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HMS Osprey
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Those known to have sailed in HMS Osprey during the Second World War 1939-1945. The names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed,
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Add a Name to this List
Records of HMS Osprey from other sources.
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Want to know more about HMS Osprey? There are:-1 items tagged HMS Osprey available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War. |
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AB. George Douglas Adams HMS Nimrod My father George Adams enlisted in the Royal Navy aged 17 years.
He completed his training in Devonport and joined HMS Nimrod June 1944 - August 1944.He then joined HMS Osprey August 1944 - November 1944, HMS Cormorant November 1944 - January 1945 and HMS Matchless from January 1945 - April 1947. He was demobbed from the Royal Navy in August 1947
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Sea. Victor Alfred "Knocker" White HMS Osprey Victor White was my grandfather who served on HMS Osprey, TD1. He also served on HMS Ganges, HMS Europa, HMS Nimrod, HMS Paris, and HMS Hannibal.
His son (my uncle) also served, and I went on to serve in the RAN.
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A/L/Sea. Charles Arthur Gaskell HMS Curlew Charles Gaskell is listed as Acting Leading seaman between 10/10/1943 and 4/12/1943 and 9/12/1943 to 23/12/1943- HMS Curlew and from
24th of Dec 1943 to 24/1/1944 in HMS Curlew as Leading Seaman.
Other bases/ships he served in are,
HMS Trelawney,
HMS Duisdale on the Isle of Skye,
HMS Osprey,
HMS Benbow,
HMS Staubles and
HMS Baldur.
Charles seems to have been between Scotland and Iceland also in Trinidad and Tobago.
He may have been sonar or cable laying for U Boat detection. Unsure really? I have a few photo's of poor quality and they do not enlarge well.
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AB. Arthur Taylor HMS Trelawn My father, Arthur Taylor, served on the Pembroke from 12/09/39 until 18th. 14/05/41 to 20/06/41. 25/06/41 to 14/12/41. 20/08/43 to 2/10/43. 30/10/43 to 31/10/43. 12/12/44 to 27/03/45. 25/11/45 to 31/01/46. In between these dates he served on Salopian, Osprey, Trelawney, Drake IV and Begum.
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Lt. Romilly Ernest Maundrel Lunge HMS Osprey   Romilly Lunge was my great uncle. When we were growing up in the 60’s my self and my two brothers and parents spent time during school holidays down on the farm. Easter morning spent in the hen coop looking for hidden Easter eggs.
My father and his two brothers worked on the farm from around 1947 to around 1957 earning about 2/6d a week as farmhands.
He entered the war and joined the Royal Navy and ended up in Ceylon (Shri Lanka) in the day working and with fine tuning sonar to better detect the German U-Boats.
He told me the future Prince Phillip visited the Naval base under a shroud of secrecy once and he showed the Greek prince the highly secret research and development they were doing in anti submarine warfare.
Also he told me he’d been invited to secret cocktail soirées up the hill from Columbo to the famous celebrity staying on the island, no other than theatre and cinemas playwright Noèl Coward.
But Ernest Romilly Maundrel Lunge was quite an interesting but sometimes private person. During the 70’s after he’d moved to Ashby de la Zouch he allowed me to chat with him many times about his former pre war life acting on stage then in the movies and learning to sing opera in the La Scala theatre in Milan Italy. My site hosting some of his movies.
He acted in films and on stage with quite a selection of well known actors and actresses before the war like Vivian Leigh, Lilli Palmer, Rex Harrison, Bruce Cabot, Enid Stamp Taylor and became a character witness in the sad demise of Taylor.
He became a romantic interest to Margarita Scott with skiing trips to the Swiss Alps in the 30’s and summers in North Devon at Woolercombe Bay.
He spent a year living in Milan in latter half of 1929 and was voice trained briefly by the famous singer Caruso then later with younger Beniamino Gigli.
Hitchcock once interviewed him for the movie Secret Agent and he made a film with the Sir Gerald du Maurier studios.
Well that’s a brief synopsis of this interesting private person who settled in Warton back in 1947 to run a 100 acre farm in the tranquil country of Warwickshire.
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John Woodley HMS Osprey John Woodley was serving on HMS Osprey during the 1939 Register.
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CPO. Spencer William John Frost HMS Osprey Spencer Frost commenced boy service with the Royal Navy on 16th of January 1922. He was born in Dartmouth on the 13th of October 1906.
Wartime service that is known is HMS Osprey from 9th of November 1939, HMS Devonshire from 9th of January 1940 in the rank of PO. HMS Drake from 18th of March 1944 and HMS Empire Spearhead from 22nd of November 1944 in the rank of CPO.
