|
|
|
HMHS Aba
If you can provide any additional information, please add it here.
|
Those known to have sailed in HMHS Aba 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,
please
Add a Name to this List
Records of HMHS Aba from other sources.
|
|
|
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. |
|
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.
|
|
Want to know more about HMHS Aba? There are:-1 items tagged HMHS Aba 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. |
|
Lt. Col. Pierce Lewis-Williams HMHS Aba Royal Army Medical Corps Pierce Lewis-Williams was a surgeon and dentist. His papers are held by the target="new">Gwynedd Archives.
|
Sister. Josephine Bernadette Connolly Josie Connolly was my mother who served as a Nursing Sister aboard the Hospital Ship Aba. Whilst aboard she met my father, Joe Ball, who was the Radio Officer on the ship. After the war they married and went on the raise six children, all of whom are still alive although my parents are sadly now both dead.
On one occasion my father fainted on board for no apparent reason. Sister Connolly took a urine sample and the results revealed that Joe had a high sugar level. When he woke up the next day he found a vase of Sweet Peas on his bedside table.
|
Sig. Arthur Thomas Steward Signal Regiment Dad, Arthur Steward contracted malaria in Egypt in 1942 and sailed on Aba to Haifa, Palestine to recuperate.
|
Pte. Frank Tierney 2nd Btn. Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders My father Frank Tierney served in the 2nd Battalion of the Camerons from May 1940 until just before the fall of Tobruk. Trained in Inverness he served in the Nairn Defence Platoon before shipping to serve in the Westen Desert, seeing action at Halfaiya Pass and other locations. He was part of the defence of Tobruk, serving in a mortar section prior to being evacuated following a wound on the hospital ship `Aba' prior to the fall of Tobruk.
He was subsequently transferred to the REME and saw action in North Africa until the capture of Tunis, taking part in the invasion of Sicily amd Italy before transfer back to the UK in early 1944.
He landed in Normandy on D-Day plus one and served in the British Liberation Army in France, Holland, Belgium and Germany before de-mob in 1946.
|
Harry Hunn HMHS Aba Please can anyone help? My dear grandad, Harry Hunn, was on a hospital ship called the `Aba'. He boarded the ship in 1940 and travelled to many places around the world. He gave me a wonderful book he wrote about his time on the Aba. I also have many photos of his travels while he was on the ship. My question is: does anyone know who else was aboard or what happened to the ship? Before war service it was used as a banana boat near Africa. I am unable to track its whereabouts now.
Update
Try this website, www.barrbram.demon.co.uk. There is a section called `What the eye sees'. If you make a request there about the history of the ship you are looking for, this guy may be able to help you and may even come up with a picture. - Stan
Update
Fancy, of all things, seeing your posting on this site. I thought I must be the last person in the world to know about this ship. I was in the Naval hospital at Bighi in Malta in 1944. The war was drawing to a close and I was a `walking' patient being sent back to the UK. I have to say in all honesty that it was not a very nice ship. It was a very old Army hospital ship. When the weather was fine, I used to love to be outside during the day. (It took us quite a time to reach Portsmouth.) We were somewhere near Italy and a man came up to me, he said `good morning' and we had a chat, then suddenly he stood up, said cheerio, and just went straight off the back of the ship. I did not see him surface, they did stop the ship to have a look for him, but found nobody. Another time we pulled into the harbour at Naples. There were some wounded Italian soldiers to be repatriated. The harbour front was empty and fog swirled all round, it was quite eerie. These soldiers went down the gangway into the harbour and the last I saw of them were vague shapes disappearing through the fog. I know they had been our enemy, but they were local lads going home and there was not a soul there to meet them. I have one or two other tales but mainly that is my memory for what it's worth, of Hospital Ship Aba. - Ralph
|
Recomended Reading.Available at discounted prices.
|
|
|
