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My father Clement (Clem) Walker was born on the 5th June 1918 in a house on Canal Road Derby. He was one of eventually eleven children born to George and Bridget Walker. His mother came from Banagher in County Offaly and moved to England in her teens to work as a maidservant for a well to do family. When my father was 18 he enlisted in the Royal Navy. He never regretted this It changed his life for the better. He remembers his first night at Portsmouth all alone and away from home thinking to himself with a few tears ‘what have I done'. Three months later after training completed he was a proud sailor. They could parade better than the Guards!

Below are the ships he served on. Early in 1941 he joined the Fiji on her second commission as one of the ship's ASDIC operators. Although an experienced seaman, he was a “new chum� on the ship.
• HMS Hereward 1936 Destroyer
• HMS Exmouth 1938 "
• HMS Blanche 1938 "
• HMS Atherstone 1940 "
• HMS Fiji 1941 Light Cruiser
• Cape Sable 1941 Q ship

On the 22nd May 1941 HMS Fiji was sunk by enemy aircraft 50 miles south west of Gavdo Island. The Fiji, along with HMS Gloucester, HMS Kandahar and HMS Kingston, had been sent to assist HMS Greyhound which was under air attack. By the time this group arrived, however, the Greyhound had sunk. Whilst rescuing survivors from the Greyhound, Gloucester was bombed and brought to a halt, her upper deck a shambles and fiercely ablaze. The Captain of the Fiji reluctantly withdrew, leaving behind carley rafts.

For the next three and a half hours, as the Fiji withdrew to the west, she was relentlessly attacked from the air until finally having exhausted all her live ammunition and surviving numerous bombing attacks, was hit close to the portside amidships. The ship took up a heavy list but was able to steam at 17 knots until half an hour later she was hit again by three bombs above the 'A' boiler room. The list increased and at 2015 hours she rolled right over.

The ASDIC cabin was located well below decks. In the very early stages of the bombing attacks, explosions from near misses rendered their instrumentation useless. The operators (usually 2 on duty) received permission to abandon the cabin and move to their No. 2 battle stations which in my father's case was a first aid party, located aft of the bridge. After leaving the ASDIC cabin they had to close and lock a number of water tight doors behind them. They had closed and locked one door when they were alerted to an urgent banging on the other side. They opened the door again to find one very frightened stoker who had been sent down to assess and report on any damage. The ASDIC crew had not been aware of this. The stoker used a heavy Davis lamp to bang on the door to attract attention.

At his second battle station he witnessed the sight of HMS Gloucester badly damaged and burning fiercely. After leaving the Gloucester, the Fiji headed west. She eventually ran out of live ammunition and resorted to firing flares, star shells etc in token resistance. As soon as the attacking pilots realised this they flew low targeting the anti-aircraft crew with cannon and machine gun fire. The first aid party then had to dash out from behind cover hoping to avoid shrapnel and bullets, place any wounded gunner on a stretcher and take him to the sick bay. My father recalls attending a BOFORS gun to retrieve a severely wounded gunner. Attached to one of the gun's controls was just pair of human hands. As the gunner was lowered on a Davis stretcher the boiler suit my father was wearing was drenched with blood. On arrival at the sick bay my father waited for a moment or too taking in with a little shock at the activity going on with the wounded and dying. An SBA asked him ‘what's wrong with you' when my father replied ‘nothing' the SBA said ‘ well get the hell out of here'

When the order came to abandon ship (shouted from the bridge) he made his way aft with the Fiji on an ever increasing list. A young Marine (a Roy) was standing by the guardrail white faced and nervous, he stopped and said to him quietly: 'you had better go now Roy' At almost the same moment a piece of shrapnel or spent cannon shell hit the young marine in the back the impact knocking him into the sea. My father thought he was dead but was surprised to see him later in Alexandria recovered and well When the last bombs hit the ship above the 'A' boiler room, he was holding on tightly to part of the deck machinery (a winch). The shock waves from their explosions blew him into the sea singeing his eyebrows and with such force, ripping parts of his uniform off him. He made his way to a float-a-net and joined other crew clinging to it. Because the ship had earlier jettisoned most of its rafts for the Gloucester the crew of the Fiji had resorted to throwing objects over the side (anything that would float like wooden gangways, scaling nets, lifebuoys etc). Those in the sea now clung to whatever they could. Meanwhile the threat from air attack had not stopped.

Aircraft continued to strafe the stricken vessel and survivors in the water. Eventually the ship rolled right over and remained in that position for some time. A lone sailor had made his way onto the keel and sat there despite encouragement to join the survivors in the sea. The surviving ship's crew in the sea now struggled to remain afloat and stay alive. Some Marines were heard discussing the possibility of swimming to the outline of an island that looked in the dusk to be deceptively close. They were never heard of again. Some hours later during the night HMS Kandahar and HMS Kingston returned to pick up survivors. My father was rescued by HMS Kandahar. In the darkness most survivors were saved by the two destroyers some had drifted too far away some had died of their wounds some had died from exhaustion some had given up and simply deflated their lifebelts and drowned. The crews of both destroyers assisted by hauling the survivors on board with ropes or jumping into the sea to help those too exhausted. Each survivor was given a mug of navy rum and sent below. My father says he has no recollection of the return to Alexandria. He slept from total exhaustion but did learn later that the Kandahar had been attacked after dawn on several occasions on its return to Alexandria. Of particular note was the bravery of the ship's padre the Rev. Tanner who was awarded the Albert Medal (later the George Medal) for his efforts to save seamen in difficulty in the sea. After respite in Alexandria my father was repatriated to Liverpool on the Empress of Australia via Durban and Cape Town.

(Note: SBA-sick berth attendant; Roy – nick-name used by all sailors for a Royal Marine)

My father agreed to share his story in remembrance of all ships' personnel lost on that day. He would be pleased to hear from any surviving crew of the Fiji or their descendants

Lest We Forget
HMS Gloucester sunk Thursday 22nd May 1941 with the loss of 736 crew
HMS Fiji sunk Thursday 22nd May 1941 with the loss of 241 crew

They shall grow not old
As we that are left grow old
Age shall not weary them
Nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun
And in the morning
We will remember them
Lest we forget.
God bless the Royal Navy.

(My father asked that all who read his story take into account that he is 87 years of age and the events he has recalled are as accurate as his memory allows)

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