大象传媒

This story has been written by Mrs. Celia Milton on behalf of her father.

Sadly, my father, now in his 93rd year, has severe dementia and so, as he is unable to do so himself, I write this from the memories I have of him telling me how he had been very lucky to survive.

My father鈥檚 name is Henry James Scoates (known as Harry) and he was a Sergeant Gun-Layer in the 2nd Regiment of the Maritime Royal Artillery. He served on nine ships during the Second World War 鈥� namely:
The Brittany Coast, Ayr, Scythia, Moreton Bay, Mauritania, Samesk, RMS Queen Mary, Beaconsfield and Antelope.

He was always very sure about the names of the vessels, although I鈥檓 not sure if they are spelt correctly as I only found his written list after he was admitted into a full time care home and, by then, was unable to have any discussion with him about the past.

Last year I visited The Queen Mary 鈥� at Long Island, California 鈥� and did the WW2 tour of the ship, during which several photographs from a book by Steve Harding, called 鈥楪ray Ghost 鈥� The Queen Mary at War鈥� were passed around the group. One of these showed a soldier manning a six-inch gun during a weapons drill. That soldier looked just like photographs I had seen of my father as a young man in uniform. We purchased a copy of this book and on page 41 found the same picture which we showed to my father. When he saw it, he asked, 鈥淚s that a picture of me?鈥� Of course, we cannot be sure that it is him, but the likeness indicates that it might well be, particularly as he did indeed serve on The Queen Mary.

My father, along with his brother, Eddie, his half-brothers Jimmy and Clem Morgan and their sister, Sylvia, all played their part in WW2 and we know how lucky we were to have them all return to the family at the end of the war, safely and without injury. We count our blessings.

The story he told:

His one vivid memory of how lucky he had been to survive was when he was in Rio de Janeiro and was given a morning shoreleave pass. On his return to the ship, he was greeted by the Chief Petty Officer who told him that he had been looking for him as he had wanted him to go on another ship that was leaving for Java but that he had found someone else and that the ship had since sailed. A few days later, that same ship heading for Java was sunk and all hands on board were lost. My father often wondered how life would have been for my mother and me had he sailed on that ill-fated ship, and always believed that 鈥榮omeone up there鈥� 鈥� referring to God 鈥� 鈥榤ust have been watching over him鈥� then and throughout the war.

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