Archive - Personal Records & Papers

Royal Navy Service Record of Robert (Bob) John Sharplin

Royal Navy Official Number: KX80024
Port Division: Chatham
Service Period: 8th July 1929 – 12th February 1953

Research by his son - Clive Sharplin.

Bob in his “Whites”
Photo: Sharplin family archive

Click on this link to view quality scanned images of original Admiralty documents detailing Bob’s career from his entering the Royal Navy on 8 July 1929 until his retirement and release on 12 February 1953.

View the gallery of images here.

Click on any image and then scroll through the gallery. Every image is accompanied by a descriptive caption beneath it.

Biography

Bob Sharplin

On 4th June 1929, a slim dark haired young man with a fresh complexion and green eyes stood in the Royal Navy recruiting post in the Medway Towns situated in the county of Kent. He was about 5’ 5” tall, a butcher’s boy who had probably propped his bicycle against the wall outside. He had just volunteered and committed himself to serve his King by signing on to join the Royal Navy for the next twelve years. Little did he know that world events would lengthen that to 23½ years and a major part of his life. It was his eighteenth birthday! Did he know of the strange coincidence in that his paternal Grandfather, John George Sharplin, had signed up two generations earlier on his eighteenth birthday to join the Royal Navy?

Bob - The New Recruit
July 1929, believed to be at his Gillingham home.
Photo: Sharplin family archive

Some four weeks later Bob entered the ornate main gate of HMS Pembroke, the Royal Navy Barracks in Chatham, to commence his training where he was rated as a Stoker 2nd Class. That young man, Robert John Sharplin known to everyone as Bob, was to become father to Clive, this author, and his sister Wendy.

Bob was born 4th June 1911 in Gillingham, Kent, into a family with strong ties with the Royal Navy. His elder brother Percy volunteered to spend an identical period of service in the Royal Navy. Their father, Percy Edwin had volunteered (Note 1) for the Royal Navy serving for over five years during World War I, while their half brother Phillip was to become an Admiralty Diver based in Chatham Naval Dockyard. Bob’s grandfather, John George Sharplin born 12th May 1843, volunteered and joined the Royal Navy in 1861 and was a crew member aboard HMS Challenger on her almost four year circumnavigation of the world exploring the floors of the oceans. This voyage of exploration (Note 2) is now regarded as the Apollo Mission of its day equal in scientific importance to that of Charles Darwin’s voyage in HMS Beagle which provided critical evidence for Darwin's Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection. John was pensioned out of the service in May 1881. There is a record indicating that John’s paternal grandfather served in the Royal Navy under Admiral Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21st October 1805 but this has yet to be proven.

It seems the Sharplin family home was not a particularly happy one. Bob’s mother Eliza (nee West), whose father was a labourer in the Royal Naval Dockyard at Chatham, died of pernicious anaemia when Bob was eight. His father later married his second wife Rose (Note 3) who bore her husband a son, Philip. Bob gave the impression that he and his brother Percy never quite took to their step-mother while the extended family regarded her as being of an acrimonious disposition. Percy senior their father was a very strict disciplinarian whom Bob seldom spoke of apart from saying that he would thoroughly thrash his sons when he was the worse for drink which appears to have been a little too often. The emotional scar left on Bob was such that he never drank alcohol throughout his whole life, a difficult principle to abide by at times in the Navy.

