The loss of the destroyer HMS HUNTER during the First Battle of Narvik. One of her officers is remembered in Ilminster cemetery, South Somerset.

I have taken many a walk over and around Beacon Hill on the outskirts of Ilminster in South Somerset.  There are views to enjoy toward the Blackdown Hills to the south-west, the Quantock Hills beyond Taunton, and the Mendip Hills to the north.  I sometimes take the footpath alongside the B3168 toward Ilminster which passes the town’s cemetery on the western slopes of Beacon Hill.  Close to the railings which border the cemetery is the grave of members of the Maidlow family, the headstone has a number of memorial inscriptions one of which reads:

 ‘H.R.M. ‘Dick’ / Lt. R.N. / killed at Narvik / 1917-1940’

A little research revealed that this intriguing inscription was in memory of Henry Richard Mundon Maidlow who was killed while serving as a Lieutenant on board the destroyer HMS HUNTER during the First Battle of Narvik.

HMS HUNTER was an ‘H’ class destroyer of 1,340 tons built by Swan Hunter and completed in the autumn of 1936.  She was capable of 35.5 knots and had a main armament of four 4.7in guns and eight 21in torpedo tubes.

Having already been active in the Norwegian Campaign, HUNTER took part in the First Battle of Narvik on 10 April 1940.  The action commenced at 0430hrs.  Opening fire and launching torpedoes, HUNTER and 4 of her sister ships from the Second Flotilla attacked German destroyers and merchant ships in the port of Narvik on the shores of Ofotfjorden.  Six merchant ships were sunk, as were two German destroyers with three further destroyers damaged.  As the British ships withdrew, the remaining German destroyers fought back damaging HMS HARDY so severely she had to be run aground whilst HUNTER was hit by gunfire and then collided with the also damaged HMS HOTSPUR.  HUNTER subsequently sank while HOTSPUR managed to escape with the help of the other two destroyers HMS HAVOCK and HMS HOSTILE.  As the British ships withdrew they came upon the German ammunition supply ship RAUENFELS which was engaged and sunk. 

Of HUNTER'S crew of 145, 107 men were killed, the survivors being rescued from the freezing waters by German destroyers; 5 more men died of wounds later.  Amongst those lost 78 years ago today was Lt. Maidlow.  He is remembered on the Plymouth Naval Memorial and also in Ilminster’s Church of St. Mary, together with 29 others, on a memorial tablet with the words “ILMINSTER ROLL OF HONOUR.  THIS TABLET IS ERECTED TO THE MEMORY OF THE SONS OF ILMINSTER WHO SACRIFICED THEIR LIVES ON ACTIVE SERVICE DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR 1939-1945”.

The Ancient Mariner and Yankee Jack on The Esplanade overlooking Watchet Marina on the Somerset Coast.

It was a pleasant April day – pleasant days have been a rarity so far this year – so my wife and I decided on an afternoon drive up the A358 toward Watchet on the coast of Somerset.  The road was not very busy at all so it was an enjoyable saunter to Williton viewing the Quantock Hills to our right and the Brendon Hills to our left.

In Watchet we left the car in the spacious car park off Market Street and headed, in welcome sunshine, for The Esplanade.  The splendid life size statues of The Ancient Mariner and Yankee Jack, both by Scottish sculptor Alan Beattie Herriot, are in proportion to their surroundings and are an asset to the area overlooking The Marina.  Another pleasing sculpture was Watchet’s war memorial, next to the Library, which has a cross and inscription panel supported by a pier of sandbags – an unusual, but somehow fitting design.  After enjoying the view from The Esplanade we spent some time in the small, but extremely informative and well-presented Museum before heading out along the harbour wall to the lighthouse.

By the time we reached the lighthouse it was beginning to get a little chilly so as we headed back to the car we decided to search for something to eat.  On turning into Swain Street from Market Street we found Sam’s Deli, and a couple of warm sausage rolls served by a friendly and obliging young woman and man.

After a very agreeable afternoon in Watchet we headed on along the B3191 to Blue Anchor to re-join the A39 for Williton, then home to South Somerset.  

 

The statue of The Ancient Mariner on The Esplanade in Watchet, Somerset.

The Ancient Mariner on The Esplanade overlooking the Marina and Harbour at Watchet on the coast of Somerset. 

The Ancient Mariner.

The words on the plaque at the base of the Statue tell the tale.

“This statue was commissioned in 2002 by the Watchet Market House Museum Society.  It was sculpted by Alan B. Herriot of Penicuik, Scotland and erected in 2003 as a tribute to Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

This renowned poet resided for some years at the nearby village of Nether Stowey.  In 1797, whilst on a walking tour, Coleridge visited Watchet.  On seeing the harbour he was inspired to compose one of the best known poems in English literature, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”.”

The statue of John Short ("Yankee Jack") on The Esplanade in Watchet, Somerset.

Yankee Jack.

