Description
Object description
Ts memoir (294pp), written in 2000, recalling his extensive career with the Royal Navy, 1926 – 1972, beginning with his childhood in Kent and decision to join the RN aged 13, the education he received as a Cadet at The Royal Naval College, Dartmouth and then The Royal Naval Engineering College, Keyham, his embarkation to the Mediterranean as Sub-Lieutenant in the battleship HMS NELSON during the Spanish Civil War (1936) and his time at the RN Apprentice Training Establishment at Chatham immediately prior to the outbreak of the Second World War, offering some interesting opinions on sexuality within the Navy; also covering his experiences as damage control officer in the battleship HMS PRINCE OF WALES, May – December 1941, including detailed and sometimes technical descriptions of the ships involvement in the pursuing of the German battleship BISMARCK during the Battle of the Denmark Strait (24 – 25 May 1941) and carrying Winston Churchill across the Atlantic to meet Franklin Roosevelt at the Newfoundland Conference (August 1941) before the PRINCE OF WALES was sunk off the cost of Singapore (10 December 1941), proceeding with an account of his problematic voyage on the SS KEDAH to Java where he temporarily joined the staff of the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command (ABDA) (April 1942 – January 1944), relating throughout the action he participated in as well as the leisure pursuits he enjoyed, such as cricket and hockey; ending with how he continued to climb the ranks of the RN by taking on a range of different duties on shore and in various ships, such as the fleet carrier HMS IMPLACABLE and aircraft carrier HMS EAGLE throughout the post-war years until his eventual retirement in 1972. The memoir is illustrated with photocopied contemporary newspaper articles, reports and photographs, together with a bound book (57pp) containing photocopied service records belonging to him and his father, Engineer Rear Admiral Sir Henry Wildish.
Content description
Ts memoir (294pp), written in 2000, recalling his extensive career with the Royal Navy, 1926 – 1972, beginning with his childhood in Kent and decision to join the RN aged 13, the education he received as a Cadet at The Royal Naval College, Dartmouth and then The Royal Naval Engineering College, Keyham, his embarkation to the Mediterranean as Sub-Lieutenant in the battleship HMS NELSON during the Spanish Civil War (1936) and his time at the RN Apprentice Training Establishment at Chatham immediately prior to the outbreak of the Second World War, offering some interesting opinions on sexuality within the Navy; also covering his experiences as damage control officer in the battleship HMS PRINCE OF WALES, May – December 1941, including detailed and sometimes technical descriptions of the ships involvement in the pursuing of the German battleship BISMARCK during the Battle of the Denmark Strait (24 – 25 May 1941) and carrying Winston Churchill across the Atlantic to meet Franklin Roosevelt at the Newfoundland Conference (August 1941) before the PRINCE OF WALES was sunk off the cost of Singapore (10 December 1941), proceeding with an account of his problematic voyage on the SS KEDAH to Java where he temporarily joined the staff of the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command (ABDA) (April 1942 – January 1944), relating throughout the action he participated in as well as the leisure pursuits he enjoyed, such as cricket and hockey; ending with how he continued to climb the ranks of the RN by taking on a range of different duties on shore and in various ships, such as the fleet carrier HMS IMPLACABLE and aircraft carrier HMS EAGLE throughout the post-war years until his eventual retirement in 1972. The memoir is illustrated with photocopied contemporary newspaper articles, reports and photographs, together with a bound book (57pp) containing photocopied service records belonging to him and his father, Engineer Rear Admiral Sir Henry Wildish.
History note
Cataloguer CLS