Bob met his wife to be, Dorcas Hall, in Weymouth when his ship was anchored there for some now unknown naval event. Dorcas and her sister Rose were strolling around the sea front admiring the naval ships anchored in the bay. Bob’s son Clive remembers his mother describing it as “the fleet was in”. Dorcas, tall with long dark hair, very attractive in family photos of the time, nicknamed Darkie by her father, was there enjoying herself with her sister Rose. She was “in service” as it was called then as a house-maid to a Naval Commander and his family who lived somewhere nearby. The sisters came from a Dorset family named Hall. She had three brothers who were like peas-in-a-pod. All worked on the land, were all over 6ft tall, thin and wiry almost gangling in posture with long arms and very large hands but all softly spoken, gentle in nature and devoted family men. All three were to have large families themselves and thus the extended Hall family was then and still is  quite numerous around the Dorset / Wiltshire border region. The girls' maternal grandfather, Fred Dyer, was a railway engine driver obviously good at his job as he would drive the royal train on occasions in the West Country. Rose married one Oliver Nelson, also a regular Royal Navy man, a wireless operator who was destined to survive being sunk twice on the same voyage on one of the dreaded World War 2 convoys to Russia, firstly whilst being in an escort ship and secondly in the ship which had rescued him. He retired in the rank of Chief Petty Officer.



Bob & Dorcas’s Wedding 30 December 1933
Uniform of Mechanician 2^ndClass with 4 years Good Conduct chevron
Photo: Sharplin family archive

Dorcas and Bob married in Mere Parish Church in Wiltshire on 30 Dec 1933 then set up home in Gillingham in Kent where Bob was within cycling distance of the Royal Navy barracks, HMS Pembroke, situated next to the Chatham naval dockyard there. Their son Clive was born in the summer of 1936 followed by their daughter Wendy in the spring of 1943. A third child was lost by a miscarriage; Clive thinks that happened when he was aged about 10.

Dorcas hop picking in Kent
Thought to be 1933
Photo: Sharplin family archive

Both his children remember Bob as being away from home more often than he was there; Clive vividly remembers some aspects of life in England during World War 2 and some of his father’s absences as “very long”. Bob would rarely talk to anyone about his experiences at war, not even with his wife but Clive did learn much later that his father did unburden himself to an Aunt of his known to everyone as just “Aunt Doll (Lowdell)”. 

Describing himself as a “matelote” (from Old French meaning a sailor or from Old Norse a messmate) Bob became what in the Navy was called a “big ship man” serving virtually nearly all  of his sea time in cruisers and battleships. His earliest seagoing commission was in the world’s first ship to be purpose designed and built by any Navy as an aircraft carrier, HMS Hermes, in which he spent three years away from home in the Far East Fleet based on Hong Kong. During World War 2 he served in the Atlantic, Mediterranean and European theatres, being present at several of the key Royal Naval battles of that War such as the Malta Convoys, Matapan, Greece, Crete and D-Day. The post-war years saw him return to the Far East and venturing further to South Africa and Australia.

Like so many of his compatriots at the end of World War 2 he was offered a transfer into the Royal Australian Navy with a move to Sydney but eventually decided against it, a decision which Clive felt that Bob regretted later in life.



Bob in tropical kit. The back of this photo is marked "Bob. 1st commission overseas, HMS Hermes".
Hermes was based with the Far East Fleet based on Hong Kong.

Photo: Sharplin family archive



Bob as Petty Officer, rated Mechanician 1^st Class  with at least 8 years service denoted by two
Good Conduct chevrons.He would have worn this uniform upon joining HMS Ajax on 19 March 1940.
Taken at his Gillingham home.

Photo: Sharplin family archive

Bob was pensioned out of the Navy in February 1953 age 42 and soon after he and Dorcas together with Wendy moved to a house he bought on the Kentish coast at Deal. Employment over the next 19 years found him in the Boiler House of the Royal Marine School of Music and it’s associated training barracks in nearby Walmer. Clive stayed behind in the Medway towns to enter the Royal Naval Dockyard on a 5-year Admiralty apprenticeship while Wendy left the Deal home within a couple of years to serve in the Royal Air Force.