An information board on The Esplanade tells the story of the life of Yankee Jack.  Here are a few paragraphs from that story.

“JOHN SHORT (“YANKEE JACK”), 1839-1933”

"The adjacent statue was erected as a tribute to John Short, Watchet’s famous shantyman.  For over 40 years as able seaman and later as bos’un he sailed the world in a great variety of sailing ships.  In the 1860s some of John’s ships ran the blockade in the American Civil War and because of this he was affectionately awarded the nickname of “Yankee Jack” by Watchet townsfolk.

It was a tradition aboard large sailing ships for sailors to sing sea shanties.  This assisted them to work together when hoisting sails or walking around the capstan etc.  John Short’s strong and tuneful voice often led him to take the role of solo shantyman, and over the years he memorised the words and tunes of dozens of shanties, including the well-known Rio Grande, Shenandoah, Blow the Man Down, A Roving and Spanish Ladies. 

In 1902 he was appointed as Watchet’s Town Crier and later took charge of the town’s fire brigade.  He continued to sing with other sailors around the harbourside and occasionally at local concerts.

In 1914, at the age of 75, he was introduced by the Reverend Dr. Allen Brockington, of nearby Carhampton, to Cecil Sharp, an eminent collector of folk songs and shanties.  Sharp was very impressed with the old sailor’s singing and declared that “John Short’s rich, powerful, yet flexible voice would excite the envy of many a professional vocalist”.   

Later Sir Richard Terry, another distinguished collector, visited John to gather and publish yet more shanties from his repertoire.  Had these two renowned gentlemen not met “Yankee Jack” many delightful old songs of the sailors could have been lost for ever."

"Did the RAF win World War Two?" asks the April 2018 issue of BBC History Magazine.

“Did the RAF win World War Two?” asks the front page cover title of the April 2018 issue of BBC History Magazine.  I know this month sees the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Royal Air Force and that it played a vital role in defeating Nazi Germany, but I think such a cover title is just a little bit over the top.  After all, it could be more easily argued that the war in Europe was won by the Russian Army and the US Eighth Air Force.  The Russian Army won a decisive victory at Kursk in the summer of 1943 and began its inexorable advance west.   The bombers and fighters of the Eighth Air Force achieved air superiority over Germany in the spring of 1944 allowing the destruction of German industry and the crippling of the Luftwaffe.

The BBC History Magazine editors may as well ask if the Royal Navy’s British Pacific Fleet, the most powerful fleet Britain ever sent into battle, won the war against Japan.  It achieved much, and not without sacrifice, but the American Army and Navy were well capable of dealing with the Japanese on their own.

Incidentally, another attention seeking question on the front page of the same magazine asks: “Brunel: is his genius a myth?”  What next I wonder?  Perhaps a cover title, “Winston Churchill: the Tony Blair of the 1940s?”

UPDATE 28th May 2018.
I am pleased to say I had a letter, based on the above post, published in the June edition of BBC History Magazine.  It was nicely edited and I reproduce the letter as it appeared.

Did the RAF really win the war?

How the RAF Won the War, read the title of your April cover feature.  Now, I know this year marks the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Royal Air Force, and that the RAF played a vital role in defeating the Nazis, but I thought that title was a bit over the top.  After all, it could be easily argued that the war in Europe was won by the Russian Army or the United States Army Air Forces. 

The Russian army won a decisive victory at Kursk in the summer of 1943, before beginning its inexorable advance west.   And the bombers and fighters of USAAF’s Eighth Air Force achieved daylight air superiority over Germany in the spring of 1944, ensuring the virtual absence of the Luftwaffe during the Normandy landings, and the eventual destruction of Germany’s war industries by bombing.

As for the Far East, one may as well ask if the Royal Navy’s British Pacific Fleet - the most powerful fleet Britain ever sent into battle - won the war against Japan.  It achieved much, and not without sacrifice, but I suspect the American army and navy were well capable of dealing with the Japanese forces on their own!

S.W., Somerset

An angel watches over a lane leading to Felton Common in North Somerset.

Just north of Bristol Airport on the A38 at Lulsgate Bottom is the road east to Felton, Winford and Chew Magna.  Take that road and 100 yards past the cattle grid you will see on your right a lane lined by aged beech trees which leads to St. Katharine’s Church and Felton Common.

Standing at the entrance to the lane is a striking statue of an angel looking skywards.  It was carved from a dying beech tree by Gloucestershire artist Ant Beetlestone in 2010.

An angel watches over a lane leading to Felton Common in North Somerset.

The angel carved from a beech tree at Felton Common in North Somerset. 

Robin Tilbrook's speech at the English Democrats Party Spring Conferance in Huntingdon.

In part of his speech on the 10th March to the English Democrats’ Spring Conference in Huntingdon, Robin Tilbrook gave his view of the current state of the Conservatives and Labour.  Here is the relevant section on Labour:

"Turning to Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour, the massive majority of Blairite  Remainiacs in the Labour Parliamentary Party has fully pushed Jeremy Corbyn into adopting a more pro-EU position that is on remaining within the Customs Union.

