop Shell

Miss Evelyn Olive Perrett. WW1 Chief Petty Officer WRNS with a MOBE - Member of the British Empire - note not an MBE! She wears her branch badges on her collars and these are scallop shells indicating she is a Chief household worker, a rate which became known as a quarters wren in WW2. Her duties/responsibilities were looking after the women's accommodation barracks ensuring cleanliness, that provisions were always plentiful, that laundries functioned properly etc. Her medal ribbon is positioned too near to her lapel, almost masking it from view.

CPO Wren Miss Ida Tidman Cross Quills	Another CPO Wren Miss Ida Tidman WRNS with her Member of British Empire Medal, She too is a Chief Writer with cross quills on both collars, and note the cuff two buttons, the forerunner of three buttons on the outside of each tunic/coat cuff.

HMS Ark Royal R09

I remember it well! HMS Ark Royal R09 - 7th February 1958 off Malta. Pilots in their cockpits ready to start up on the flight deck before commencing the fly past over the Islands with it Sea Venoms and Sea Hawks as a salute to Malta before paying off in summer 1958 back home in Devonport. Despite its size (54.000 long tons fully loaded - a unit used for displacement - relative to HMS Queen Elizabeth - it packed a punch as this sight shows, AND, ALL British, replicated on more than one fleet carrier. These squadrons would be more than a handful for the few F35's (A or B) Queen Elizabeth could muster and now, in the early stages (2019) has gone cap in had to borrow them from the USN! Pathetic!

Manoel Island, Malta, in Marsamextt Harbour. Malta's submarine base for some parts of WW2 when the resident depot ship HMS Maidstone was away in Algiers flying the flag of C-in-C Mediterranean. In 1942, these pragmatic submariners started a pig farm which provided all their needs in pork rations and crispy bacon sarnies. During the day they used to dive and sit on the bottom of Marsamextt Harbour to avoid bombing raids, surfacing at dusk for the night time period.

Manoel Island, Malta, in Marsamextt Harbour

HMS Berwick

HMS Berwick a 3 funnelled armoured cruiser of WW1 duration. It was sold via a third party, Slough Trading Company, to Germany in 1920, and finally broken up in 1922 in the Old Imperial Dock at Wilhelmshaven. Bearing in mind the salvage/ship breaking done by British workers in the UK on Germany vessels sunk at Scapa Flow by surrendering German sailors in 1918, I wonder what the German salvage workers working on the Berwick would have thought, although Berwick wasn't involved in the Battle of Jutland?

The quarterdeck of the battleship HMS King George V in the River Clyde off Greenock Scotland 29th October 1944. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth visits with their Royal Highnesses Princess Elizabeth (and standing behind Her Majesty) Princess Margaret). Princess Elizabeth has seen something which amuses her bringing a radiant smile to her face, The Queen engages with the ships Master-at-Arms the senior executive Chief Petty Officer and senior member of the ship's company; over on the right the ships executive officer, the Commander, number two in command, talks with a Royal Marines officer known in this case as the OCRM (Officer Commanding Royal Marines), with other members of the ships complement and members of the Royal party/entourage. Note the small vessel on the starboard quarter midstream which is a small warship acting as a guard boat.

The quarterdeck of the battleship HMS King George V

Left Rear Admiral A W La Touche Bisset and Captain T E Halsey HMS King George V

Aboard the battleship HMS King George V in the Mediterranean in WW2. Left Rear Admiral A W La Touche Bisset CB CBE & 2 x MID (battle of Cape Matapan and Force 'H') the embarked Flag Officer, invalided out of active service 1945) retiring as a Vice Admiral and dying in 1956 aged 64, with right, the Commanding Officer, Captain T E Halsey DSO Royal Navy. Captain Halsey was the CO of the KG5 from 15th February 1943 until 10th April 1945, a gruelling part of WW2, and afterwards he was promoted to Commodore 2nd Class (July 1945) and appointed as the Commodore of the RN Station at Lee-on-Solent, Hampshire, HMS Daedelus until retirement in April 1946. He won his DSO at Dunkirk as Captain 'D' in HMS Malcolm, 16th Destroyer Flotilla and also a MID for actions on the Dutch, Belgium and French coasts also in 1940. In retirement he first became the Deputy Lieutenant (DL) of Hertfordshire, later promoted to Vice Lieutenant Hertfordshire; a Justice of the Peace (JP) and County Councillor. He died in 1970 aged 72. The multiplicity of gun barrels you see in the back ground above are best shown in this small jpeg of her big hitters for'ard = 6 x 14" calibre breech loading guns 4 below and 2 above and to the rear overlooking the fo'c's'le for'ard, + 4 aft overlooking the quarterdeck.

