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The Wartime Memories Project is the original WW1 and WW2 commemoration website.
Announcements
- 1st of September 2024 marks 25 years since the launch of the Wartime Memories Project. Thanks to everyone who has supported us over this time.
- The Wartime Memories Project has been running for 25 years. If you would like to support us, a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting and admin or this site will vanish from the web.
- 18th Dec 2024 - Please note we currently have a huge backlog of submitted material, our volunteers are working through this as quickly as possible and all names, stories and photos will be added to the site. If you have already submitted a story to the site and your UID reference number is higher than
265120 your information is still in the queue, please do not resubmit, we are working through them as quickly as possible.
- Looking for help with Family History Research?
Please read our Family History FAQs
- The free to access section of The Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers and funded by donations from our visitors. If the information here has been helpful or you have enjoyed reaching the stories please conside making a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting or this site will vanish from the web.
If you enjoy this site
please consider making a donation.
Want to find out more about your relative's service? Want to know what life was like during the War? Our
Library contains an ever growing number diary entries, personal letters and other documents, most transcribed into plain text. |
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Wanted: Digital copies of Group photographs, Scrapbooks, Autograph books, photo albums, newspaper clippings, letters, postcards and ephemera relating to WW2. We would like to obtain digital copies of any documents or photographs relating to WW2 you may have at home. If you have any unwanted
photographs, documents or items from the First or Second World War, please do not destroy them.
The Wartime Memories Project will give them a good home and ensure that they are used for educational purposes. Please get in touch for the postal address, do not sent them to our PO Box as packages are not accepted.
World War 1 One ww1 wwII second 1939 1945 battalion
Did you know? We also have a section on The Great War. and a
Timecapsule to preserve stories from other conflicts for future generations.
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Want to know more about HMS Royal Sovereign? There are:4 items tagged HMS Royal Sovereign 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. Arthur Leslie "Jeff" Jeffries HMS Resolution My father, Arthur Jeffries served in the Royal Navy from 23rd of October 1924 until he was medically discharged on 2nd of February 1942.
He served on Battle ships and Heavy Cruisers mainly in the Mediterranean Fleet.
He served on the HMS Royal Sovereign from 17th Jan 1938 until April 1940 (I think) when he was posted to HMS Resolution on which he served until it was torpedoed by the Vichy French submarine Beveziers on 25th of September 1940 where he was injured which eventually lead to his discharge from the service.
He also served on HMS Valiant, Royal Oak and HMS Sussex.
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Ord.Sig. Frederick Grierson HMS Royal Sovereign My Dad, Frederick Grierson, was in the Royal Navy from August 1938 to December 1945 serving on a total of 16 different ships including the HMS Royal Sovereign. I have his full Certificate of service. Dad died in 1987.
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Stkr. George William Lee HMS Royal Sovereign George Lee was my grandfather. When I was a child he used to tell me about the parts of the world he had travelled to aboard HMS Royal Sovereign during WW2.
Places I recollect are Malta, the Suez Canal, Sierra Leone, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and I think Bombay (Mumbai).
I remember him talking about sailors throwing coins into the sea from on board when docked in Sierra Leone and the locals would dive in to retrieve them!
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Joseph William Griffin 281st Kings Squadron My Grandad, Joseph Griffin served from 1937 to 1945. He
did his training at Deal in Kent, I think.
His first ship was the Royal Sovereign which he was not on for too long. Then he was assigned to HMS Southampton from which I have a very interesting journal he kept from the first day he arrived on her to her last day when she was badly damaged by four direct hits from Stuka dive bombers just off Malta. There were a lot of men killed into the eighty's and more than one hundred injured, the ship was that badly damaged she had to be abandoned. The men were saved by other boats in the convoy. He watched as two Navy destroyers torpedoed her to sink her so she could not be repaired by Axis forces.
The men were taken to Alexandria where they were looked after. Later my grandfather was assigned to HMS York which was guarding commercial ships in the Mediterranean and moving men and equipment from Greece to Egypt amongst other duties. On one such occasion collecting troops from Souda Bay she was surprised by, I think, four Italian motor torpedo launches of which two were successful in damaging the York who was beached in Souda Bay, Crete. I know he was hiding in caves on Crete and was there through the Battle of Crete and didn't leave until April 1941.
If anyone has any more information about the crews time in Crete I would be very grateful if they would post it.
Thanks in advance.
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Stkr. Frank Frances Brown HMS Royal Sovereign     My father's brother, Frank Brown, of Norwich, Norfolk was a fishmongers assistant at the start of World War 2.
He signed up to join the Royal Navy and was in class 107 at HMS Royal Arthur from 25th of February 1941 to 31st of March 1941 this is taken from his Royal Navy Record. On the photo he second from the right on the back row.
He then went to HMS Pembroke until 21st of July 1941.
He then served on HMS Royal Sovereign from 21st of July 1941 to 13th of December 1943 as a Stoker First Class, during his time with the ship it served in the Mediterranean as an escort ship. He also went to America where the HMS Royal Sovereign had a refit in Philadelphia, whilst being refitted the Ships Steering wheel was presented to the city as a token of appreciation of the hospitality shown to the officers and crew.
He then went back to HMS Pembroke for a while before going to HMS Braganza which is in the Royal Navy barracks in Bombay India 1st of May 1945 until 30th of November 1945. Finally he spent a week at HMS Sultan finishing with HMS Pembroke on 4 May 1946
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Stoker 1/Cl. Bertram Wood DSM HMS Ark Royal (d.1942) My grandfather, Bertram Wood DSM, served in the Royal Navy from 1924 until April 1942, when he was killed. He served in HMS Ark Royal, HMS Royal Sovereign, HMS Pembroke, HMS Chatham, HMS Repulse, HMS Renown, HMS Ramillies, HMS Valiant, HMS Pegasus, HMS Ajax and HMS Havock.
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