Description
Object description
Records of his service as a Boy 2nd class, born in July 1923, comprising an ms diary (12pp) with one or two related charts and drawings, kept in HMS BELFAST (18th Cruiser Squadron, Home Fleet) from September - October 1939 and giving basic details of her deployment on the Northern Patrol to prevent contraband goods and German merchant shipping overseas from reaching Germany, including the successful interception and seizure of the German merchant ship CAP NORTE on 9 October; a pocket diary for 1940 kept in the battle cruiser HMS HOOD with intermittent ms entries covering her service in Northern waters, her attachment to Force H in the Mediterranean following Italy's declaration of war and participation in the attack on the French fleet at Oran (June - August) and some interesting references to serious unrest among the ship's company (December); an ms letter (2pp) to his brother dated July 1940 describing HOOD's operations at Oran and a subsequent air attack on Force H in the Mediterranean and six other ms letters written to his mother from HOOD, March - May 1941, suggesting his unhappiness with life in the ship after returning from leave and his affection for his mother; together with a photograph of him on board HOOD, a mounted photograph of HOOD, an ms telegram, with original envelope, sent to Mrs E F Crawford by the Commodore, Naval Barracks, Portsmouth (28 May 1941), reporting Crawford as missing, and a printed poem kept by his mother in his memory. Boy Crawford was later confirmed lost in HMS HOOD and was possibly the youngest member of her ship's company.
Content description
Records of his service as a Boy 2nd class, born in July 1923, comprising an ms diary (12pp) with one or two related charts and drawings, kept in HMS BELFAST (18th Cruiser Squadron, Home Fleet) from September - October 1939 and giving basic details of her deployment on the Northern Patrol to prevent contraband goods and German merchant shipping overseas from reaching Germany, including the successful interception and seizure of the German merchant ship CAP NORTE on 9 October; a pocket diary for 1940 kept in the battle cruiser HMS HOOD with intermittent ms entries covering her service in Northern waters, her attachment to Force H in the Mediterranean following Italy's declaration of war and participation in the attack on the French fleet at Oran (June - August) and some interesting references to serious unrest among the ship's company (December); an ms letter (2pp) to his brother dated July 1940 describing HOOD's operations at Oran and a subsequent air attack on Force H in the Mediterranean and six other ms letters written to his mother from HOOD, March - May 1941, suggesting his unhappiness with life in the ship after returning from leave and his affection for his mother; together with a photograph of him on board HOOD, a mounted photograph of HOOD, an ms telegram, with original envelope, sent to Mrs E F Crawford by the Commodore, Naval Barracks, Portsmouth (28 May 1941), reporting Crawford as missing, and a printed poem kept by his mother in his memory. Boy Crawford was later confirmed lost in HMS HOOD and was possibly the youngest member of her ship's company.
History note
Cataloguer RWAS
History note
Catalogue date 1992-06