H.M. King George V	WW1. H.M. King George V in France at Cassel, a town in northern France overlooking Flanders France, looking over to a crashed aircraft with a very bent and broken propeller.

Great fun I am sure but surely not in a blue suit whether number 1's, 2's or 3's! "Duty part of the watch to fire drill on the jetty." Sailors with buckets (one walking off camera right) replenish static buckets with salt water, one per man standing, into which has been placed a stirrup foot pump. By pulling the pump handle up towards the chest the pump sucks a measure of water into its reservoir, which, by pressing down on the handle is jettisoned, under pressure out of the rubber flexible hose onto the fire being extinguished. With enough pumps, operators and replenishers with copious amounts of water fresh or salt, any small non-electrical non-oil based burning fire could very quickly be dowsed. The suit's I have mentioned in the top line are No1's = best ceremonial suit of serge made to measure with gold badges, blue jean collars, silks and lanyards - No 2's = suits worn on duty of rough serge not made to measure with red badges, blue jean collars and silks but no lanyards and No 3's = suits made of course serge, badges not compulsory unless showing substantive rate (leading hand for example) no blue jean collar silk or lanyard. Working rigs were made from white duck, better wearing than blue denim which was first trialled, or for very dirty jobs, and appropriate here I should have thought, blue one piece overalls.

Fire drill on the jetty

Lieutenant Commander Malcolm David Wanklyn SS Monarch SS conte Rosso

The iconic Lieutenant Commander Malcolm David WANKLYN VC, DSO and Two Bars centre, a very famous WW2 submarine ace, hero with his crew of HM Submarine UPHOLDER at their Mediterranean base LAZARRETO, Manoel Island, Marsamxett Harbour, Malta. British U-Class and S-Class were tiny cramped submarines, and I remember as a naval boy on my first ship HMS Tintagel Castle at Portland, going onto the resident submarine depot ship at Portland, HMS Maidstone in 1955, mother-ship to the Second submarine flotilla (U and S class boats), and having an acquaint in HM submarine Upstart. Within a couple of months of having that experience, HM submarine Sidon blew up alongside the Maidstone leading to the deaths of thirteen men. The accolade of being possibly the most successful submarine captains of the allies resonated throughout all allied navies, and although grudgingly was acknowledged by the enemy submarine navies as being the master of the kill. He sank 16 enemy ships. He served his country from 1925 until 1942, and in that year he and his famous submarine was reported as missing, soon to be known as lost (14th April), which he had joined on the 8th August 1940 after two extremely brief periods in submarines Otway and H32. This incomparable submarine captain was just 30 years of age. The ace submariner won his Victoria Cross for the sinking of the Italian Liner 'Conte Rosso' in 1941. She was indeed a civilian liner but on this occasion she was packed to the gunnels with Italian troops and their equipment heading south to North Africa to join up with German forces fighting our Desert Rats, and she was escorted by many destroyers to make sure she made a safe and satisfactory land fall. The troopship sank and Upholder then endured a strong counter-attack in which 37 depth charges were dropped in 20 minutes, before she got clear. By the end of 1941 Lieutenant-Commander Wanklyn had sunk nearly 140,000 tons of enemy shipping. It is estimated that 1300 people perished but the Italian story was cloaked in mystery albeit they admitted that the civilian liner was a troop ship and therefore an enemy combatant eligible and likely to be attacked and sunk. Seemingly some researchers in Axis shipping data claim (on line) that the troopship had a crew of 280 and with 2449 troops some of whom may have been Germans. Italian pre war printed data shows the Conte Rosso as having 208 first class berths, 268 second class and 1890 third class berths. We know that the troopship, a relatively small vessel when compared with ocean going world luxury liners, was off Sicily and the wreck site is well documented. Loss of Submarine The Citation in the London Gazette of 16th December, 1944, gives the following details: On 24th May, 1941, while off the coast of Sicily, Lieutenant-Commander Wanklyn, in command of H.M. Submarine Upholder, sighted an enemy troop convoy escorted by destroyers. Observation by periscope could not be relied on, owing to failing light, and a surface attack would have been easily seen. Upholder's listening gear was out of action. Despite these difficulties, Lieutenant-Commander Wanklyn, though aware of the risk of being rammed by the escorting destroyers, pressed home his attack and sank a large troopship. The destroyers at once counter-attacked, and dropped thirty-seven depth-charges. With great courage, coolness and skill, and without listening gear, Lieutenant-Commander Wanklyn brought Upholder clear and back to harbour. Before this outstanding attack and since being made a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order, Lieutenant-Commander Wanklyn had torpedoed a tanker and a merchant vessel. He continued to show the utmost courage in the face of the enemy, and carried out attacks on enemy vessels with skill and relentless determination, sinking one destroyer, one U-boat, two troop transports, one tanker and three supply ships. He also probably destroyed, by torpedoes, one cruiser and one destroyer, and probably hit another cruiser. Wanklyn Malcolm David CWGC Commemorative The Italian Liner SS Conte Rosso had an important part to play in diplomatic exchanges at the beginning of WW2 known as the phoney war in 1940. Obviously the British Embassy had to move back to London from Rome and the Italian Embassy had to move back to Rome from London. This was part accomplished by the Italian Liner and part by a British vessel sailing from Glasgow to, so-called *neutral Portugal, to Lisbon, called the 'Monarch of Bermuda'. At all times she had to steer a zig-zag course and be on the lookout for sea- mines, the Luftwaffe and the Kreigsmarine both surface and sub surface German vessels. The Monarch of Bermuda by this time had been taken over by the British Admiralty acting as a troop ship whilst at the same time the 'Queen of Bermuda' had been armed and was acting as an armed cruiser. The Italian's trapped in Britain at the declaration of Italy's war which was much later than Germanys declaration, were either interned in the UK (most on the Isle of Man as friendly and released before Italy surrendered in 1943) or elected to be deported to Italy to assist its war aspirations, or to be deported to other countries other than Italy for the duration. Great numbers were drowned when their ship Andorra Star was sunk by U-Boat off Malin Head north of Ireland whilst making for Halifax Canada. *Portugal our oldest ally, was, along with Sweden, Colombia and Switzerland officially a neutral but assisted the Allies, whilst Spain, also neutral assisted the Axis Powers.

