Maritime History
World War Two and beyond
This tiny photograph of the HMS Queen Emma first started me on a search for the Royal Navy Commandos. Written on the back is "The Queen EMMA sister ship to my last ship(Prins Albert) (Ex) Cross Channel ships, one time under the Dutch Flag".
Little did I realize then how involved I would get in trying to piece together Dad's wartime service. As a child I remember playing with his Commando knife and getting into trouble for it. My Father never spoke about the war, until I returned to England for a holiday in 1982 and we both spent a week in Shropshire where he was born and even then he said very little.
Nine years later, 1991, he died and I returned to Brighton from my home in Port Macquarie, Australia to attend his funeral. Two men, Ken Oakley and Alf Fairs, arrived a little late that day and as I spoke to them later I found out they were both Royal Navy Commandos.
A few days after my Father's funeral I was sorting out his effects and I came across three battered sepia toned wartime photographs. Bless his old heart, he had written on the back of them, I think to let my Mother know where he was.
Two were taken in Siam, which according to the writing on the back of one of them was:
All my love darling. xxxx xxxx'
The second:
'NO KIDDING ITS WARMISH'
The writing is an exact copy, with spelling, of that on the back of the photographs. Dad is wearing the slouch hat. I also found a photographic negative, which I managed to print upon my return to Port Macquarie:
This shows Dad in an unusual uniform or so I thought. I do not know where it was taken or who the other two are.
One of the most important things I found was Dad’s Service Sheet but even this was a bit of a puzzle. To begin with it stated that he had served in HMS Armadillo but nowhere could I find such a ship.
Remember Ken Oakley?
A letter to him soon cleared up problem. It turned out that HMS Armadillo was a Commando Training Base in Scotland and Ken sent a couple of photographs of the base.