大象传媒

I would like to submit a story on behalf of my late father in law Jimmy 鈥�

Royal Navy 1939 - 1952 James Morris P/KX 96781

Jimmy Morris was born on 3rd November 1919 and lived in Southwick, Sunderland.
A lifelong supporter of Sunderland FC, when war was a possibility he and his brothers all decided to join up before being called up and Jimmy enlisted in the Royal Navy in May of 1939,.
Jimmy and his brothers did not tell their mother of their intentions as they knew she would not be too happy to see all of her sons joining the armed forces before they needed to, when they had joined up they told her and knowing there as was no changing their minds she could only let them go and pray they would all stay safe no matter what came, a pray that in the case of her son Jimmy (who never learned to swim) may well have been answered later that year.

From his naval record it shows the following 鈥� HMS Victory (Stoker 2nd class) May 鈥� September 1939 (think this may have been his training post) then was posted to the HMS Nelson, the British Flagship, joining the ship on the 28th September 1939 as Stoker 2nd class.

It was while he was serving on the Nelson that what can only be considered one of the most fortunate events of the war took place, the following incident is taken from a newspaper clipping (not sure of date) found among Jimmy鈥檚 souvenirs it is of an excerpt from a book called Hitler鈥檚 Naval War by C D Bekker, pub 1974.

The story goes as follows-
It seems that on the 30th October 1939 off the Orkneys a German U boat found it was in an incredible position in the middle of one of the most powerful units of the British Home Fleet, among the several battleships in target range was the flagship HMS Nelson, targeting the Nelson, the U boat fired 3 torpedoes off hitting the Nelson forward, amid ship and aft.
Now whether the angels were with the home fleet that day no-one could say but what happened next according to the book almost left the U-boat crew in tears, because not one but all three torpedoes had failed to detonate.
This was just as well, for if they had succeeded in sinking the Nelson the war may have had a very different outcome, on board that day were :-

庐 The Commander in chief of the Home Fleet - Admiral Sir Charles Forbes
庐 The 1st Sea Lord - Admiral of the Fleet - Sir Dudley Pound.
庐 The First Lord of the Admiralty - Mr Winston Churchill (who would later lead the country to victory as Prime Minister).

So it would seem God blessed the Nelson that day

As Jimmy has passed away we can no longer verify this information but when discussing this with my brother in law Keith he remembers his dad talking about the newspaper cutting which came from the Weekly News, and he added that according to his Dad, at the time of the incident he and his shipmates in the engine rooms heard nothing because of the noisy area where they were working.

The following April Jimmy became Stoker 1st Class and continued to serve aboard the Nelson, in 1941 he sustained an injury to his shin in the boiler room and was awarded a hurt certificate this also the name of a Percy John Underwood as Chief stoker. Leaving the Nelson on the 20th February 1942 his record then shows HMS Victory (believe this was shore base) he then went on to serve on the HMS Howe June 1942 鈥� March 1943 (Acting leading stoker), HMS Indefatigable serving on this ship from May 1943 - Dec 1949, starting as leading stoker and achieving rank of Petty Officer Stoker Mechanic (among his souvenirs was the pennant for the Indefatigable) I think it was on this ship that he visited Australia and finding himself in the middle of a bar-room brawl the military police were called and as he was grabbed by the collar he came face to face with his brother in law who quickly shoved him out of the back door to avoid having to arrest him.
He then transferred to what appears to be Saints followed by in brackets Victory 2, St Angelo and Phoenicia from June 1949 - Dec 1951 I believe these might have been shore base鈥檚, his last posting was to HMS Jupiter (not sure if it was ship/shore base) from 18 March 1952 - 2nd October 1952 and being discharged to reserve on the 22 Nov 1952. I know from Derek that his Dad had several medals etc from his naval service, unfortunately these were loaned out in the 70s to a young relative for a school project and were either stolen from or lost at the school.

After discharge Jimmy returned to civilian life in Southwick and his wife Nora he worked as a plumbers mate and labourer in the Wear shipyards. Believing they would not be blessed with a child of their own they decided to adopt and 1953 into their lives came a son who they christened Derek. In the mid 1950s they moved to a new estate called Hylton Castle where he lived with his wife Nora and their son Derek. Life went on quite happily for them and in early 1962 a surprise came when Nora found she was going to have a baby and in July 1962 a son Keith was born.

I met Jimmy in the summer of 1979 when Derek and I were courting, I remember him always singing, Jimmy never seemed to let anything get him down, having been made redundant late in his working life and with little chance of a new job, he spent much of his time in his garden and grew some of the best tomatoes I had ever tasted.
It was thanks to Jimmy that I developed a love of country music that I still enjoy today.

Sadly Jimmy lost Nora suddenly in 1990 and never fully recovered from her loss, years passed and as age overtook him his hearing worsened and his eyesight started to fail from macular degeneration and eventually he could no longer look after his garden so gave up growing his tomatoes, even a simple thing like reading a newspaper became impossible even with magnifying aids.
Despite all this he tried to remain cheerful still enjoying his music for quite a while until he became ill in summer of 2004, later diagnosed with cancer Jimmy passed away peacefully in the early hours of 31st December.

In honouring his life the family decided that his funeral should reflect his life and at his service instead of mournful hymns we chose two songs for his service 'This world is not my home' and 'Welcome to my world' by Jim Reeves who was one of his favourite singers, the sermon consisted of recollections of his life and what he had meant to different people and a poem dedicated to him was read out followed by the Lords prayer.

In the days that followed we were looking through a small battered leather suitcase among the souvenirs and memories stored there we found all his Naval papers including his service record and the previously mentioned newspaper cutting as well as many photographs of him and others with whom he served throughout his time in the Navy, this seemed to be a veritable reassure trove of memories too good not to share.

Jimmy was not well off in money terms but he would consider himself rich in other ways and considered himself fortunate among men and when I looked into the suitcase it made some sense, because looking back on that day 30th October 1939 there was also another life blessed that day, that of Jimmy Morris just a stoker 2nd class who was in the engine room (who incidentally never learned to swim), who would eventually return home to his wife and raise two sons (one of whom I married) and be the sort of man to who people will say 鈥渋t was a privilege to have known him鈥�.

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