Private Papers of J H Edwards

Extract from his unpublished memoirs (28pp ts) recording his birth and early childhood as the son of a naval family in Gillingham (Kent) between the two World Wars, the family's move to Earlsfield (SW London) in the late 1920s and his schooling there, in particular at Wandsworth School, relocation to Guildford (Surrey) after the outbreak of the Second World War to avoid the bombing of London, before joining the Royal Navy as a stoker, basic training, active service in the heavy cruiser HMS SUFFOLK during ? 1942 on Russian convoy escort duties based at Hvalfjord (Iceland), and his subsequent service in the ship on escort duty in the Indian Ocean during 1943 – 1944, including periods of shore leave in South Africa, and from September 1944 operating from Ceylon as part of the 5th Cruiser Squadron, Eastern Fleet, returning to the UK in November 1945, concluding with his postwar service in the heavy cruiser HMS LONDON in the repatriation of troops from the Far East [the memoir is not particularly detailed and events are rarely dated]; also his official RN Certificate of Service (4pp).

Cataloguer SWW