Bob the family manat his Deal (Kent) home with his wife Dorcas, daughter Wendy and son Clive
Standing behind are Bob's Aunt Doll and Uncle Arch (Lowdell)
Date thought to be Christmas 1953
Photo: Sharplin family archive



Bob the father
with his daughter Wendy
At Gillingham, probably July 1943
Photo: Sharplin family archive

Bob near retirement at his Deal home with “Spot”

Photo: Sharplin family archive

What social life Bob and Dorcas had in Deal was centred on their membership of the local Toc H Club, an international charity movement which had grown out of the First World War. Bob however was not a very sociable person, he found making friends difficult and tended to exhibit a degree of melancholy which many interpreted as being miserable although the occasional sudden fits of temper that his children had first noticed in their childhood whenever he was home became much more subdued. It was only very much later in Clive's life when he started the research for this website that he came to really understand his father much more than he ever had done when Bob was alive. He concluded that it was almost certainly the affect of Bob’s experiences during World War 2 that troubled him, some of which were absolutely horrendous. Now recognised in the armed forces as post traumatic stress disorder, it wasn’t recognised or even viewed as such back then so for all those years Bob had almost certainly suffered from that condition together with depression without diagnosis or medical support as was the lot of so many contemporary members of the armed forces.

Clive had emigrated to Perth in Western Australia in late 1971 with his family and Bob, then fully retired, with Dorcas decided to follow them. Their stay was short however as in 1976 they moved back to live in the Wiltshire town of Westbury close to Wendy and her family and settled down to a quiet retired life enjoying their grandchildren.

Late in 1978 Bob was diagnosed with cancer and died on June 3rd the following year, just one day before his 68th birthday and one day before the 50th anniversary of his visit to the Royal Navy recruiting office. Dorcas died in October 1992 from complications arising from pneumonia. Their ashes lie in Haycombe Cemetery on the outskirts of the west of England city of Bath in a peaceful memorial garden which always appears to be full of flowers.

Bob at home in his garden in Westbury, Wiltshire, late spring 1979. The Shields had been presented to him some years before. The Ajax Shield (incorrectly made with the Frigate's badge) displays the nine battle honours won by the Cruiser
Ajax. The right hand Shield displays the Admiralty Badge encased by small plaques bearing the names and dates of the
15 major ships he served in with their names and dates of his service in them. This photo is believed to be the last taken
of him shortly before his death.
Photo: Sharplin family archive

NOTES:
1. Bob’s father Percy was a Crane Attendant in the Chatham Naval Dockyard. He volunteered for the Royal Navy under what became known as “The Derby Scheme” in which he promised to accept being called up when required. The Dockyard authorities actually refused his release when he was called up in May 1916 but he was so determined to join up that he discharged himself from their employment abandoning all his pension entitlements etc. After discharge from his Naval service on 24 February 1919 he returned to employment in the Dockyard where he remained until his retirement. The Sharplin family archive holds a copy of a letter written by the commanding officer of Percy’s last ship, the then relatively new “R” Class destroyer HMS “Raider”, to the Admiral Superintendent of the Dockyard requesting that in view of Percy’s volunteering for war service that his full pension rights be restored. Unfortunately no record of the decision has yet been found.




2. This HMS Challenger was the fifth of the eight Royal Navy vessels to have borne that name and was specially fitted out for this unique voyage.  A wooden hulled warship originally rated as a 22-gun Corvette, this Challenger was of the age betwixt sail and steam having three fully rigged masts with an auxiliary steam engine driving a single propeller. Built at Woolwich Dockyard, launched on February 13, 1858, of just 2,306 tons (1,462bm), she had a length of 200ft and a 40.5ft beam. In the conversion to a survey ship for this voyage 18 of her guns were removed.

A Dinoflagellate,
a type of deep
ocean plankton.

The voyage commenced by leaving Portsmouth on December 21, 1872. with 270 souls aboard comprising 24 officers, 240 ratings and 6 civilian scientists (ibid - Bibliography “The Silent Landscape” P12-13). Among those were some of the best physicists, chemists, biologists, naturalists, oceanographers and scientific artists of their day to collaborate with the Navy’s expert navigators, all being charged to explore and map the seafloor while recording the marine life present.

