大象传媒

This story relates to "A Fateful Voyage: Convoy under Attack in the Atlantic - Tale of Unexploded Bombs and Heroism"

After receiving her education at Westleigh School, and then Southend High School for Girls where Kim obtained distinctions in her Higher School Certificate. She prepared to enter the Civil Service by attending Clarks College for a year. After successfully sitting for the civil service examination (where previously in 1907 her father (Horace Kimber, OBE, Chief of Investigation branch of HM Customs and Excise) had obtained the highest marks of all who sat the examination), Kim joined Inland Revenue, and after a short time transferred to Customs and Excise. On 13 February 1939 Kim became engaged to Peter de Neumann, also of Leigh-on-Sea, a young merchant navy officer. Kim's job in the head office of HM Customs and Excise was evacuated to Blackpool in September 1939, just before the outbreak of war. Her mother accompanied her, whilst her father moved to his eldest daughter, Isabel's home, as her husband, Stanley King, was serving in the Army. After 16 months, Kim's mother moved back to Leigh-on-Sea, moving into the old house in Leasway and rejoining her husband, leaving Kim in Blackpool. The old house had been left empty from 1939 until Kim's mother's return, but was attended weekly by their old "daily". Peter was at sea on a voyage to Argentina when war broke out. When he was in England Kim used to come home from Blackpool to Leigh-on-Sea on leave. At end of July/beginning of August 1941 Kim received a letter from her father saying that Peter's ship, TEWKESBURY, had been sunk three weeks previously and that Peter was missing. Next day another letter arrived saying the ship bringing Peter home from Freetown was sunk by the Vichy French and Peter was missing again. Kim wondered why her father had taken three weeks to tell her about the first time Peter's ship had been sunk, but had immediately passed on the news the second time. She suspected that her father was preparing her for the worst. Eventually ( several months later) she heard that Peter was in Timbuctoo. She wrote to him and sent him 400 cigarettes every two weeks. During this time Peter wrote asking for tomato seeds to be sent out, but these never arrived. After about six months Peter wrote and said he was not receiving them and not to send any more. Kim also sent a parcel of books that did not arrive. At some stage Kim went to the Citizens' Advice Bureau in Blackpool for suggestions on how goods could be sent to her prisoner fianc茅, but when the CAB asked where he was and she said Timbuctoo, they treated her as though she was "touched in the head". In October 1941 Kim answered a knock at her door in Blackpool, and was confronted by a reporter wanting to know details of Peter's actions, and life. It must have been shortly after the announcement of the award of a George Medal to Peter in the London Gazette. It was the first Kim knew of the award, and of course Peter did not as yet know. Being a civil servant, and having signed the Official Secrets Act, and being wary of reporters anyway, Kim refused to tell him anything. She then wrote to Peter to tell him of his award. After the war someone they knew (Mr Ashworth) who worked at the Customs' bonded warehouse at Mount Pleasant told Peter that the cigarettes had all been burnt and that he (Ashworth) had saved one of the labels and gave it to Peter. That label is now on show in the Imperial War Museum's "Survival at Sea" exhibition. Kim's parents bought a house in Thundersley Essex in 1942 and moved there. In mid January 1943, there was a knock on the door to Kim's home in Blackpool, and when she answered it, she was confronted by a thin and bedraggled man dressed in an ill-fitting well-worn secondhand Army Private's uniform. Then she realised that it was Peter, still dressed in the uniform that had been issued to him whilst he was still a prisoner in Kankan. Obviously no attempt had been made to re-kit-out the newly released prisoners in Freetown and he arrived home with no clothes of his own. Kim and Peter were married on 13 February 1943 - they always considered 13 was their lucky number! At this time Kim terminated her employment with Customs, and returned to her parents' home. In April 1943 Peter was discovered to have (dormant) TB, but despite the support from their family doctor and others, Peter received little sympathy from the government, and who later even kept the ex gratia payment made by the French government to compensate POWs held in West Africa. Peter didn't want to talk about his experience in Timbuctoo because it would result in nightmares, but Kim did know that the treatment the prisoners received was very poor. Two of the prisoners died there and their tombstones are there to this day. Peter never ate rice again, and a single grain of it on his plate could turn his stomach.

When Kim and Peter went to Buckingham Palace for Peter's investiture, Kim forgot her Identity card, and, in the hope of still gaining entrance to this high security event she borrowed Peter's cousin's ID card. No one noticed that the card was not hers, and she entered the State Ballroom as an observer. The King, who had obviously been briefed asked Peter why he was so late in receiving his medal, and when Peter replied that he'd been a prisoner in Timbuctoo, the King said "Ah, you're the man from Timbuctoo". Following the investiture Peter was interviewed by the Daily Express, and their photographs taken on the roof of the building in Fleet Street. Kim felt she looked awful in the photo and asked to be cut out of the published version. The next day the story appeared on the front page under the headline "The Man From Timbuctoo".

