´óÏó´«Ã½

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Marcus Heald (´óÏó´«Ã½ Guide) on behalf of Mr. Charles Ellerington and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

My father was an engineer in the Merchant Navy during the war — I often feel that the Merchant Navy don’t get the recognition that they deserve for the part they played — without them, the efforts of the other forces would have been in vain and on most occasions — impossible.
I believe that more men were killed in the British and American Merchant Navy than in any other division — after all — when a tanker is struck by a bomb — there is no salvation.

My dear father Charles Ellington was killed in October 1940. His ship was on its way from the Thames to the Humber and was almost in the estuary when disaster struck. The crew had discharged half of their cargo in London — the other half never reached its destination — Immingham….. neither did my Father — leaving me an orphan.

I was just a boy. I continued to live in Hull. I remember as it was approaching D day watching the US troops in the City. They were charging about and enjoying themselves. I have absolutely no problem with the men that helped save out city and indeed our country enjoying themselves but it really hurt me to see them wasting petrol — after all, my father died trying to bring petrol to the area. I wanted them to find other ways of amusing themselves so, just twelve years old made my way down to the hotel where I knew the generals were, on arrival I demanded to talk to the commanding officer — of course at first they didn’t take me seriously — why would they — I was nothing but a boy, but after I told the soldier my story he did indeed take me to see the General. I explained what I’d seen and how it was upsetting me and how wrong it was that people should die for fuel if it was to be wasted. He listened to what I had to say — and from that day on less and less troops were seen charging around the city wasting fuel - it had really worked. I had done something for my father — I had made people understand what he died for.

From that day till this , I’m not scared to approach anyone and state my case, I am not an educated man — my schooling suffered because of the war and because I had to grow up so quickly — but I don’t let that stop me, I say what I think. What’s more I’ve realised that what is valuable to one man may be worthless to the next, so we have to speak up for what’s important to us.

To this day — when I hear about disasters at sea — when ships are lost — I always think of the children, and what they’ve lost.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.