The Malta submarine base inside Marsamxett Harbour

The Malta submarine base inside Marsamxett Harbour blasted by Axis bombs in 1942 during the terrible and almost continuous bombardment delivered by the German's and Italian's, designed to make the British surrender in the Mediterranean. They grossly underestimated the resolve of Maltese people and the stoicism of the British armed forces and merchant navy ships and personnel, who, just as we put paid to the German Luftwaffe in 1940 during the Battle of Britain, this despite the idle boast of that infamous 'Billy Bunter' of an air marshal, Boring, Ooops sorry Goering, so too did we take the wind out of the sails of two Axis air forces who became utterly demoralised at their inability to break the spirits of all things MALTA. Little wonder that H.M. The King awarded the Island the George Cross.

Mass burial at a cemetery in the tropics.	Mass burial at a cemetery in the tropics.

National Temperance League Medallion

Royal Naval Branch National Temperance League Medallion Medallion, presentation box. Silver medallion (2cm diameter) bearing on its obverse a sailing ship and the legend: 'Royal Naval Branch National Temperance League'. The reverse design comprises a wreath enclosing the text: 'Instituted on board HMS Reindeer July 1868'. Royal Naval Branch National Temperance League medallion issued to an unknown recipient. This medallion is associated with a copy of the book 'Our Blue Jackets: Miss Weston's Life and Work Amongst our Sailors', written by Sophia G Wintz and signed by Agnes ('Aggie') Weston (which is now held by the IWM's Department of Printed Books). Agnes Weston, born 1840, was a committed philanthropist, and devoted her working life to the welfare of sailors. In 1873 she became a member of the Royal Naval Temperance Society and established a Temperance House outside the Dockyard at Devonport as a hostel for sailors which she ran. She and Miss Wintz established a similar hostel in Portsmouth in 1881 which Miss Wintz ran. For her charitable work she was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1918. She died later that same year, and is buried with sister-in-charity Sophia Wintz in the civilian cemetery just across the road from the front gates of HMS Drake, Devonport, Devon.

H.S.H. Captain Louis Battenburg. taken in August 1894. His Serene Highness retired as an Admiral but promoted to be an Admiral of the Fleet the first day in retirement. He was in fact, forced out of his long and illustrious career in the Royal Navy as a loyal faithful subject of the British crown and sworn enemy of the Kaiser and all things Prussian/German, by a baying British (largely ignorant and unversed crowd) because his name suggested that he had German connections, without a care or a thank you for all he had done from 1914 until late 1917 to bring down the German Empire. Just as H.M. King George V changed the Royal Family surname to the House of Windsor in 1917, so too the name Mountbatten supplanted the name of Battenburg. He was the father of Lord Louis Mountbatten, murdered by the IRA in Eire in August 1979, also an Admiral of the Fleet and like his father a First Sea Lord. The insignia on Louis Battenburg's uniform was OTT by modern court standards, which limit the wearing of a maximum of three stars only.

