Description
Object description
A series of 81 ms and ts letters to his family in Winchester, Hampshire covering his service as a Midshipman RNR in the destroyer HMS ILEX (August 1939 - July 1941), which was deployed in the Western Approaches and Atlantic till May 1940 and then with the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla, Mediterranean Fleet based on Alexandria, and as a Sub-Lieutenant RNR with a force of `A' lighters based on Mersa Matruh for running supply convoys to Tobruk (July - October 1941), in command of HM Tug VAILLANT based on Tobruk (November 1941 - February 1942) and in the Mediterranean Fleet destroyer HMS KINGSTON in which he died of wounds (March 1942); together with an ms diary (6pp) kept as a RNR cadet in the destroyer HMS WALPOLE at King George VI's Coronation naval review at Spithead (May 1937); four flimsies covering his naval service and his mention in despatches (1939 - 1942); two contemporary accounts (10pp ms and 6pp ts) describing ILEX's part in the action leading to the sinking of the Italian cruiser BARTOLOMEO COLLEONI on 19 July 1940; an ms diary (12pp) kept at Mersa Matruh in October 1941; documents concerning the commissioning and loss of the VAILLANT; an ms essay (3pp) on Allied operations in North Africa and the Mediterranean in 1941; a collection of 8 ts and 1 ms poems concerned with wartime service and experience and some photographs. His letters give few details of his ship's operations, apart from the BARTOLOMEO COLLEONI action, but they are informative about his philosophy towards the war, notably his intense hostility towards the Germans, his views as a young RNR officer about the prejudices and mental rigidity of regular RN officers, his plans for his future career, the high morale under adverse circumstances of the Mediterranean Fleet, his dislike of service ashore in the Western Desert at Mersa Matruh and his romantic attachment to the daughter of a British family in Alexandria who befriended him
Content description
A series of 81 ms and ts letters to his family in Winchester, Hampshire covering his service as a Midshipman RNR in the destroyer HMS ILEX (August 1939 - July 1941), which was deployed in the Western Approaches and Atlantic till May 1940 and then with the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla, Mediterranean Fleet based on Alexandria, and as a Sub-Lieutenant RNR with a force of `A' lighters based on Mersa Matruh for running supply convoys to Tobruk (July - October 1941), in command of HM Tug VAILLANT based on Tobruk (November 1941 - February 1942) and in the Mediterranean Fleet destroyer HMS KINGSTON in which he died of wounds (March 1942); together with an ms diary (6pp) kept as a RNR cadet in the destroyer HMS WALPOLE at King George VI's Coronation naval review at Spithead (May 1937); four flimsies covering his naval service and his mention in despatches (1939 - 1942); two contemporary accounts (10pp ms and 6pp ts) describing ILEX's part in the action leading to the sinking of the Italian cruiser BARTOLOMEO COLLEONI on 19 July 1940; an ms diary (12pp) kept at Mersa Matruh in October 1941; documents concerning the commissioning and loss of the VAILLANT; an ms essay (3pp) on Allied operations in North Africa and the Mediterranean in 1941; a collection of 8 ts and 1 ms poems concerned with wartime service and experience and some photographs. His letters give few details of his ship's operations, apart from the BARTOLOMEO COLLEONI action, but they are informative about his philosophy towards the war, notably his intense hostility towards the Germans, his views as a young RNR officer about the prejudices and mental rigidity of regular RN officers, his plans for his future career, the high morale under adverse circumstances of the Mediterranean Fleet, his dislike of service ashore in the Western Desert at Mersa Matruh and his romantic attachment to the daughter of a British family in Alexandria who befriended him
History note
Cataloguer RWAS
History note
Catalogue date 1992-06