My father passed away in March 1998 and as he was spending time
in hospital the family took to writing letters which was the
only way to communicate. He had throat cancer.
Finding it difficult to write
about day to day occurrences I went onto the internet and
started just by sending images of the earth from space and
various articles I thought he might find interesting. We had
never as a family or as father to son talked about his time
during the war. When I eventually typed in the
HMS Speedy into Google everything started. Dad started writing
regularly and his comment to me in January 1998 was 'Chris,
you've started me off on something now and given me a new
purpose in life, Bless You' I now wish we had started
earlier.
Dad jotted notes down and
disputes various dates that are on his service record.
His first ship was HMS Towy about
1941 and his second was HMS Oakham Castle these are I think a
corvette and a frigate but not sure which is which.
He joined Speedy in April 1942 on
Convoy PQ14. That returned to England after being damaged by
pack ice. The ship was then readied for Malta on the 12th June
1942 ( Harpoon)? His notes mention a tanker called Kentucky that
was sunk.
A convoy called Pedestal met in
the Med mid August 1942 and escorted into Malta. His notes read:
St Maria Convoy Maltese name.
Dad was invalided back home just
before May 1943 via Gibraltar. His notes said that he was flown
from Lagua on Malta in a Liberator Bomber called St Anthony. His
comments are that he was scared stiff and almost pissed himself.
( His comments) The landing strip on Gibraltar was very short
and planes had to be careful not to overrun.
One of the final comments he made
was that he should have checked the dates more carefully years
ago.
His final ship was HMS Peacock
and he was on there for four days.
Chris Cossey
