Meeting Report 7th June.
- Nick Colley
- Jul 19, 2025
- 3 min read
7th June 2025 - “HMS India - The men who sailed in her and who survived her” with guest speaker Rebecca Clarke; in the afternoon Members’ displays with a naval theme
This was the story, told through a selection of letters and photographs about a relative, Engine Room Artificer Richard Arnold Clarke (her husband’s grandfather). He had signed up for service in World War 1 on 5 September 1914 thinking that he would be trained and sent to the front but his training in engineering meant that he was enlisted in the Royal Navy to work in ships engine rooms. He was onboard the cruiser HMS India when it was torpedoed by a German U-boat on 8 August 1915 off the coast of northern Norway and was then interned in neutral Norway for three years. Rebecca became the family archivist for the collection amassed by her husband’s great aunts - Arnold’s sisters and from that she compiled this fascinating and entertaining display of both a slide show and actual items (letters, photographs, etc). Rebecca has written a book on the subject “A Bare Chronicle of Existence - Stories and Letters from Internment in Norway during WW1”. You can find more on her website at www.hmsindia.info.
Part 2 - afternoon displays by members with a naval theme:
Graham Mark with material relating to German naval officers captured during WW1.
Lorraine Maguire with a few sheets on New Zealand naval personnel during WW2.
Richard Berry FRPSL with a few sheets from the late Ed Hall collection showing mail from Greek and Norwegian navies in Egypt and French ships interned in Egypt during WW2; also some material to/from Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS) personnel based in Australia around VJ Day.
Malcolm Cole who gave a short display on the subject of "Q Ships", basically armed merchant vessels fitted out at Queenstown, Ireland as decoy ships in the fight against U-boats in WWI. These "Q ships" had naval guns hidden behind wooden sheets or tarpaulins which would be lowered when the U-boat was within range. One cover illustrated the "Q ship" Barralong which was involved in an unseemly incident - nowadays classed as a war crime. The final sheet was a postcard of the first ever purpose-built Q Ship HMS Hyderabad, with an ingenious bomb thrower. However, HMS Hyderabad never saw active service.
Geoff Hanney who had three sheets on USS naval ships in Haitian waters in late 1930s.
The final display came from Michael Dobbs FRPSL who showed a few sheets of WW1 Naval post and censor marks; mail from various numbered Naval Parties (1002, 1009 & 8901); a registered cover with an MM registration label from 1945 and a small selection of Falklands war covers and photos as well as listings of ships involved in the campaign (HMS & RFA vessels, Ships taken up from trade (STUFT) as well as NAS units).
