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HMS Quebec
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Those known to have sailed in HMS Quebec 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 Quebec from other sources.
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Library contains an ever growing number diary entries, personal letters and other documents, most transcribed into plain text. |
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Want to know more about HMS Quebec? There are:-1 items tagged HMS Quebec 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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CPO. James Michael Caldwell HMS Quebec  My late father, James Caldwell joined the RN in 1929 and served until 1957.
He was a physical training instructor and as well as 22 other ships, served on HMS Quebec from 14.7.1942 until 14.2.1943 over several occasions.
The only photo we ever saw was of him in PT kit with 4 other servicemen in a two line formation. Unfortunately they are lost.
My dad never spoke of service other than mentioning Scapa once.
I am so anxious to find out more information if possible and will be registering all the other ships on which he served.
- HMS St George Ldg seaman 4th September 1940 - 21st Feb 1940
- HMS Columbo Ldg seaman - PO 21st February 1940 - 13th July 1942.
- HMS Quebec PO 14th July 1942 - 27th July 1942.
- HMS Louisberg PO 28th July 1942 - 11th August 1942.
- HMS Quebec PO 12th August 1942 - 14th February 1943 (3 periods in town camp).
- HMS Dartmouth 111 PO 15th February - 18th July 1943.
- HMS Effingham PO 19th July 1943 - 22 December 1943.
- HMS St Matthew PO 23rd December 1943 - 10th September 1944.
- HMS Drake PO 11th September 1944 - 7th November 1944.
- HMS Duty PO 8th - 9th November 1944.
- HMS Gadwall PO 10th November 1944 - 8th December 1944.
- HMS Eastleigh PO 9th December 1944 - 19th December 1944.
- HMS Gadwall PO 20th December 1944 - 30th March 1945.
- HMS Drake Temporary CPO 31st March 1945 - 30th May 1945.
After that went to serve in Canada and Far East on many more establishments until 3rd May 1957.
As a CPO Instructor he was a PTI winning many medals for every sport apparently having his teeth knocked out by someone with the same name.
Apart from service awards, he had a box of about 15 medals for almost every sport which we no longer have.
He died in 1995.
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Able Sea. Geoffrey Charles "Bill" Bayley HMS Pembroke HMS Quebec HMS Copra HMS Ganges My dad, Geoffrey Bayley joined the Royal Navy at 18, on 17th of August 1942. His first ship was HMS Ganges, then he went to HMS Pembroke for a couple of weeks. He went on to have three more postings with the Pembroke, in between those dates he also served on six more ships, HMS Copra, HMS Rajah and HMS Quebec were amongst them. left the Royal Navy 30th of June 1946.
Dad was very proud of the Royal Navy and being part of the War effort.
The information I have given is from his Certificate of Service.
His Port Division was Chatham.
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PO. Michael Dinneen HMS Hecla Michael Dinneen joined Royal Navy as a stoker on 14th of February 1939, serving on many ships including HMS St Angelo, HMS Boscawen, HMS Hecla, HMS Quebec, HMS Tyne, and HMS Nile for 12 years until he bought out his engagement and soon after emigrated to New Zealand.
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Able Sea. John McLean HMS Quebec My father, John McLean voluntarily enlisted in the Royal Navy on Thursday 14th of November 1940.
My mother relayed a funny story and said that my father left home early in the morning on the 14th to go to get some milk from a local shop and didn't return until early evening. When my mother, who was obviously upset, asked him where he had been, he proudly told her he had enlisted in the Navy and would be leaving the next day.
His service record shows that his first posting was at HMS Collingwood followed by HMS Pembroke, Northney, Quebec and HMS Copra and was released from service in January 1946. I have little information about my father's service as he passed away in 1955 when I was only 9 years old.
My mother told me that my father had been on a landing craft during the invasions of North Africa, Sicily, Italy and Normandy.
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Cyril Huxtable HMS Victory Cyril Huxtable was a telegraphist on HMS Victory from 28th of September 1940 to 25th of October 1940.
He also served on HMS Pembroke, HMS Claverhouse, HMS Quebec, HMS Salsette, HMS Salsette III, HMS Braganza III, HMS Copra, HMS Calliope, HMS Mauritius during 1938 - 1946. He was recalled for 18 months in April 1952 as PO Telegraphist on HMS Neptune but was released early in November 1953.
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AB. George Hatton H.M.S. Quebec (d.19th of August 1942) George Hatton served with the Royal Navy aboard HMS Quebec in WW2. He died 19th of August 1942 aged 24 years. His body very likely washed ashore near Oostende, Belgium. He was temporarily buried at Stuiverstraat, Civilian cemetery but is now buried at Adegem Canadian War Cemetery in Belgium. Son of James and Elizabeth Hatton, of Warrington, Lancashire.
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Able Sea. Ernest Ralph Barwick HMS Copra Ernest Barwick joined the Royal Navy 7th of May 1941 aged 20. From his service record, he appears to have spent most of the war between HMS Pembroke, HMS Quebec and HMS Copra, which I understand to be training bases for commandos/special forces. I do have a photo of my father driving a landing craft.
