大象传媒

As a Wireless Telegraphist I had been serving on HMS Eclipse, destroyer of the Home Fleet, on Arctic convoys to Russia. Then in March 1943 the Captain sentfor me to tell me he was sending me ashore for a commission selection board. Although ssurprised, I was not unhappy to leave the convoys. The board, however, did not recommend me. I was told I had not shown sufficient ambition. I wondered how I could have studied for promotion on the convoys! My ship left then for the Mediterrean. And was sunk, having struck two mines off the Island of Leros. She was about to land 200 soldiers of the East Kent regiment at Leros to expel the Germans.

Forty years later I wanted to put an 'In Memoriam' notice in the Daily Telegraph. Through the kind offices of the Chaplain of the Fleet who I met whilst serving on the Church of England's General Synod, I received copies of the original signal coneying the news of the loss of the Eclipse, the exact time and location, and a full list of survivors and the much larger list of those lost, both of the ship's compamny and the soldiers she was carrying. On the list of those killed were all my section, including the young man who had replaced me.
In 2001 my wife and I had a holiday on Leros and with the help of some local fishermen we went to the point on the island nearest to where the ship had gone down. With tears I remembered my colleagues and reflected that for 60 years my bones could have been with them, but for the Captain sending me ashore to that Board. This memory has lived in my heart for all these years and will continue to to my life's end.

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