26 NAVY NEWS, AUGUST 2008
Woking
Picton Castle still roams the oceans
celebrates
THERE is nothing quite like the sight of a She is believed to have served in the North bearing 12,500 square feet of sail, were added.
Royal Navy minesweeper in full sail, the canvas Sea and the Channel, but after returning to The 300-ton barque, now a sail training tall
billowing from the yards. civilian service she became a freighter around ship, is currently on a 12-month voyage which
Yes, that’s right, a square-rigged Royal Navy Scandinavia and the Baltic, then left to rot in will see her circle the Atlantic, and the owners
silver
minesweeping barque. a Norwegian fjord until she was spotted by are keen that any veterans who might have
Built in 1928 in Yorkshire as the motor Captain Daniel Moreland in the early 1990s. sailed in her during the war, or their families,
fishing trawler Picton Castle, she was brought She was put back into working order and know that the old ship has plenty of life left in
WOKING branch celebrate their into the Royal Navy in World War 2 as a sailed across the Atlantic, where an extensive her yet.
silver jubilee with a dinner and minesweeper and armed escort. refit saw a clipper bow added and three masts, www.picton-castle.com
marina
cabaret at the Holiday Inn,
Woking.
More than 100 members
and guests attended, the guest
of honour being the Mayor of
Woking, Cllr Bryan Cross, on one
of his last official duties before
handing over to his successor. Former Sparrows
Branch secretary S/M Rod
Fraser, the only remaining founder
Wizard’s
member, said that the branch had
collected more than £600,000 for
local and Service charities over the
25 years.
The mayor replied that he was
proud of the fact that he had
fly back to Namsos
brew is
on a number of occasions been
tribute to
involved with the RNA during his
term of office, and praised the way
THREE members of the
April 30. crew of the stricken Rutlandshire of 200 trawlers, drifters and the
members became involved in the 68 years ago until they could be like, many of them decades old,
community.
Royal Naval Patrol Service
The wrecks of HMT
Rutlandshire and sloop HMS picked up by the Royal Navy. ‘Harry Tate’s Navy’ (named after
fathers
After dinner and presentations, (RNPS) Association Bittern, in which 20 sailors died, Their story was retold by the luddite music hall star) grew
Shep Woolley entertained members
Midlands branch joined a were also acknowledged. Forbes Wilson, the grandson of
to become a force of 66,000 plus
THE wartime exploits of two
and guests with naval songs and the Commanding Officer of the men and women and 2,000 ships
Servicemen, one British and one
trips down Memory Lane, many
group of British veterans
The folllowing day – Norway’s
Rutlandshire. by 1945.
American, have been celebrated in
involving runs ashore.
who travelled to Norway to
National Day – started with a
children’s parade, followed by Among the other ships They could be found from
the form of special beers.
pay homage to those who ceremonies at the Norwegian, represented on the trip were HMS the frozen Arctic to the Pacific,
A young American soldier,
Redruth stall is
took part in the Norwegian
British, Russian and French Mohawk, HMS Afridi, HMTY sweeping channels into Allied
Holger Holm, was released after
Lord Astin, as well as an ex-RAF ports or clearing the way for
more than three years in Japanese
just the ticket
campaign in 1940.
memorials.
flight sergeant who was shot down attacks, including D-Day.
prisoner-of-war camps, and his
The trio – association
Later that day Alf Baker, on
behalf of the RNPT, was invited during a raid on the Tirpitz in The Norway campaign involved
secret diary noted that he was
MEMBERS of Redruth and
secretary John Hodge, Alf
to unveil the ship’s bells of Aston March 1942. 30 trawlers, of which 14 were lost
picked up by the RN destroyer
Camborne branch manned a
Baker and Arthur Young – were Villa, Gaul and Rutlandshire, The memorial in Namsos was through air attacks.
HMS Wizard, which gave him and
successful tombola stall during
among the 13 who were invited which had been recovered from unveiled in 2000, and names
The CO of HMS Arab, Lt
his colleagues food and clothes.
Redruth’s Murdoch Day by the Mayor of Namsos to
the fjord. the ships Afridi, Bittern, Maori, Richard Stannard RNR, won the
On board Wizard was a young
Welsh seaman John Medford,
celebrations, in honour of Scottish commemorate the destruction
And the ceremonials were Grenade, Arab, Gaul, Aston second Victoria Cross of the war,
whose diary noted that the ship
engineer and inventor William
of the town in April 1940 by
rounded off with a public parade Villa, Rutlandshire, St Goran and and a further two DSOs and five
“picked up 250 yanks.”
Murdoch, who lived in the town
in which some of the British Carlisle, as well as Army units DSMs were awarded to the men
German bombers. In 2003 a member of the HMS
in the late 18th Century.
visitors got to ride in a 1904 involved in the campaign. of Arab and Aston Villa.