H.S.H. Captain Louis Battenburg

Exhumation

A German mother and her two sons leaves rows or corpses forced to view them - read on. Officers of the US 95th Infantry Division ordered civilians of the German town of Suttrop (Warstein) to exhume the bodies of 57 Soviet citizens killed by the SS and dumped into a mass grave before the arrival of the US Ninth Army. Soldiers of the Division were led by informers to the huge common grave of the victims, which included a woman and her baby. The Russians were said to have been forced to dig their own burial pit and then were shot so that their bodies would roll into it. The execution took place six weeks before American troops entered Suttrop. The German civilians who were forced to exhume the bodies were also forced to search for identification papers and then rebury them in individual graves. An US Army Chaplain performed burial rites and wreaths were placed on the graves by Russians remaining in the area. Before burial all German civilians in the vicinity were ordered to view the atrocity of their countrymen on innocent victims.

Picture 94. Left to right: Admiral Sir J Whitworth, KCB, DSO, C in C Rosyth; Vice Admiral Percy W Nelles, CB, RCN; Captain Cyril G B Coltart, CVO, RN; Captain H N Lay, OBE, RCN; Captain A G Davidson, RN, representing RANAS; Captain J A M Sturges, RN; Vice-Admiral R B Davies (ret'd) VC, CB, DSO, AFC; and Commander E A Mount Haes, RN. Naval burial service at Rosyth, 30 September 1944, Douglas Bank Cemetery, Rosyth. 21 members of the crew of the Escort Carrier HMS Nabob who lost their lives when their ship was torpedoed during an attack on the Tirpitz, were buried with full Naval Honours.

Naval Burial Service Rosyth

Catholic Naval Pilgrimage to Scottish Lourdes

Catholic Naval pilgrimage to Scottish Lourdes, 2nd September 1944, Carfin, Scotland. Father John Wilson, a Naval Chaplain led more than a hundred catholic Naval Officers, Ratings and WRNS of HM Ships and Establishments in the East of Scotland in a pilgrimage to the Scottish Lourdes at Carfin. Officers and ratings carried the canopy of the Blessed Sacrament, held by Father W Tindall-Atkinson in procession to the grotto, and before our Lady's Shrine he gave benediction, and finally blessed the congregation of 2,000 people.

Chief Wren Telegraphist WRNS. WW2 in Ceylon.	CWRN Telegraphist

Men of the Highlands Division await burial	WW1 Men of the Highlands Division await burial at Passchendaele in 1917. Two of my maternal great uncles, Herbert and Charles Perkins were at Passchendaele (3rd Battle of YPRES) July-November.

