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This is a personal home page
about my father's Royal Naval career during the Second
World War. I realised in 1997 that I knew very little
about that period in his life and also discovered that
WWII Royal Naval information on the Web was not very
comprehensive.
I decided, as a result, to put together
a site dealing with the ships he was on and to add
personal anecdotes as they surfaced from the depths of
his memory. This is a period he finds hard to recall;
to be honest, I think he has repressed most of the
horror. Dad was 80 in December last year.
I encourage others to embark on a similar undertaking
as the numbers with first hand experience of this
period are ever diminishing.
If anyone can add any details, photos or personal
stories on my dad's ships, please
e-mail me. Any feedback
is appreciated.
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Updated: 01-12-01
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Pictures and personal memories from my dad Victor
Johns (C/JX154353) will be added from time to time,
so feel free to drop anchor here again. He readily
admits, though, that at the age of 80 he sometimes
can't remember why he went upstairs!
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My father sadly threw away his Navy Service
Record, listing at what dates he was on these
ships, together with many wonderful photos. All is not
lost, however, as I'm trying to rekindle his 80 year
old memory and obtained a copy of his Service Record.
The following section, concerning research, may be of
use to others in a similar situation:
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By law, all Admiralty documents dealing with
events which occurred more than thirty years ago, and
which have been considered worthy of permanent
preservation, are held in the custody of the Public
Record Office. The Research section gives some
pointers.
Photographs are what bring this period to life.
There's not much on the Web; good naval books are out
of print and hard to find; family albums are ... family
albums and, no doubt, many end up being thrown away. My
dad threw away many photos when I was a small boy
thinking that no one would show any interest in them!
My Photo page provides some sources.
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The Links pages take you to other destinations but as
I've added target="blank" they will open in a
new window - You can't jump ship that easily!.
I'm also a builder (cough, cough, collector?) of
plastic models. I've got the usual planes and tanks
etc., but since starting this naval site about my dad
in September 1997, I'm trying to get models of his
ships.
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Once again, if anyone can add any details, photos or
personal stories on my dad's ships, please e-mail me. I would also
like to hear from anyone who has details of
associations or reunions for the ships that my dad was
on.
Gavin Johns (Vice-Admirable ;-)
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 sailors
have been on board this ship since September 1997.
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The guestbook contains hundreds of messages and in many ways has
taken over the function of the notice board. If you have a
request for something I suggest you make an entry there. The
server is based in Greece so it may be slow on occasions.
These links show all kinds of visitor statistics:
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Installed 16th May 1998.
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Installed 27th June 1999
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