Peter was not paid from the day his ship was sunk on 21 May 1941 until he was able to register with the Merchant Navy Pool office in January 1943. It is true that he received the equivalent of 拢2 a month in 鈥淏anque de l鈥橝frique Occidentale鈥� notes through the American Consular offices in West Africa, but there was nothing to spend the money on in the camps, and the currency collapsed following the Operation Torch landings in North Africa. He arrived in the UK with wads of useless banknotes, and to compound the injustice, in 1947 the French Government made an ex gratia payment to the British Government in compensation for the treatment meted out to the CRITON鈥檚 crew, but did not apologise, and the British labour government kept it all. So Peter lost in the end nearly two years pay, his health, and his trust in human nature.

Kim's sister, Isabel, died in the summer of 1943, and Peter鈥檚 and her son, Bernard, was born on 15 December 1943, and his birth announced via 大象传媒 World Service by Doris Hare on "Shipmates Ahoy". Peter was in the North Atlantic at the time, and did not hear it. Someone else heard the broadcast and passed the message on.

In 1956 Peter鈥檚 TB became active, contracted whilst he was a prisoner, and he had to undergo an operation, and recuperate, taking two years off work. It was a very worrying time for Kim as she had to take full responsibility for her two sons, as well as travel long distances by public transport to visit Peter who was in hospital Arlsley in Bedfordshire. When he finally was able to return to duty, he had to move into a shore job, and he became Dockmaster at Tilbury.

When her two sons were old enough, she became a School Teacher from 1951-1974.

Peter was killed in an accident in Tilbury Docks in September 1972, and Kim became a widow, however, because of the long spells apart that they had, it took a long time for her to really accept that this time he was not coming home.

Kim was excited and heartened to learn of the birth of her, and Peter's, first great grandchild, Dennis John Richard de Neumann on 5th January 2006 in Z眉rich, Switzerland.

After Retirement she became:
President, Rayleigh Mill WI
Committee Member, Leigh Society
Manager, Leigh Heritage Centre
Chairman, Southend Branch, British Diabetic Association
Vice President of the Leigh Society

Notes on Peter de Neumann:
庐 Born 18 Sep 1917 in Hadleigh, Essex
庐 Father lost at sea in October 1920 鈥� mother died when he was 9. Then life in an orphanage, and several foster homes.
庐 Awarded George Medal for his part in clearing a 550 lb bomb from TEWKESBURY on 1 March 1941
庐 Awarded Lloyd鈥檚 War Medal for Bravery at Sea
庐 Honorary Member of the Royal Society of St George
庐 TEWKESBURY sunk by U-69 on 21 May 1941
庐 CRITON (RN prize, captured from Vichy French by CILICIA) sunk by Vichy French 21 June 1941
庐 Imprisoned by Vichy French in concentration camps in Conakry, Timbuctoo, and Kankan in Vichy West Africa from 21 June 1941 鈥� 16 Dec 1942. Whilst in Conakry, charged and convicted of piracy by a Vichy French Naval Court Martial.
庐 Ultimately unsuccessful escape attempts from Conakry, Timbuctoo, and Kankan.
庐 Arrived Freetown on the 18 Dec 1942.
庐 Arrived at Greenock 15 Jan 1943
庐 Married 13 Feb 1943 to Dorothy Eva Kimber
庐 Two sons
庐 Joined HMCand E in 1947 as Commander of HM Revenue Cruiser VIGILANT
庐 Joined PLA in 1953 as Harbourmaster
庐 In hospital with TB, and recovering from 1956 鈥� 1958
庐 Transferred to PLA docks dept as Dockmaster at Tilbury in 1960
庐 Commended by PLA for his handling of the situation following the sinking of the Tug Sunfish under Tower Bridge, 12 March 1960.
庐 Commended by PLA for his part in rescuing the crew of the Tug Kenia when she sank in the New Lock bellmouth, Tilbury Dock, 25th August 1964.
庐 Commended by PLA for attempting to save the life of a crane driver injured when his crane toppled across the open hold of a ship in Tilbury Dock, 10th March 1966. The crane driver died before he could be released.
庐 A few days before his death he was involved in another incident with a toppled crane at Tilbury. This time the driver survived.
庐 Killed in an accident in Tilbury Docks, 16 Sep 1972

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