THE FOLLOWING IS THE COPYRIGHT OF THE LANDEMARE FAMILY AND THE IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM.   On the night of 14 October 1940, a Luftwaffe bomb destroyed the old Treasury Building in Whitehall. What Hitler had come close to achieving with that lucky strike was the elimination of Britain's wartime leader, Winston Churchill, who had been dining in Number 10 Downing Street when the air raid happened. He instructed his chef, Mrs Landemare, who had been reluctant to leave a pudding she was making, to go down to the basement for shelter. Blast from the explosion took out the back wall of the building, destroying the kitchen and finally forcing Churchill to use the marginally better protected Cabinet War Rooms as shelter in future. Churchill had, that night, one of the many brushes with death that he experienced throughout his long life. Just three minutes later, as he recounts in his memoirs, the very spot where they had both been standing became a scene of complete devastation.
Georgina Landemere and her sister 1935	Georgina Landemare and her daughter Yvonne on holiday 1935.
The loss of his cook would most certainly have been a tragedy for Churchill, who was a legendary bon vivant. He dined at the best restaurants and was very particular about his food. At the outbreak of war in 1939, the already widely feted chef, Georgina Landemare, renowned for her culinary skills at such high society occasions as the races at Newmarket, weekends at Cowes and debutante balls, offered her services as chef to the Churchill's for the duration of the war. It was, as Mrs Landemare later divulged in a BBC interview with Joan Bakewell, her 'war work'. She had known the Churchill family since the 1930s, when Churchill's wife Clementine employed her occasionally to cook for house parties at Chartwell. At these she had impressed Churchill and his eminent guests with her often deceptively simple, but exacting recipes. Clementine later recalled that when Mrs Landemare made her offer to cook for the Churchill's, she was 'enchanted, because I knew she would be able to make the best out of rations and that everyone in the household would be happy and contented'. An arrangement that should have lasted for just six years of war went on until 1954 when, at the age of 72, she finally retired – a year before Winston Churchill himself resigned as prime minister.   The details of Georgina Landemare's life are sketchy, but we do know she was the daughter of a coachman and entered service at the age of 14, working as a scullery maid to a wealthy gentleman in Kensington Palace Gardens. In 1909, by now a kitchen maid working for a wealthy family at their home in Gloucester Square, Paddington, she married the distinguished French chef of the Ritz, Paul Landemare, 25 years her senior and a recently widowed father of five. Georgina appears to have had no formal training as a chef, but to have acquired her culinary skills from husband Paul. His expertise in French cuisine undoubtedly influenced her own style of cooking but it still retained a distinctive English flavour. This suited Winston Churchill's traditional yet sophisticated palate.   The Churchill's were in the happy position of owning their Chartwell estate, which included a farm that furnished them with many of the ingredients that ordinary mortals could only rarely find in war-torn Britain and then usually in only small amounts: eggs, milk, cream, chicken, pork and most vegetables. Mrs Landemare's recipes, despite her being attentive to the exigencies of the times, reflect the availability of these ingredients and Churchill's table must have been one to which an invitation would be keenly welcomed. At one small luncheon that Churchill hosted for King George VI at 10 Downing Street on 6 March 1941 - which Georgina Landemare almost certainly prepared - the menu comprised of ‘Fish patty, tournedos with mushrooms on top and braised celery and chipped potatoes, peaches and cheese to follow’. While perhaps not an especially large or rich repast, when taken in the context of wartime austerity and severe rationing, it suddenly takes on the scale of a feast.   Georgina Landemare was certainly kept busy by her charge and would meet daily with Clementine Churchill to discuss menus. Georgina's granddaughter recalled her grandmother telling her that she 'never went to bed till after Mr Churchill's last whiskey, and she was always up ready to cook him breakfast every morning'. Churchill would often change his mind about where he wanted to eat, and this entailed Georgina having to move her cooking equipment, ingredients and even complete meals between the Cabinet War Rooms, the upstairs Annexe and 10 Downing Street.

Georgina holding granddaughter Edwina, aged 15 months, in her family home in Westbury, Bristol, 1944	Georgina at her daughter's family home in Bristol, 1950.
Despite all the challenges, stresses and strains in working for him, Georgina remained an ardent and faithful supporter of Winston and a lifelong friend of the Churchill family. She was with him on the day he was cast out of office in 1945 and stayed with him after the war, through the ups and downs of his political fortunes. Georgina was eventually encouraged by Lady Churchill, always a staunch devotee of her cooking, and by her own daughter, to write down the recipes of the food she cooked for the prime minister. It was no easy task, as Georgina had never recorded the weights of her ingredients, nor, as she had never seen them written down, the French names of the recipes. The resultant book, Recipes From No. 10, was published in 1958 and was for a long time a best-seller, before going out of print and becoming a collector's item.   Georgina outlived Churchill by 13 years and attended his state funeral on 30 January 1965. She died at the age of 96 in 1978, a year after Clementine passed away. For Churchill good food and a chef to prepare it were quintessential to his leading Britain at war. In Georgina Landemare, Churchill found someone who, by sustaining him for six long years of conflict, played her own vital part in helping him to defeat his arch foe and antithesis, the vegetarian and teetotaller Adolf Hitler. Georgina Landemare's importance to Churchill was nicely and neatly illustrated on VE Day, when after giving his rousing speech to the massed crowds in Whitehall, he made a point of turning to his faithful chef and thanking her 'most cordially', saying he could not have managed all the way through the war without her.

