204938 Acting Leading Stoker Samuel Henry Palmer MID.Royal Navy HMS Rorqual from:17 Worboys Road, Worcester My Father was desperate to join the forces during the Second World War, his two elder brothers Walter and Harold were already serving in the Royal Navy and the Fleet Air Arm, respectively. His Father Frank was also serving with the Royal Engineers, having been called up again, because of his intimate mapping knowledge of Northern France and Belgium, experience gained from the First World War, which he somehow survived, including the dreaded Battles of the Somme and Passchendale. My Gran was left with two daughters at home, she thanked her lucky stars when they all arrived home safe at the end of the war, having lost a brother in the First World War.
Dad trained at Chatham and was assigned to HMS Rorqual, a mine-laying sub, eventually becoming Acting Leading Stoker. He was 6’3” tall, rather tall for the cramped conditions on board a sub and used to sling his hammock between the pistons to give himself a bit of extra space. He told me about one occasion when they were submerged and being hunted by a German sub, the Captain stopped the engines, absolute silence was called for, in case the sonar picked up any noise. Dad was playing cards with a few other crew members when one of them panicked and started screaming in fear, so Dad stood up and knocked him out, as it was endangering them all.
On another occasion he was berthed in Trincomalee, on the island of Ceylon, (now known as Sri Lanka) and to his delight found both his brothers were there too, the first time they had seen each other since the start of the war. As you can imagine there was a joyous celebration on board that night, all empty bottles were loaded into an empty torpedo tube and finally jettisoned into the harbour, next morning!
He was also awarded an oak leaf for bravery and mentioned in dispatches; the mine-laying rails didn’t always function efficiently, one dropped off the rear of the sub only to come floating back towards them, so Dad got hold of a boat hook and calmly pushed it out of the way, he said it was safe as long as you didn’t touch the spines! At the end of the war he joined the police force, but sadly died aged only 57. My family and I are immensely proud of him.
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