I am writing this on behalf of my father.
His name is John Watson Cairns, born 16th July 1920. He served in the Merchant Navy during WW2. He was employed by Marconi as a Second Radio Officer.
Mostly he was on Atlantic Convoys and had some miraculous escapes (after his ship had changed places with another in the convoy - the ship that had taken their place was torpedoed!).
He was on board the SS Rancher when Germany surrendered and he has a copy of that Marconigram (see the story entitled 'Germany has surrendered)which we have put on the website. I can't imagine how he must have felt as he listened and decoded the message that meant the war was over.
There is a second message pertaining to U boat instructions and he has a copy of that too. It is on the website as 'Further to Surrender'
I wish we had been able to detail his war stories for posterity, but circumstances prevented us from being able to collate it all in time.
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