Royal Naval Division

Royal Naval Division © UKNIWM (WMR-58628). On the brass memorial plaque above was engraved the following detail. The Royal Naval Division was formed in August 1914, by the personal direction of Mr Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, from Royal Marines and naval Reservists (R.F.R, R.N.R., and R.N.V.R.) not immediately required to man the Fleet. The Division fought throughout the war of 1914 1918, at Antwerp, on Gallipoli, at Salonika and finally from 1916 to 1918 in France and Belgium and suffered the following casualties:- KILLED 582 officers and 10,797 other ranks: WOUNDED 1,364 officers and 29,528 other ranks. Owing to the fearful losses suffered in November, 1916, several Army Battalions were attached to the Division from time to time. The following decorations were earned: Victoria Cross 5 Distinguished Service Order 42 Distinguished Service Cross 17 Military Cross 137 Distinguished Conduct Medal 53 Conspicuous Gallantry Medal 23 Distinguished Service Medal 79 Military Medal 555 Meritorious Service Medal 9 These were the men of whom Sir Winston Churchill wrote:- "By their conduct in the forefront of the battle, by their character, and by the feats of arms to which they performed, they raised themselves into that glorious company of the seven or eight most famous Divisions of the British Army in the Great War. Their reputation was consistently maintained in spite of losses of so awful a character as to sweep away three or four times over the original personnel. Their memory is established in history and their contribution will be identified and recognized a hundred years hence from among the enormous crowd of splendid efforts which were forthcoming in this terrible period. Deriving as they did their nomenclature, their ceremonial, their traditions, their inspiration from the Royal Navy, they in their turn cast back a new lustre on that mighty parent body of which it will ever be proud and for which it must ever be grateful. Long may the record of their achievements be preserved, and long may their memory be respected by those for whom they fought."

Admiral Sir Ralph Edwards, C in C Mediterranean, being presented to Her Majesty The Queen by the First Sea Lord, Admiral Mountbatten. I was in Malta when Sir Ralph was the C-in-C. Note the Queen's radiant and lovely smile of the 1950/60's and since of course. Commonwealth Naval Conference, April 1957, Admiralty London. The Naval Conference which followed Commonwealth Naval Exercise Fairlead.	HM The Queen

HMS Ark Royal in collision

HMS Ark Royal in collision with Russian Kotlin Guided Missile Destroyer, November 1970, on board HMS Ark Royal, off Crete, Eastern Mediterranean when she collide with a shadowing Kotlin Destroyer. Seven Russian sailors were thrown overboard as a result of the collision, five were recovered by Royall Navy boats and two were missing. Ark Royal was holed above the water line in the collision but was able to continue in the Joint Navy-RAF Sea Exercise 'Lime Jug'.

A boat from a British warship is about to push off heading for shore in the Japanese city of HAKODATE located on the southern tip of Japan's most northerly island HOKKAIDO. The date is 1907 and the ship is believed to be HMS Kent.   The boat is bedecked with floral tributes obviously purchased ashore through the British Consulate a satellite of the British Embassy in TOKYO, carries a single coffin of a deceased crew member in the after part of the boat immediately for'ard of the stern sheets. The boat would not be self propelled and the embarked coffin bearers are clearly not going to row the boat ashore. We have to assume that it was towed ashore to nearby jetty in the vicinity of the burial cemetery. The deceased will almost certainly have died from natural causes and almost certainly close to or in HAKODATE harbour itself, otherwise, in the normal naval tradition the body would have been buried at sea!   The second picture is a map of HAKODATE's marine infrastructure.   Note. During this period, specifically 1905 and the Japanese-Russian War, through to 1920 after the end of WW1 we were on good friendly relations with Japan.   The foreign cemetery was surrounded by iron ornate railings and was fragmented into religions and nations, e.g., Russian, British, Protestant, Orthodox etc. each section being relatively small. The third picture shows the entry to the whole cemetery.   The specific list of who is buried here are examples, and why a warehouse manager is more deserving of a mention than a member of the Royal Navy is just that, viz, an example, with no ulterior motive!   The fourth picture is a view overlooking the nearby seascape from the foreigners cemetery but from which part (country, creed or religion) we don't know. Puts many of our non-CWGC graveyards to shame!

Funeral for a shipmate Map Cemetery for foreigners View from the cemetery

Graveyard in Whitehaven Copeland Cumbria Map

In this lovely graveyard in Whitehaven Copeland Cumbria is this quality gravestone to an elderly gentleman John Walker Taylor and his dear wife Mary Ellen Taylor.   But my eye happened to catch what is written below their names and I wondered why the person mentioned was their grandson. One doesn't often see such associations on gravestones!   Then, because many years ago I was a Morse Code radio operator in a Royal Navy vessel, I was taken with the entry which says:- John Sidney Taylor, Grandson of the above, born June 10th 1894, lost at sea March 11th 1915. He was a Wireless Operator on HMS Bayano which was torpedoed and sunk off Corsewall Point, Wigtownshire, Scotland. "HE GIVETH HIS BELOVED SLEEP" "I SLEEP BUT MY SOUL WAKETH"   HMS Bayano, built in 1913, was originally a banana boat for the Elders & Fyffes line. At the outbreak of World War I, it was drafted into the Royal Navy on 21 November 1914 as an armed merchant auxiliary cruiser. On 11 March 1915, it was torpedoed by U-27 and sank within minutes killing around 200 of its crew.