It was the first ever sea voyage organized specifically to gather data on a wide range of ocean features, including ocean temperatures, seawater chemistry, currents, marine life, and the geology of the seafloor. It changed the course of scientific history, gave birth to modern oceanography and is now regarded as perhaps the greatest oceanographic mission of all time equal in scientific importance to the eminent discovery voyage of Charles Darwin in HMS Beagle. Quite apart from other Challenger results over 4,000 previously unknown species were discovered and recorded.



HMS Challenger

Over the next 3 ½ years Challenger visited every continent including the Antarctic. Samples of marine life and the sea bed were gathered in specimen bags tied to a towed thick rope which was trawled across the seafloor. John Sharplin as a Ropemaker was a key crew member in maintaining and caring for the ship’s trawled ropes, which were the essential tools for the collection of the specimens and geological samples. Some accounts describe Challenger as having had on board over 180 miles of this rope.

One of HMS Challenger's laboratories

The extreme climatic conditions experienced by HMS Challenger’s crew ranged from sweltering
tropical heat to the freezing Antarctic plus with so many people confined in such a relatively small ship made even more difficult with spaces dedicated for laboratories and research facilities life aboard must have been extraordinarily daunting.  This working environment combined with the sheer drudgery of constantly lowering and hauling ropes to and from the sea bed at such extreme depths together with taking the depth soundings saw fully a quarter of the ship’s crew desert at her various points of call. These desertions plus 7 who died, combined with 26 invalided out or put ashore sick at various ports and 6 landed in the Antarctic on an expedition made the crew seriously short handed and created much more work for those who remained. Included in the death toll was one of the scientists from a bacterial infection.

John Sharplin is recorded as having completed the voyage and went on to serve a further 5 years in the Royal Navy finally retiring on May 13, 1881. Having completed an unblemished 16 years service he earned the Royal Navy’s coveted Long Service and Good Conduct Medal.

A Dinoflagellate,
a type of deep
ocean plankton

One of Challenger’s discoveries was the Marianas Trench in the Western Pacific, where the seafloor is almost 7 miles deep. The deepest part of the world’s oceans, named the “Challenger Deep” at the foot of the Marianas Trench was explored 138 years later by a National Geographic expedition on March 27, 2012, by James Cameron in a specially designed submersible named “Deepsea Challenger” at position 11d 31' 67" N, 14d 25' 00"E.  The depth at that point was found to be 35,787ft with the seabed there being described as barren, “a very soft almost gelatinous flat plain ...the bottom was completely featureless ....very lunar like”. The sediment on the ocean floor at these depths was found to be over 200 million years old. Over several dives 68 new species were discovered. 

Another discovery by HMS Challenger is now known as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, an undersea mountain range which stands at 25,453 ft tall compared to Mount Everest which is 29,035 ft.
Another first  to her credit was that she was the first machinery powered vessel to enter the Antarctic.

Challenger's voyage lasted 3 ½ years finally arriving back in England at Spithead on May 24, 1876, from where she proceeded to Sheerness to pay off on 12 June 1876 . The expedition’s ensuing report took 20 years to write covered 50 volumes in a total of 29,552 pages; a copy now resides in the Bodleian library of the University of Oxford. Other copies are held in the libraries of many learned institutions and research facilities around the world.

A Deep Sea Sponge

This voyage is today considered as being the NASA Apollo space mission of its day. NASA is on record that it “named its first space shuttle orbiter and the Apollo 17 lunar module after the British Naval research vessel HMS Challenger that sailed the Atlantic and Pacific oceans during the 1870s. Like its historic predecessor, (NASA’s) Challenger and her crews made significant scientific contributions to the spirit of exploration”.

Of particular personal interest to Bob's son Clive is that between late March and April 1874 Challenger conducted her research off Melbourne, Australia, in Port Phillip Bay; just short of one hundred years before he together with his wife Carol and children Nik and Joanne in 1978 moved back to Australia from England to settle in Melbourne. The family had previously lived in Perth, Western Australia.