 

Coming out of the Customs Union is vital if there is to be any agreements with any other nations.  If we are in the Customs Union, not only can we not reach agreements with other nations on trade, but also the other nations wouldn’t even be interested in talking to us because they would know that they can trade with us by dealing with the EU and we would have to obey what the EU decides. 

So this is a troubling change of position on the part of Jeremy Corbyn but it illustrates something that has been happening within Labour for a long time, which is that Labour’s elite has been losing touch with its core traditional vote, or, as they call it the “White Working Class”, or as I would call it “English Workers”.  Our candidate for the South Yorkshire Mayoralty, David Allen, memorably and pithily put it in a recent BBC interview that Labour are “traitors to the English working class”. 

 More and more English people are realising that Labour is outright hostile to England and to English interests. 

 Labour now is an internationalist and increasingly metropolitan, statist and multi-culturalist party.  This is the same trajectory as all the Social Democrat parties across Western Europe.  The result across Western Europe has been that Social Democrat parties are no longer supported by their country’s working class.  So, for instance, in the recent French elections, we saw that French working class voters mostly supported the Front Nationale and not the middle class ideological obsessives of the French Social Democrat parties.  As the Doncaster MP, Caroline Flint put it that Labour’s “Sister Party” in France was reduced to 6%.

 I fully expect that, with the Blairites in Parliament, and with Jeremy Corbyn’s small parliamentary support group of Far-Left MPs, and with their middle class supporters in Momentum etc. that the divide between the Labour Party and its traditional support will grow eventually into an unbridgeable chasm.  We can only look forward to that day!"

For Robin Tilbrook’s speech in full, here is a link:

https://robintilbrook.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/my-speech-to-english-democrats-spring.html

My own view is that left wing parties such as the Green Party and the smaller Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition seem to be haemorrhaging support to Labour, or perhaps that should be Momentum/Labour.  Be that as it may, it does seem to me that Labour is obsessed with promoting ‘diversity’ and ‘multiculturalism’.  Such a stance goes hand in hand with their relaxed policy on immigration.  

Meanwhile the Tories' cavalier attitude to immigration provides an everlasting supply of employees for their friends and supporters in business while keeping wages down into the bargain. 

In these circumstances it is hardly surprising that the interests of the English working class take a back seat.

The Conservatives, as far as I can see, do not seem be very conservative.  I can’t think of anything they are actually conserving except perhaps the riches of the financial elite.  If the Conservatives were a product I would report them to the Advertising Standards Agency!

Incidentally, Robin Tilbrook summed up the Liberal Democrats as having: "Shrunk into almost a total permanent irrelevance" - who could argue with that?

A snowy scene in a South Somerset garden.

After 18 hours of snow showers in South Somerset there is almost as much snow in the garden
as on March 2nd.  I thought it was supposed to be spring!

A snowy scene in a South Somerset garden on March 18th.

The loss of the light cruiser HMS BONAVENTURE. One of her crew is remembered at Christ Church in the village of Redhill, North Somerset.

Not far from my great-grandparents grave in the churchyard of Christ Church in the North Somerset village of Redhill is the grave of John Edward Reynolds and his wife Elizabeth.  I have always been intrigued by a modest memorial inscription on their grave which reads: “ALSO IN MEMORY OF THEIR GRANDSON EDWARD ARTHUR HUGHES R.N. KILLED IN ACTION 31 MARCH 1941 AGED 21 YEARS”.  As he died during the Second World War I thought it might be possible to find out how he came to lose his life.

My research revealed that Edward Arthur Hughes was a telegraphist serving aboard the light cruiser HMS BONAVENTURE when she was torpedoed 100 miles south of the island of Crete during the ill-fated British attempt to help Greece resist German attack in the spring of 1941.   

BONAVENTURE was a Dido class cruiser of 5,600 tons with a speed of 33 knots and armed with eight 5.25in guns in twin turrets.  The ship entered service with the Royal Navy on June 19th 1940. 

By January 1941 BONAVENTURE was operating in the Mediterranean where on March 1st she joined the 3rd Cruiser Squadron which was taking part in Operation LUSTRE, the transfer of British military forces to Greece. 

On 31st March 1941 at 0300 hrs, while heading for Alexandria as part of the escort for convoy GA008, BONAVENTURE was hit by two torpedoes fired by the Italian submarine AMBRA and sank within 6 minutes.  The destroyers HMS HEREWARD and HMAS STUART rescued 310 of her crew of 480, but 139 men were lost, among them Edward Arthur Hughes.  He was the son of Arthur Thomas Hughes and Bessie Sophia Hughes of Clifton, Bristol. 

This month sees the 77th anniversary of the loss of BONAVENTURE. 

Telegraphist Hughes is remembered on the Plymouth Naval Memorial.