Mrs Nan Knowles CPO Writer BEM, WRNS, wife of Petty Officer J J Knowles. He served on submarine TAURUS winning the Distinguished Service Medal (DSM) and a BEM (British Empire Medal) and in July 1944 served in HMS Forth a submarine depot ship at Greenock.	Mrs Nan Knowles CPO Writer

Lady Shirley alongside jetty Lady Philomena a Hull Lady Class fishing trawler

David and Goliath   In September 1941 whilst heading for the UK in a convoy S.S. Silverbelle was torpedoed and damage in the South Atlantic by UBoat U68. She and other UBoats searched for her after the action. In October '41 U111 at periscope depth whilst approaching Tenerife from the south, sighted what she thought was the damaged Silverbelle still afloat and with precious war cargo from Durban South Africa on board. She approached cautiously ready to torpedo the surfaced vessel. What she was approaching was a small R.N. requisitioned Hull Trawler also looking out for the Silverbelle, packed full to the brim with anti submarine detection equipment (ASDICS) and weapons, depth charges, plus a volatile 4" gun. The trawler was called HMS Lady Shirley (or just H.M.T. Lady Shirley, and her R.A.N. Lieutenant Commander CO, RAN Volunteer Navy, Arthur Henry CALLAWAY DSO, had good lookout's spotting the periscope wake at some distance, immediately attacked the dived submarine with depth charges. This brought the rather large submarine to the surface when the attack resumed with heavy machine guns and for really good measure at close range 4" shells shredding the upper deck and conning tower and rupturing her ballast tanks. The crew immediately abandoned the submarine jumping into the sea and shortly afterwards sunk in very deep water. Of the crew of 55, 44 were saved and taken to the trawler's base Gibraltar as POW's. The UBoat captain was one of the missing crew members. The event was rightly marvelled at, but it was also the very first time prisoners had been captured from a submarine at sea on war patrol.   The 2nd picture shows the Lady Shirley alongside a jetty being visited by very senior officers in great congratulatory mood for such a Herculean task. One crew member died and a couple more from a crew of 33 were injured. She was a much feted vessel especially in the western Mediterranean.   In the absence of a suitable Lady Shirley picture, the 2nd photo is a Hull Lady Class fishing trawler, the Lady Philomena. Start of Bismarck's and Tirpitz's very short operational lives measured in just a few weeks only In this short piece of film Bismarck is seen sailing from the Baltic port of Gdynia Poland (with the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen following on astern as a distance) at the start of Bismarcks short life of just a few weeks only. The Bismarck sails on the 18th May 1941. Apologies for the chopped off end matching Hitler's sorrow I'll wager! Note that from stem to X turret on the quarterdeck, members of the ships company languish on the upper deck and many of the decks within the superstructure, but as we get deeper onto the quarterdeck we see sailors dressed in their finery cheering ship, saluting those on the canal bank in a final farewell, by raising their caps in the air. If only they knew their oncoming fate??.   Her sister TIRPITZ also had a very short operational life, spending virtually four years hemmed up in a Norwegian Fjord defending herself from constant British naval and air force attacks, not doing what she was designed to do. She joined the Kreigsmarine a few weeks before her smaller sister (by 2000 tons) Bismarck was destroyed in the Atlantic principally by the British battleships 'King George V' and the Rodney' supported by a whole host of warships. Their joint destructions with so precious little return of service, crippled the morale of the Kreigsmarine surface fleet and the Nazi regime as well as the German people as a whole, who profoundly believed that these two ships would destroy the Royal Navy and therefore win the war. For all intents and purposes, the British (RN and RAF) destroyed the might of the German surface fleet, also playing the major role in destroying the German UBoat fleet.   At St Nazaire, a port in NW France in the Bay of Biscay near the City of Nantes, was a super sized sea dock to accommodate the size of these two vessels, and it was the perfect home base port area (Brest plus St Nazaire) for ships out raiding merchant ship convoys crossing the Atlantic from West to East bringing vital war supplies from Canada and the USA to Britain. Shutting down this facility would severely hamper their destruction of the convoys. At the time of Bismarck's destruction she was heading for Brest (a port a little further North up the the French coast from St Nazaire) to have repairs carried out inflicted upon her with her interchanges with the Hood some days before. Had the damage been more serious she could well have docked at St Nazaire. It was still fully serviceable after the loss of Bismarck (27th May 1941) for use by the Tirpitz. Churchill ordered it to be destroyed in March 1942 which the Royal Navy did and in great style, but sadly with many brave men dying in the process not to mention a multitude of Germans!   This forced Tirpitz to seek sanctuary elsewhere and the only place available and to still allow it access to the Atlantic was a Norwegian Fjord. It was barren country for the needs of the ship and of the crew whose morale tumbled. As late as early Spring 1944, when the Tirpitz could still technically force its way into the Norwegian Sea and then into the Atlantic or North Sea (but never did), and the plans were being finalised for the Normandy landings in June 1944, there was a fear that the Tirpitz could create merry hell in the Channel totally disrupting the landings. Tirpitz had to go, and attempts to sink her, time after time failed. It was then that we sought the wizardry of a hero scientist, one Dr Barnes Wallis, he of the bouncing bomb fame, which wrecked the dams of the German Ruhr, disrupting their war manufacturing ability. He designed the most powerful bomb every known to man at that time (12,000 lbs) and non-nuclear, which he called a TALL BOY, and trusted it with the RAF Squadron, 617, known as the Dam Busters, to deliver it in almost in/on impossible navigational terrain which had to be dropped from 15 to 20 thousand feet, no lower which of course made bomb aiming that much more difficult. Barnes Wallis and 617 Squadron, as far as the general public were concerned, were one and the same. 617 took off with 20+ Lancaster bombers. each one carrying a single Tall Boy, with at least three scoring direct hits killing well over 1000 men and leaving the Tirpitz turtle-fashion, good and for all time dead. However that was not until November 1944 by which time the Normandy landing troops were well on their way to the German border, ready for an all out assault and heavy punishment on a wicked nation!   By May 1945 all Germany's surface fleet units with the except of a handful of destroyers had been utterly destroyed and put out of action - compare that with the sheer amounts of UBoats that surrendered intact and were destroyed by us in the years that followed VE day. Only one big surface vessel was taken as a floating but totally incapacitated vessel and that was the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen (remember her being with the Bismarck shortly before its destruction in May 1941) which was dragged off to the Pacific to be used in atomic bomb tests and trials of the 1950's. Her end was as ignominious as all other German ships, which finished WW2 as they did WW1, more than ably demonstrating that they were no match for the British, either our illustrious navy and mercantile fleet, or for our air force, then or any time in the future!   By visual comparison why not have a look at my web page called The Navy and its Changes during my 30 year career. Note the COLOUR CODING and that in the 1950's in my time of joining we had FIVE coloured RED = Battleships for openers. We finished WW2 with over 600 vessels having a name with the prefix H.M.S., this discounting ships like Depot Ships, very small vessels, hospital ships/Royal Yacht vessels, transport ships, replenishment ships and many other types.

