L/Bmbdr. Thomas Archibald Weight
Royal Artillery
from:Croydon, Surrey
My father, Tom Weight, served on many ships during WW2 as a Royal Artillery gunner. I remember him saying that were it not for the war, he would not have had the opportunity to see all the far flung places that he visited while he was protecting merchant ships. I know he saw some dreadful things and had some horrible experiences, including being torpedoed, I believe twice, and sunk on different ships. I know one of them was The City of Singapore.
I remember stories of rough seas with 50 foot waves and sailing around Cape Horn (or maybe it was the Cape of Good Hope) where the seas were wild and dangerous. Dad loved a rough sea and apparently he was one of the very few on board who didn't get seasick. His love of the sea never diminished and my parents eventually moved from London in the 60s to live on the South West coast.
I remember him telling of a ship's cat that used to disappear as soon as they docked and they would all be convinced they would never see the cat again. Then somehow miraculously, just before they were due to depart, the cat would appear on the dock and board the ship. They never worked out how the cat knew or how it survived it's time on shore.
He told me once of being on shore and finding a man with a small monkey making it cruelly dance. It had a rope around its waist that was embedded in it's flesh. My father and some friends gave the owner some money and took the monkey back on board. One of his friends removed the rope, and nursed it back to health and it lived on board with them. He said that at meal times, the monkey used to take great delight in sitting on a rail above their heads, just outside of where they got their food and would try to pee on their plates as they walked underneath.
I wish I had asked more about his time during the war. I regret that now, as there's nobody else to tell me as both my parents have passed away along with Dad's 5 brothers and a sister. Who all served during WW2 and all of whom miraculously survived.
In his later years, my father was a member of the RA Association and became an active committee member and welfare officer of his local branch in Poole, Dorset. When my father passed away from emphysema in 1999 the branch of the RA association closest to where he died sent a standard bearer along with some of their members to his funeral and his coffin was draped with the Union Jack flag. I found it an unbearably poignant moment and I felt so very proud of my much beloved father who taught me the meaning as I grew up, of integrity and kindness to others.
