大象传媒

My father, Commander Passmore RN (1905-2002), was a hydrographer.
My mother, Molly (1907-2002), ad I were evacuated to Cape Town in 1940 aboard the "City of Paris" which was in the same convoy as the "City of Benares" which was sunk with many children aboard (a model of the Benares is in the Naval Maritime Museum, Greenwich).
My Mum became worried about her marriage, so in 1942 we returned to the UK aboard the "Windsor Castle". We were heading for the US to pick up a convoy, but off Trinidad a Sunderland flying boat circled us and flashed an message saying there were a couple of U-boats ahead. So, being a fast ship, we crossed the Atlantic alone. As we neared home waters soldiers lined the decks with rifles at the ready in case enemy aircraft appeared. The "Windsor Castle" was sunk by an aerial torpedo off West Africa in 1943.
My Dad was skipper of a survey ship, the "Gulnare", and was attached to the Americans. He was awarded the Legion of Merit for bravery under heavy fire when leading Americans to Omaha Beach on D-day. (He continued working for the Admiralty until he was 80. He borrowed the book "Mulberry Harbours" from his local library and was surprised to read his name.)
After D-day my Dad was sent to Trincomalee to join Lord Mountbatten's staff.
My Mum, still worried about her marriage, joined the WVS and requested to be sent to Ceylon. Instead she was sent to India!
I joined her there, sailing aboard the "Britannic".
My Dad returned to the UK soon after the war with Japan ended. But my Mum and I continued to live in Deolali, the transit camp near Bombay from which the term "Dulally" is derived. We left with the last British soldiers aboard the "Empire Helford" in 1947.
My parents divorced in 1948. My Mum once said my Dad would never have wanted a divorce if his Best Man, Lt.Cdr. Michael Beech-Thomas, were still alive. His minesweeper was bombed in the Johore Straits, and he was last seen trying to save a drowning man.
My Mum wrote her autobiography "In His Wake", which was published by Merlin Books, Braunton, in 1988, ISBN 0 86303 397-0.

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