As to the ship she was recommissioned on 26 June 1876 just two weeks after her arrival at Sheerness to become temporary guard ship of the 1st Reserve at Harwich until 26 April 1878 when she paid off. Two years later she was stripped down to a hulk and designated as a training ship then made a receiving ship followed in 1910 by being converted to an accommodation ship at Chatham. Finally she was sold on January 6, 1921, to J.B. Garnham at which point "British Warships in the Age of Sail 1817 - 1863 Page 193" records her as being broken up, whereas Colledge and Warlow in "Ships of the Royal Navy, Page 73" has no record after her sale. Either way it was the closure of one of history's most glorious maritime scientific expeditions by a ship which in various roles had given the Royal Navy some sixty years of service, given her name to a modern deep sea exploration vessel and to a NASA space shuttle and a lunar exploration craft.     

3. Rose (nee Peachy) was actually a cousin to Eliza. 

4. References:

• National Geographic
• NASA website
• The Challenger expedition

Bibliography

NOTE - Format of Book / Publication / Media entry is:

Name of Book with any subtitle, Journal or Website    

Author(s) name(s)

Publishers name and date of publication (if known)  
Country of publication

ISBN classification, only given where stated within that book. Some books were published prior to the introduction of ISBN classifications

“A Midshipman’s War: A Young Man in the Mediterranean Naval War, 1941-1943” 2nd Edition;  Frank Wade; Trafford Publishing 2013;  Canada;  ISBN 978-1-4120-7069-0(sc)

“A Sailor’s Odyssey”; The Autobiography of Admiral of the Fleet Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope;  Hutchinson 1951;  London

“A Year at Sea on HMS Implacable, 1909: The 1909 Diary of Albert ‘Ajax’ Adams”; Robert Adams;  Ajax Adams Press 2012;  England;  ISBN 978-0-9573729-0-0

“Admiral Lord Anson";  Captain S.W.C. Pack R.N.;  Cassell 1960;  London

“Anzac Fury, The Bloody Battle of Crete 1941”; Peter Thompson; William Heinemann 2011; Sydney Australia; ISBN 978 1 86471 131 8

“Australian & New Zealand Warships 1914-1945"; Ross Gillett; Double Day 1953; Australia

“Battle Honours of the Royal Navy”; Ben Warlow Lt Cdr R.N.; Maritime Books 2004; Liskeard England

“Battle Ships and Carriers”; Steve Crawford; Brown Books 1999; London; ISBN 1-897884-44-3

“Before the Tide Turned (The Mediterranean Experiences of a British Destroyer Officer in 1941)”; Hugh Hodgkinson Lt Cdr DSC R.N.; George G Harrap 1944; England

“Bletchley Park, Home of the Codebreakers” Guide Book; Bletchley Park Trust 2014; Bletchley;   England

“Blue Star”; Tony Atkinson & Kevin O'Donoghue; World Ship Society 1985; Kendall England;

     ISBN 0 90561737 1

“Blue Star Line”; Mike Dovey & Ken Bottoms; The TPO & Seapost Society 2014; England;

     ISBN 978-0-9569662-7-8

“Blue Star Line, A Fleet History"; Tony Atkinson, Ships in Focus Publications 2014; England;

     ISIBN 978-0-9928263-8-3   

“Blue Star Line At War 1939 - 1945”; Taffrail (Captain Taprell Dorling D.S.O. F.R.Hist.S., RN);

      W Foulsham 1973; England; ISBN 0-572-00849-X

Note - There is a further edition of this work, believed to have been an extremely limited private printing for Blue Star Line to distribute to a very selected few. One copy of this "private" edition was presented to Commodore Harwood** on 9th August 1949 (by then Admiral Sir Henry Harwood K.C.B.) with an accompanying letter from Blue Star Line’s Board of Directors**. This edition is bound in blue buckram embossed with gold lettering on the spine and front cover and printed on a heavier paper. The title page has "A Record of Service" added to the title, a Dedication Page has been added as have further pages each with a portrait of one of the company's two founders. There is no mention of the publisher or publication date.

