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Description: | Privately printed and extensively illustrated memoir (158pp), originally written in the 1980s and later edited by his daughter, covering his childhood in Portsmouth (1910 – 1925); his entry into the Royal Navy and training as an Artificer Apprentice in Portsmouth and Chatham (1926 – 1930); his service, and progressive promotions, as an Engine Room Artificer in the Atlantic Fleet destroyer HMS WALKER (1930 – 1931), a ‘boring and monotonous’ commission in the cruiser HMS HAWKINS on the East Indies Station (1932 – 1935), in the Mediterranean Fleet battleship HMS BARHAM (1935 – 1938), in HMS IRON DUKE as a training ship based on Portsmouth (1938 – August 1939) and then as a Home Fleet accommodation ship based on Scapa Flow where she was damaged during an early German air raid (September – October 1939) and in the destroyer HMS WINDSOR on convoy escort duty in the Western Approaches, the English Channel and the North Sea, but also prominently involved in the evacuation of the BEF from Boulogne and Dunkirk (November 1939 – December 1940); his service as a Chief Engine Room Artificer in the Flower class corvette HMS TULIP on Atlantic convoy escort duty and, after a refit in the United States, with the Eastern Fleet in the Indian Ocean (January 1941 – March 1943), in the newly built Home Fleet aircraft carrier HMS INDEFATIGABLE, including operations in Norwegian waters (December 1943 – November 1944) and in the destroyer HMS VEGA on North Sea convoy escort duty (November 1944 – March 1945); as a Warrant Engineer in the Mediterranean Fleet cruiser HMS SIRIUS (June 1945 – January 1947); as a Commissioned Air Engineer at RNAS St Merryn in Cornwall (1947 – 1950); as a Senior Commissioned Air Engineer in the aircraft carrier HMS THESEUS, including operations during the Korean War (1950 – 1952); and in various shore appointments in the United Kingdom, ultimately as a Lieutenant Commander (E), in HMS SISKIN (1952 – 1954), HMS CONDOR (1954 – 1956), RNAS Worthy Down (1957 – 1959) and HMS DAEDALUS (1959 – 1960); and his subsequent working life as an engineer with the South Eastern Gas Board (1960 - 1975) and retirement. The memoir offers some interesting insights into how he progressed from the lower deck to commissioned rank and how he coped with disciplinary and other issues that he encountered during his career.
Cataloguer RWAS | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Ewles, Stanley George Thomas | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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