He told me a few stories of his time in the Mediterranean around the Adriatic near Corfu. It seems he suffered some of the worst storms and rough seas he had ever experienced in these waters. There was also a story of being involved in the Sicily landings, particularly Operation Ladbrook. This was evidently one of the worst cases of friendly fire and my father told me of rescuing parachutists from the water thinking they were German only to find it was our own commandos. It appears the American pilots released the gliders too early and ran away when the invasion fleet opened fire on them at night. No one had told the fleet that the planes with gliders were coming so they were thinking they were Germans attacking the fleet. 1200 paratroopers were killed. A more detailed source for this record can be found in a book by Geoffrey Regan, Blue on Blue A history of Friendly Fire dated 1995
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PO. Ronald Hutchins HMS Quebec (d.11th Nov 1942) Ronald Hutchens served in HM Landing Craft Medium E2 and HMS Quebec. He is buried in La Reunion War Cemetery in Algeria.
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LSea. Eric Killelay I just found my dad's papers.
Eric Killelay began his Service at Chatham on 3rd of October 1939, until termination on the 6th December 1945. He is stated to have a Class A character very good through out. He served on H.M.S Delhi 26th of Jan 1940 to 7th of April 1942, H.M.S Quebec 22nd of August 1942 to 30th of June 1943 and
H.M.S Copra from 1st of July 1943 to 7th of May 1944.
He didn't talk much to me about the war but I know he was incharge of rum rations and he was torpedoed and was in the water for several hours. And, that he had been to Boris Karlof's house and got a kiss off Jane Mansfield. He also had a lot of nightmares about his friend who was standing beside him when a shell came over and took his friend's head off. I can remember him waking up sweating and shouting, it must of been a horrible thing to see.
Bless him no longer living hope he's having a good drink with his buddies.
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L/Sea. Geoffrey James Miles HMS Nelson Very little is known of my father's, Geoffrey Miles, service during the 2nd world war. I do know that he served on HMS Nelson between 16th Feb 1940 and 21st March 1942. I know that he went from there to Inveraray, HMS Quebec to do his Naval Commando training, and the next date is joining a Combined Operations Unit from 31st May 1944. I don't know his ranks at these particular times, but he was a Leading Seaman on his discharge on 11th November 1947. Sadly, my father passed away in 1982, 35 years to the day, after his discharge.
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Able Sea. William Thomas Redhead HMS Copra    My father Bill Redhead enlisted on 31st of August 1942 for the duration of WW2 and was discharged from duties on 3rd of June 1946. His Certificate of Service lists his Port Division as Chatham and he revisited Chatham on several occasions until his death in 2004.
He started out on the HMS Ganges as an Ordinary Seaman on 31st of Aug 1942, then to HMS Pembroke on 12th of Nov 1942 presumably when his initial training was complete. On 5th Dec 1942 he moved to HMS Quebec & remained with that ship until 31st Aug 1943 when he became an Able Seaman & moved to Copra where he was stationed until 28th Feb 1946. The remaining time until his Discharge on 3rd June 1946 was spent with HMS Pembroke.
He rarely spoke about the War as he found memories of friends lost too distressing but when he did he talked mainly of his time on Landing Crafts during the time of the Battle of Anzio. One story in particular sticks in my mind - a close friend asked my father to switch Watch with him one night as the friend wanted to go ashore to see a girl. My father did & had an uneventful Watch. The following night when the friend was on my father's Watch they received a direct hit and the friend was killed. My father used to say that had his friend not asked him to do him a favour, he would not have survived the War and neither me nor my 2 brothers would have been born.
According to my older cousin & an uncle my father was trained as a Royal Commando during the war but I can find no official record of this, although it does tie up with the time he spent at Anzio, Salerno and in Sicily. In 1984 by father returned to Anzio & the surrounding region for the first time since the war. He enjoyed the trip, taken with my mother, but said it held so many sad & moving memories. Sadly talk of his training as a Royal Commando only came out when I was preparing his eulogy after he died in 2004 and so I was never able to ask him to verify this.
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A/Lt. John Farrington HMS Cobra John Farrington joined HMS Drake on the 6th of May 1941. He transferred to
HMS Quebec as an Ordinary Seaman on the 24th of May 1941. He was posted on the 2nd of May 1942 to HMS King Alfred as a Seaman. He was commissioned as Temporary Sub Lieutenant and joined
HMS Quebec on the 13th of September 1942. On the 1st of July 1943 he was posted to HMS Cobra for the remainder of the war. On October 1945 he was at
HMS Victory IV as a Temporary Acting Lieutenant and on the 29th of December 1945 he was posted to HMS Rye until 12th of July 1946.
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Able Sea. Leonard Wilby HMS Ganges Leonard Wilby was my cherished late grandfather who voluntarily served from the age of 17 in the Royal Navy in WW2. Commissioned on Royal Navy vessels: HMS Ganges, Pembroke, Quebec, Copra and Dundonald at some point during the war. He was one of 10 siblings who, miraculously, all served during the war and who all lived to return home.
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Able Sea. James "Monty" Montgomery Tank Landing Craft HMS Dinasour My father James Montgomery joined the Royal Navy in August 1921 as a volunteer at the age of 20.
After basic training he went to HMS Pembroke and HMS Quebec until March 1942 when he is shown on his service records as been attached to HMS Dinosaur and Cobra. HMS Cobra was a training centre for Landing Craft among other courses but was also used to cover any gaps where the name of a ship wasn't known.
My father has the North Africa Star and he told me stories of transiting the Med to get there. He also showed me a picture of a ship that he served on that unfortunately was torpedoed on its way back. My father had, luckily for him, been taken off that ship prior to it departing.
On 6th June 1944 my father was in Tank Landing Craft on Omaha beach in support of US forces.
My father told me about Omaha beach but it wasn't until after his death when I watched Saving Private Ryan that I realized exactly what that must have been like.
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