PO. Russell Simpson
Royal Navy HMS Europa
from:Lynemouth, Northumberland
Sadly My Dad Russell Simpson from Lynemouth, Northumberland passed away in October 2014 aged 95 years. We have just found his RN diary .... no-one knew it was there. He was in the Royal Naval he joined HMS Royal Arthur in Skegness.
He then went onto HMS Europa and HMS Lady Shirley, and HMS Fairy Knowles at Tobermory (Note there was no HMS Fairy Knowles and this may have been a colloquial term for being absent at a hospital.) In 1941, he had a accident at the dock and went to hospital in Killearn and then onto The Cottage hospital in Oban. He was there for a long duration learning to walk again. Dad was the only seaman who was off on leave due to his injury when The Lady Shirley got torpedoed off Gibraltar on the 11th December 1941 and the men on board were captured and some lost at sea. He often said somethings were meant to be! He then joined HMT Helier2, an anti-submarine search vessel, at Milford Haven. Dad describes his job in the diary as in The Atlantic escorting ships and destroyers in rough sea and missing mines. He went to Australia and Tasmania and returned from Australia on The King George.