The following day members,
The party were met by their
Cadillac once owned by the King The RNPT was set up in 1939 Overall, more than 5,000 men
Wizard/HMS Cadiz Association
including the branch’s two
hosts in Trondheim, then
of Norway. with an HQ at Lowestoft known of the RNPT died during the war
saw details of Holger Holm’s war
standard bearers, took part in the
travelled the 100 miles or
Otteroy was the destination on as the Sparrows Nest. _ almost half with no known grave
service on the Internet, written by
Civil Parade to Redruth parish so to Namsos, stopping at
the group’s penultimate day; the From an initial 6,000 – and 475 ships never returned
Holm’s son Vern, and alerted John
church. the Tirpitz memorial on the
island provided shelter for the fisherman and an eclectic mix to port.
Medford’s widow Ady, which ledto
Having ‘lost’ stalwart S/M Bob way.
a transatlantic correspondence.
Vern and his wife Bonnie own
Saxby, who has moved north,
The following day the party took the Blue Stem Winery in Iowa,
S/M David Russell made his
debut, with S/M Dave Kennedy
a boat trip down the Namsenfjord, and started producing home-
carrying the Royal British Legion
and on the return journey the made beer kits named after Holger
standard.
boat stopped over the wrecks of Holm’s war exploits.
the anti-submarine trawlers HMT Vern decided to make a beer kit
MBE for David
Aston Villa (badly damaged by
in honour of HMS Wizard, and the
German dive bombers on April 30
name was a fairly straightforward
1940 in Kroken Bay and scuttled
choice, given the ship’s badge
SHIPMATES throughout the
three days later) and HMT Gaul
(above).
Association have expressed their
(sunk on May 3 1940 by German
The HMS Wizard Magic Circle
pleasure at the news that the RNA
dive bombers in Kroken Bay).
Ale kit duly arrived in Bristol,
National Chairman, S/M David
A short service was held over
where John Medford’s son Graeme
White, was awarded an MBE in
the wreck of HMT St Goran, in
and a friend, Simon Bartlett – who
the Queen’s Birthday Honours
List.
which five people died before she
happens to own the Bristol Beer
was abandoned after an attack on
factory – brewed, bottled, labelled
and delivered 50 bottles.
The beer went down a treat at
the Wizard/Cadiz reunion earlier
this year, particularly with S/M
Ted Purbrick, who recalls seeing
the American PoWs arriving on
board in 1945.
● Rough seas approaching Sydney Harbour – but none of the Area 12 members were particularly
bothered, as theyt were half a world away from Australia. The area held its quarterly meeting in Cork as
Ady Medford now wonders if
guests of the Cork and County branch, which enabled some of them to put in some sea time. That was
another episode in Wizard’s career,
provided by the National Maritime College of Ireland, commissioned in 2003 for the training of mariners
the transportation of 158 bars of
across the board. The offi cer who set up the visit and hosted the meeting was Cdr Mark Mellet, of the
gold from Australia to the UK,
Irish Navy, who trained at Dartmouth and served in RN ships
should also be commemorasho ted.
Painting up for grabs
S/M VIC Taylor has joined the
The picture was handed to
Eastern Cyprus branch – and
branch chairman’s wife Jean
immediately got stuck in with a
Hirst, one of the group’s main
fundraising project.
fundraisers.
Vic, formerly of Plymouth,
The painting will either be
presented his new branch
auctioned or entered into the
with an oil painting of Type 42
branch Christmas draw, at the
destroyer HMS Manchester
request of S/M Vic, with the
charging through a choppy sea.
proceeds going to the branch.
Anyone interested in making
● Vic Taylor hands the painting a bid to obtain the painting
to Eastern Cyprus branch should contact chairman S/M
chairman’s wife Jean Hirst Eric Hirst on 00357 2396 3235.
● Mystery pics – any idea where these locations are?
Where in the world was Edgar?
PICTURED above is Edgar forehead, and later died of a brain
Chatwin Spedding, standing on haemorrhage in hospital.
some distinctive rock formations. Bryan, who was six months
Bryan Spedding would like to old when his father died, was
know where they were taken, as told by his late mother that the
they are the only photos he has of pictures were taken in Gibraltar,
his father. but having been there and spoken
Edgar died in November 1936 to local experts they dispute this,
following an accident during a and suggested it may heave been
football match in Devonport, in South Africa.
when he was playing for a team If anyone can shed some light
from HMS Tenedos. on the location, please contact
The leading signalman was Bryan at bryanspedding@
accidentally kicked in the btinternet.com
0026-028_NN_aug.indd 126-028_NN_aug.indd 1 114/7/08 10:45:564/7/08 10:45:56
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