** This copy is in the possession of this author.

“British Battleships of World War Two”; Alan Raven and John Roberts;
In UK - Arms & Armour Press 1976; England; ISBN 0-87021-817-4
In USA - The Naval Institute 1976; USA; ISBN 0-87021-817-4

Note - These two editions are identical in all respects apart from the inner Title Page bearing the name of the respective publisher.   

“British Cruisers of World War Two”; Alan Raven and John Roberts;
In UK - Arms & Armour Press 1980; England; ISBN 0-85368-304-2
In USA - The Naval Institute Press 1980; USA, ISBN 0-87021-922-7

Note - These two editions are identical in all respects apart from the inner Title Page bearing the name of the respective publisher.   

“British Warships in the Age of Sail 1603-1714 ”; Rif Winfield; Seaforth Publishing Pen & Sword Books 2009; England; ISBN 978-I-84832-040-6

“British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714-1792”; Rif Winfield; Seaforth Publishing Pen & Sword Books 2014; England; ISBN 978-I-84415-700-6

“British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793-1817”; Rif Winfield; Seaforth Publishing Pen & Sword Books 2014; England; ISBN 978-I-84415-717-4

“British Warships in the Age of Sail 1817-1863”; Rif Winfield; Seaforth Publishing Pen & Sword Books 2014; England, ISBN 978-I-84832-169-4

“Broadsides, The Age of Fighting Sail, 1775 - 1815”; Nathan Miller; John Wiley & Sons 2000; USA;

ISBN 0-471-07835-2 (paper)

“Chatham Dockyard, The Rise and Fall of a Military Industrial Complex"; Philip MacDougall; The History Press 2012; England; ISBN 978 0 7524 6212 7

“Chatham Naval Dockyard & Barracks”; David T Hughes; Tempus Publishing 2004; England;

ISBN 0 7524 3248 6

“Cochrane, Britannia's Sea Wolf”; Donald Thomas; Cassell Military Paperbacks 1978; England;

ISIBN 0-304-35659-X   

“Crete 1941, The Battle At Sea”; David A Thomas; Cassell Military Paperbacks 2003’ England

ISIBN 0-304-36400-2  / Greek (English language) Edition – A Efstathiadis Group 1980; Greece;

ISBN 960-226-085-8

“Cruiser, The life and loss of HMAS Perth and her Crew”; Mike Carlton; William Heinemann 2010;

Australia; ISBN 978 1 86471 133 2

“Cruisers of World War Two, An International Encyclopaedia”; M J Whitley; Arms and Armour Press 1995; England; ISBN 1 86019 8740

“East of Malta, West of Suez, The Official Admiralty Account of the Mediterranean Fleet 1939-1943”;  “Bartimeus” (Paymaster Captain Ritchie R.N.); Little Brown 1944; USA

“Fifty Years of Naval Tugs"; Bill Hannon; Maritime Books – publication date not known; Liskeard; England

“Harwood and the Battle of the River Plate”; Henry & Stephen Harwood; Published privately -

jppharwood@outlook.com 2014; England

                                                              

“Haul Down Ceremony 30 September 1983" (Official programme for the closure of HM Dockyard Chatham, HMS Pembroke, The Flag Officer Medway and Port Admiral Chatham); David Hunter (Part) 1983; The Admiralty; England

 “HMS Ajax 1935-1949”; Jeff Stevens; Self Published 2014; UK

“HMS Ajax, The British Light Cruiser HMS Ajax (1941-1942)”; Slawomir Brzezíński; Profile Morskie Series - Firma Wydawniczo-Handlown 2006; Poland; ISBN 83-87918-79-2

 Note -Designed and published for modellers

“I Was Graf Spee's Prisoner”; Captain Patrick Dove*; Cheery Tree Books 1940; England

* Master - S.S. "Doric Star", of Blue Star Line, captured and sunk by Graf Spee on 2 December 1939.

