Can anyone identify censor and HM Ship?
I have received the following enquiry:
I collect flown covers from and to New Zealand and recently obtained a HM Ship censored cover dated 7 June 1944. The name and date of the censor is included on the tombstone. I would value your support to identify the ship if that is possible.
Can anyone decipher the censor’s name and allocate him to a naval ship please?
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Thank you Nick - as you say a possible answer.
Warlow's book "Shore Establishments of the Royal Navy" does list HMS St Barbara:
ST BARBARA Bognor Regis, AA Range
Commissioned 1.9.1943 Paid Off 14.6.1945
Nominal Depot Ship: 14 foot sailing dinghy no 1382 1.9.1943 -
I have also found the following:
https://bognorregistrails.co.uk/trails/bognor-regis-blue-plaque-trail/
HMS Barbara - Memorial Stone
At the front of the pier, a plaque commemorates the role of the pier in WW2 when the pier was named HMS St Barbara for gunnery training with anti aircraft guns. During the war part of the pier sub-structure was cut, and a rope bridge built to connect the gun emplacement at the seaward end to the landward end. The rebuilding of this section after the war is thought to have been a cause of weakness in the pier’s structure due to low quality steel available after the war. Storms in 1965, 1999, and 2008 resulted in the loss of major parts of the seaward end of the pier.