Vice Admiral Franz von Hipper, the commander of the German scouting force (Befehlshaber die Aufklärungsstreitkräfte) during the Battle of Jutland in May 1916: his flag Lieutenant was Lt Cdr Erich Raeder a most famous German Admiral in WW2. This consisted of five battlecruisers, five light cruisers and thirty destroyers. The force was intended to draw the British Grand Fleet on to the guns of the German High Seas Fleet. This Scouting Group was one of the most active units in the High Seas Fleet during World War I. (The following is repeated from above)   German Admiral Reinhard Scheer of the Kaisers Royal Navy, the Kaiserliche Marine. Scheer, was no slouch and from the onset of WW1 until June 1916 was at sea in various senior ranks in charge of battle groups. He was in charge of the major German battle fleet at Jutland, Jellicoe's direct adversary. He directed his ships well and sank more British ships than we sank his. He also killed in excess of 6000 RN personnel in a period of just over 24 hours, far more dead than in the German fleet. At an opportune time after dusk, he ran away from the Jutland battle scene and made full speed back to his North Sea naval ports. Back in Germany he was a hero without parallel and in number of hits scored in both materiel and personnel terms, he was the obvious victor. The RN lost the battle but won the war, for it was the last time the German fleet in any number went to sea and without a naval presence Germany was eventually starved to death without fuel, food, ammunition or provisions and surrendered, its fleet crossing the North Sea to Scapa Flow in disgrace. Scheer died at the end of November 1928, having twelve years to reflect upon the ignominy of overseeing a harbour-bound fleet and the resolve of the British total and crippling blockade. Jutland became his nemesis rather that his victory, ergo, the British won the day after all!

Vice Admiral Franz von Hipper

See also Hood World Cruise photos