“Lost Voices Of The Royal Navy”; Max Arthur; Hodder & Stoughton Ltd 2005; England;

ISBN 978 0 340 83814 3

“Maritime History of Britain and Ireland”; Ian Fiel; The British Museum Press 2003; England;

ISBN 0 7141 27183

“Navy News, January 2010, Ajax Supplement” (Magazine); A special double page spread of fully sectioned ship drawings; Navy News HMS Nelson; England

“Nelson's Navy - The Ships, Men & Organisation 1793-1815”; Brian Lavery; Conway Mainline Press 1992 reprint; England; ISBN 0-85177-521-7

“Nelson’s Trafalgar, The Battle That Changed the World”; Roy Adkins; Viking 2004; England;

ISBN 0-670-03448-7

“Pasha”; Julian Stockwin; Hodder & Stoughton Ltd 2014; England; ISBN 978 1 444 78539 5

“Ray Parkins Odyssey”; Pattie Wright; MacMillan Australia 2012; Australia; ISBN 0-9781405039970

“Sea War, Great Naval Battles of World War II”; Frank Pearce; Robert Hale 1990; England;

ISBN 0-7090-4013-X

“Ships Monthly" Magazine; various issues, Kelsey Media; England

“Ships of the Royal Navy, The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy”; J J  Colledge & Ben Warlow;

In USA - Casemate 2010; ISBN 978-1-935149-07-1

In UK – Casemate 2010; England; ISBN 978-1-935149-07-1

“Ships of the Royal Navy: Vol 2, Navy-Built Trawlers, Drifters, Tugs& Requisitioned Ships”; J.J. Colledge; Lionel Leventhal, 2nd Edition 1989; England; ISBN 1-85367-028-6

“Shore Establishments of the Royal Navy, A  List of Static Ships and Establishments”; Lt. Cdr. Ben Warlow R.N. Retd; Maritime Books, Second Edition 2000; England; ISBN 0 907771 73 4

Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogues  “British Commonwealth Part 1”&  “Simplified World Catalogue”; Stanley Gibbons Publications; England,

“Struggle for the Middle Sea, The Great Navies at War in the Mediterranean 1940-1945"; Vincent O'Hara;

In UK – Conway 2009; England: ISBN 978-1-84486-102-6

In USA - Naval Institute Press 2009; USA; ISBN 978-1-84486-102-6

"Stukas over the Mediterranean, 1940-1945” (Part of the Series “Luftwaffe at War”); Peter C Smith; Green Hill Books 1999; England; ISIBN 1-85367-376-5

                                           

“Task Force, The inside Story of the Ships and Heroes of the Royal Navy”; John Parker; Bounty Books 2005; England; ISBN-13: 9780753712962

“The A to Z of Royal Naval Ship’s Badges, 1919-1989, Vol 1”; B. Wilkinson, T.P. Stopford & D. Taylor; Neptune Books 1987; England; ISBN 1 8709842 00 X  

“The A to Z of Royal Naval Ship’s Badges, 1919-1989, Vol 2”; B. Wilkinson, T.P. Stopford & D. Taylor; Neptune Books 1988; England; ISBN 1 870842 02 2    

“The Battle for Crete”; Capt S.W.C. Pack RN; Ian Allan 1973; England

“The Battle for the Mediterranean”; Donald Macintyre; B.T. Batsford Ltd 1964; England

“The Battle of the River Plate” Republished in “Great War Stories” P479; Octopus Books 1978; England; ISBN 0 7064 0926 4  

“The Battle of the Atlantic, How the allies won the war”; Jonathan Dimbleby; Viking 2015; England; IBN 978 0 241 18661 9

