22 NAVY NEWS, MARCH 2008
● Some were more enthusiastic than others about recreating The Beatles’ iconic Abbey Road cover... Penguins fi le through the
waters of South Georgia with HMS Clyde berthed in the background
Their names
liveth online
RELATIVES and historians
can delve through the hallowed
records of one of the bravest
– and least known – units in Royal
Navy history via their computers.
The 63rd (Royal Naval)
Division, the brainchild of
Winston Churchill, fought with
distinction in the Dardanelles and
on the Western Front throughout
the Great War.
The future premier ranked
the sailor-soldiers – the division
was formed from RN reservists
with no draft appointment at the
outbreak of war in 1914 – among
“that glorious company of the
seven or eight most famous
divisions” in the British Army.
Although the men fought
alongside Tommies, they
maintained their unique RN
identity, upholding naval ranks,
naval customs and naval speak.
More than 50,000 men served
in the division during the 1914-18
war; more than 10,000 of them
perished.
Now historians at the National
Archive in Kew and from social
history website have loaded
thousands of records on to the
Internet for the public to scour.
The ancestry.co.uk team has
provided the division’s casualty
list, accompanied in some cases
by extracts from letters, diaries
and memories from those killed.
Among the division’s 10,200
dead was former insurance
clerk David Robertson, killed
in Gallipoli in 1915, who found
death pre-occupied many
of his comrades during the
bungled campaign to force the
Dardanelles.
He asked a petty offi cer what
he planned to do after the war.
“He said rather apologetically that
Life is a
he was going to be killed the fi rst
time he went into action.
“On June 5 I had to see about
our rations. When I got back
about three hours later I found
that this same petty offi cer... had
been killed four minutes after I
Clydeoscope
had left – our fi rst casualty, by
a stray bullet through the head,
unaimed, unintended, a dropping
shot of the kind hardly ever
fatal, a chance in a million, and
foreseen with absolute clarity
eight months before.”
... NOT a cabaret, as Liza Minnelli sang. Anyway, patrol The records held at Kew are
ship HMS Clyde has left the Falklands behind for the
the individual service records
fi rst time... and paid her inaugural visit to South Georgia
of the men who fought with
by doing so.
the division. Those personal
papers include details such as
The South Atlantic “South Georgia is
person’s occupation, religion,
guardship is coming a breathtaking place –
awards, medical issues and any
to the end of her first rugged, carved mountains,
distinguishing features such as
six months around the glaciers, greenery, snow-
tattoos.
Falkland Islands – and covered peaks.
You can delve into the casualty
has spent most of the “It’s home to some
records at www.ancestry.co.uk/
time getting to know of the most unspoiled
search/db.aspx?dbid=1252
the people and the natural sights in the
Individual service records
environs. world.”
can be found at www.
And once On a more
nationalarchives.gov.
thoroughly sombre note, back
uk/documentsonline/
acquainted with the in Falkland waters,
royalnavaldivision.asp
dependency, she bade the ship hosted six
them farewell for ten veterans of destroyer
days in the even more HMS Glamorgan, badly
isolated surroundings of damaged in the war with War, what is
South Georgia – another outpost Argentina a quarter of a century
ago.
● Clyde approaches tanker RFA Gold Rover at speed for a replenishment at sea
of Empire the River-class warship
Pictures: WO2 Matt Adams, HMS Clyde
is charged with safeguarding. Glamorgan was the only ship to it good for?
Eight men from the Scots survive an Exocet attack – but the
Guards, the Army unit currently missile still claimed the lives of 14 WELL, passing a couple of
deployed to the Falklands, plus ship’s company. hours apparently...
a two-strong Explosive Ordnance The half dozen Glamorgan BLACK SWAN CLASS 1943 Forces TV viewers overturned
Replica representative model, measuring 10.5”, hand cast in metal and hand painted,
Disposal team, joined Clyde for veterans paid their respects to a vote by the British public
presented on a wooden plinth 12” x 3” with brass nameplate and hand made gift box.
the trip to South Georgia. their comrades by casting a wreath when Channel 4 searched for
The key aim of the mission into the South Atlantic. the 100 Greatest War Films.
HMS BLACK SWAN, FLAMINGO, ERNE, IBIS, WHIMBREL, WILD GOOSE, WOODCOCK, was to ensure fishery regulations As for Clyde, she’s slowly BFBS polled serving
WOODPECKER, WREN, ACTAEON, ALACRITY, AMETHYST, CHANTICLEER, CRANE, CYGNET,
around the island were being becoming a ‘firm fixture’ in the personnel and their families,
HART, HIND, KITE, LAPWING, LARK, MAGPIE, MERMAID, MODESTE, NEREIDE, OPOSSUM,
complied with. Falklands. Islanders became very as well as senior officers to
But there were also plenty of attached to her predecessors Leeds find the Forces top big-screen
PEACOCK, PHEASANT, REDPOLE, SNIPE, SPARROW and HMS STARLING (PICTURED)
opportunities to get ashore... and and Dumbarton Castles. military epic.
fill those photograph albums. In time, the same will be said of C4 viewers put Saving Private
The soldiers were dropped Clyde; for one in ten Falklanders Ryan in the top spot.
off to carry out patrols, while has already trotted aboard (an Today’s sailors, soldiers and
Clyde sailed around the various open day in the capital Stanley airmen prefer Michael Caine
£75.00
abandoned whaling stations, saw 270 people visit the ship). fending off the hordes in Zulu.
+£8.00 p&p
avoiding several hundred icebergs Clyde has also conducted her (Thousands of ’em voted – Ed.)
UK Only
(including one two miles wide). first major exercise with islands- The 1964 classic nudged
The last port of call was tiny Bird based forces, serving as the Spielberg’s Normandy tale into
Island (so named because of its command post for a joint exercise second spot with A Bridge Too
plethora of feathered inhabitants) and landing and extracting Far ranked third.
at the northwestern tip of South troops from beaches around West Thankfully, things nautical
Georgia for a lightning visit to Falkland. weren’t entirely absent from
a British Antarctic Survey post, With the first six months south the top 20. The Cruel Sea was
home to four scientists eager for of the equator now just about up, voted ninth-best, while Das
contact with the outside world. Clyde’s sailors are coming home, Boot claimed the number 14
After the rugged terrain of the even if the ship herself is not. position.
Falklands, South Georgia proved The ship’s company is rotated Former Chief of the General
To order your model send your name, address and daytime telephone number,
to be a very welcome change for twice a year using the pool of Staff Sir Mike Jackson couldn’t
along with your cheque or credit card details (visa/mastercard) to:
Clyde’s ship’s company. sailors in the Fishery Protection decide from The Longest Day,
Skytrex Ltd, Unit 1 Charnwood Business Park, North Road,Loughborough,
“Animal life is in such abundance Squadron. A Bridge Too Far and Saving
that wherever you point a camera, As for Clyde, she will remain
Leicestershire LE11 1LE Tel: 01509 213789 Fax: 01509 230874
Private Ryan, while First Sea
you’re almost guaranteed to in the South Atlantic until at least Lord Admiral Sir Jonathon
email: sales@skytrex.com www.skytrex.com catch a penguin, seal, sea bird or 2012 under the lease deal the Band plumped for Tora! Tora!
PLEASE ALLOW UP TO 28 DAYS FOR DELIVERY
reindeer,” said Operations Officer Royal Navy has with her builders, Tora! (Excellent film – Asst Ed),
Lt Gavin Lowe. VT Group. which didn’t make the top 20.
0022_NN_Mar.indd 122_NN_Mar.indd 1 220/2/08 11:56:090/2/08 11:56:09
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