Description
Physical description
Bundle of tightly-packed dried tobacco leaves, wrapped in tarred hemp and bound in codline so that it is wider in the centre and tapered at each end.
History note
This 'prick of tobacco', a traditional form of preserving tobacco in the Royal Navy, was made for David Latimer Repard OBE DSC and given to him in 1944 by the Chief Bosun's Mate of HMS Byron (K508). Latimer recollected his impressions of the Chief Boatswain's Mate, as well as his penchant for making pricks of tobacco, in Reel 15 of his IWM oral history interview (22161).
History note
(John) David Latimer Repard OBE DSC, born 2 June 1921, joined the Royal Navy in 1939 as a Naval Cadet. After passing as a Sub Lieutenant in late 1941, he was assigned to HMS Tartar (F43) as a gunnery officer, and was promoted to 1st Lieutenant in January 1943. During his service on Tartar, Repard earned the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) for a culmination of operations which included the Operation Pedestal convoy to Malta, Arctic Convoys PQ 18 and QP 14 to Murmansk and back, as well as Operations Torch and Husky. In early 1944, Repard was assigned to HMS Byron (K508) as First Lieutenant, taking part in additional Arctic Convoys as well as operations in the North Atlantic and North Sea. On 10 May 1945, Repard was one of the officers aboard Byron who took the surrender of German U-Boats in Loch Eriboll, Scotland, taking from U-1009 her Kriegsmarine ensign as well as its commander's Walter P38 pistol.
Repard's Royal Navy service after the war included service as a Torpedo and Anti-Submarine (TAS) officer aboard numerous ships including HMS Battleaxe and HMS Vernon, as well as service aboard HMS Belfast as Executive Officer from 1958-61. He retired with the rank of Commander in April 1966.
Inscription
'PRICK OF TOBACCO'
Pusser's chewing tobacco anointed with a tot of rum, wrapped in teased out tar'd hemp and lashed with codline. The Chief Bosun's Mate in BYRON in 1944 had been Chief Buffer in the Royal Yacht in the late 1930's before retirement, and was recalled for the War. He made this prick for Lieutenant David Repard RN who was appointed to join BYRON early in 1944 as First Lieutenant (aged 22) as his predecessor, who had commissioned her in America, was too [?] sick to return to England in her...