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PO. Albert William Watson OBE. HMS Bridgewater My step-father joined the Navy as a lad of 15 and served on HMS Gangees until 1932. I understand he was on submarines for a while. He served on various ships including: HMS Malaya, HMS Drake, HMS Osprey, HMS Bridgewater, HMS PresidentIV, HMS Woolston (Mallard), HMS Pyramus, HMS Attack.
He received the OBE in 1941 but he never revealed why he was awarded it. He rose through the ranks and was made a Petty Officer on 29th of June 1943 and was released on this rank on 20th of December 1945.
Until his death 16 years ago he was a member of the Gangees Association and regularly went to meetings. At his funeral the Gangees Association attended and the flag bearers all lowered their standards.
I am lucky to still have his service records and a copy of the London Gazette dated 4th of March 1941 announcing the awards in which he is included.
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Able Sea. Russell Robert Barnes During WW2, Russell Barnes served in HMS Eurylus, HMS Osprey, HMS Sea Hawk, HMS Hornet, HMS St Christopher, HMS Aggressive, HMS Wildfire, HMS St Angelo, HMS Ferret, HMS Sea Eagle and HMS Pembroke.
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Henry Arthur "Ronnie" Hicks HMS St Angelo My father, Henry Hicks, was in the Royal Navy from February 1943 until September 1946. He was a submarine detector on HMS Ganges, HMS Pembroke, HMS Nimrod, HMS Osprey, HMS Spanker and HMS St Angelo. I have a copy of his naval service, but don't know anything about his time in the Navy as he never spoke about it.
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Ldg.Wren. Ann Margaret Dowland Cook HMS Tormentor My late mother, Annie Dowland was a Wren during WW2, serving at HMS Tormentor from December 1940 until October 1945. She became Leading Wren cook. She was then transferred to HMS Attack until the end of December 1945, then HMS Osprey for a short time in early 1946 before going to RN Barracks until April 1946 when she was released. This is from her Service Certificate. I have two medals from then.
Sadly, she died in 1998, and this is the only record I have of her time there. There was a photo of her in uniform which has since been lost so there are no photos of her from then, which is a shame. I cannot find out anything else.
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Able.Sea. George Robert "Bob" Collis HMS Havelock My father, George Robert Collis, served in the Royal Navy from 19 February 1942 to 29 May 1946
- HMS Collingwood - Ordinary Seaman - 19/2/1942 - 12/5/1942
- HMS Victory - Ordinary Seaman - 13/5/1942 - 22/8/1942
- HMS Havelock H88 Ordinary & Able Seaman - 7/9/1942 - 8/3/1945
- HMS Victory - Able Seaman - 9/3/1945 - 19/4/1945
- HMS Nimrod - Able Seaman - 20/4/1945 - 6/7/1945
- HMS Osprey - Able Seaman - 7/7/1945 - 27/7/1945
- HMS Hastings - Able Seaman - 28/7/1945 - 28/10/1945
- HMS Osprey - Able Seaman - 29/10/1945 - 31/10/1945
- HMS Caroline - Able Seaman - 1/11/1945 - 31/12/1945
- HMS Victory - Able Seaman - 1/1/1946 - 29/5/1946
Whilst his naval record does not show him having served on HMS Renown in the photograph I have of him in naval uniform he is wearing the cap from Renown, I can only assume he was on loan to the ship at the time.
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SubLt William Eldon Warwick HMS Osprey My father William Eldon Warwick was attached to the shore based anti-submarine base HMS Osprey from 17th June 1940 (after having survived the sinking of the Armed Merchant Cruiser Andania the previous day) until 5th August 1940 when he was appointed to the torpedo school HMS Defiance (for ML137).
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Able Seaman John George Sydney "Joe" Braggins Asdic Submarine Dect HMS Sirius  My father,John G S Braggins volunteered on Feb 4th 1942 and served at several shore bases including Collingwood Nimrod and Osprey while training as an asdic operator(Submarine Detection).
He joined HMS Cormorant(Wishart)on 29th July 1942 and served aboard her, until 31st March 1944,when he was ashore at Osprey for training update.
He then joined HMS Sirius and served aboard her from 24th July 1944 until
25th Feb 1946 mainly on Maltese convoys.
He was shipped home aboard Hms Blenheim a submarine supply ship which was based in Malta,and was discharged at Hms Victory Portsmouth on 8th July 1946.
During his time in the Navy he detected many enemy submarines and the ships he served aboard sank two for definite. He remembers one brought to the surface and picking up a few survivors but some deliberately went down with the sub because they had been told they would be tortured and killed.
It gives some insight into the minds of the german command propaganda machine.
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