“The Battle of the River Plate, a Grand Delusion”; Richard Woodman; Pen & Sword Military 2008; England; IBN 978 184415 689 4

“The Complete Encyclopaedia of Battleships and Battlecruisers”; Tony Gibbons; Salamander Books 1983; England; ISBN 0 86101 142 2

“The Fall Of Crete”; Alan Clark; Cassell Military Paperbacks, 2004 Reprint; England; ISBN 978 0 3043 5348 4

“The Historic Dockyard Chatham Guide Book”; The Historic Dockyard 2006; England

“The King’s Cruisers”; Gordon Holman; Hodder and Stoughton 1947; England,

“The Med, The Royal Navy in the Mediterranean, 1939-45”; Rowland Langmaid; The Batchworth Press 1948;  England

“The Mediterranean Fleet, Greece to Tripoli. The Admiralty Account of Naval Operations: April 1941 to January 1943”; The Admiralty through The Ministry of Information; His Majesty’s Stationary Office 1944; England 

    

"The Naval Side of British History 1485-1945"; Sir Geoffrey Callender & F H Hinsley; Christophers, 1952; England

“The Nelson Encyclopaedia”; Colin White;

In UK - Chatham Publishing 2002; England

In USA - Stackpole Books 2005; USA

“The Royal Navy in World War Two: An Annotated Bibliography”; Derek G Law; Greenhill Books 1988; England; ISBN 1-85367-002-2

“The Royal Navy, An Illustrated Social History 1870 - 1982” ; Capt John Wells, RN; Wrens Park Publishing & Alan Sutton Publishing 1999; England: ISBN 0-905-778-308

“The Second World War"; Anton Beevor; Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2012; England; ISBN 978 0 297 844 97 6

“The Silent Landscape. Discovering the world of the oceans in the wake of HMS Challenger’s epic 1872 mission to explore the seabed”; Richard Corfield;  John Murray (Publishers) Ltd 2005; England; ISBN 0 7195 6531 6

“The Struggle for the Middle Sea – The Great Navies at War in the Mediterranean 1940-1945”; Vincent O’Hara

In UK - Conway Books; 2009; England; ISBN 978-1-84486-102-6

In USA - Naval Institute Press 2009; USA

“The Voyage of the Challenger”; Eric Linklater; John Murray (Publishers) Ltd 1972; England; ISBN 0 7195 2626

“Trafalgar, The Men, The Battle, The Storm"; Tim Clayton & Phil Craig; Hodder & Stoughton 2005; England; ISBN 0 340 83028 x 

“Underwater Warriors”; Paul Kemp; Brockhampton Press 1999; England; ISBN 1 86019 991 7

“Warships of World War II”; H.T. Lenton & J.J. Colledge; Ian Allan 1964; England.

 World Ship Society; England; 1985;  ISBN 0 90561737 1

“World At War”, (Magazine) Issue #41 May-June 2015, P6-23 "Mare Nostrum: War in the Mediterranean"; Joseph Miranda; Strategy & Tactics Press 2015; USA.

Wikipedia - While this is a wonderful reference and research source with much respected ethical objectives which assists me greatly in the course of this project, the very manner in which information is collected may occasionally allow unauthenticated entries to be made. Care should therefore be taken if using this as the single unqualified source. 

Links

Ajax – Town, Canada
College of Arms
HMS Pembroke & H.M. Dockyard Chatham
HMS Ajax & River Plate & Veterans Association website
HMS Ajax – British Pathe Cinema News Reel 1949. Her last trip, to the breakers yard
Lofts, Graeme Our Consulting Editor
Pickering-Ajax Digital Archive
Royal Navy News & Events
Rudel, Hans Ulrich - German Stuka Pilot (Officer)
The Historic Dockyard Chatham

Other Resources

Eden Camp
                    Historical Theme and Military Museum. (Britain at War in World War II).  
                        Malton, Ryedale, North Yorkshire, YO17 6RT, England