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HMCS Brandon
The SS Fort Brandon was built in 1943 by the Burrard Dry Dock Co., in North Vancouver for the Ministry of War Transport.
In 1948 she was sold to Counties Ship Management, London and renamed Laurentian Hill and had further changes of name and owners before being scrapped in 1985 and broken up in China.
If you can provide any additional information, please add it here.
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Those known to have sailed in HMCS Brandon 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 HMCS Brandon from other sources.
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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.
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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.
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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 HMCS Brandon? There are:0 items tagged HMCS Brandon 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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EA3. Glen Aiken Johnston HMCS Avalon    My father, Glen Johnston served in HMCS Brandon and at HMCS Avalon where he maintained the German Enigma cypher machine. Dad was part of the Royal Canadian Navy's 8-man,Intrepid team which obtained a working, 4-rotor, German, Enigma, cypher machine without the Nazi's knowledge. This enabled the Allied forces to read coded German messages in the last year or so of the war. As the mission was top secret, Dad received no recognition for his role. A made-for-TV movie of this operation was produced by Warner Brothers, A Man Called Intrepid, starring David Niven, Michael York and Barbara Hershey. It wasn't until the end of the show on TV that I found out about Dad's part. When the so-called Enigma cypher machine was shown Dad blurted out, "That's not the right machine!" He then added that it was the old 3-rotor model. The one that they had captured was the new 4-rotor machine. He then proceeded to rattle off the model number and various specifications. I was dumbfounded. He said that he had been sworn to secrecy, but as they had made a movie about it, it wasn't much of a secret any more. I gained a whole lot of new respect for my father on that day.
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Able Sea. Sidney Andrew Watkins Sidney Andrew Watkins, service number R164516 Fireman AB/Gunner, British Merchant Navy from 1940 to 1946. He served on vessels Vimiera, Lornaston, Calgary, Norman Star, Port Sydney, Ocean Volga, Ocean Fame, Empire Pibroch, Fort Brandon and SS Tudor Star. It was aboard the Tudor Star that dad and the crew received a letter of congratulations from the Admiralty of the Fleet dated 17th February 1941, about an encounter with an enemy aeroplane they shot down on 4th February 1941.
If anyone can shed light on the movements of any of these vessel it would be very much appreciated. I do have account of wage dockets to my father from all above vessels but not much else, and like others am attempting to piece together war memories that can be passed on to my children and grandchildren.
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Firemn. Sidney Andrew Watkins SS. Fort Brandon Looking for anyone who served with my father, Sidney A. Watkins,in the Merchant Navy.
I have his war payslips from nine vessels he served on whilst in merchant navy; SS Tudor Star,SS Fort Brandon, SS Vimeira, SS Lornaston, SS Calgary, SS Norman Star, SS Port Sydney, SS Ocean Volga, SS Oceanfame, SS Empire Pibroch
While serving on SS Tudor Star he got a letter from the Admiralty thanking the crew for shooting down enemy planes on 4th February 1941.
I am trying to build a family tree and fill in missing links through war years, before he came to New Zealand in 1947/8 aboard the SS. Port Maquarie.
I am trying to establish, for his children, grand and great grand childern, this part of his history. I would be grateful for any information anyone can provide
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Mjr. Willliam Wynn-Werninck 19 MT Company Royal Army Service Corps  I sailed over to Arromanches from Tilbury with my unit, 19 Company RASC (MT) of some 250 vehicles, aboard the
Canadian built Liberty ship
Fort Brandon.
We anchored about 2 miles off Arromanches on the east side of the Mulberry Harbour.
That evening about 1000 pm a German bomber flew over us. There was some sp
eculation about what th
e plane was up to, the
feeling being that she was dropping acoustic mines. That night, fro
m a flat calm evening, it blew
up Force 5-6, causing the
Captain concern that
Fort Brandons
anchor chain could set off a nearby mine.
Next morning I watched our vehicles being unloaded onto the big Rhino barges run by the Sappers and went back to my cabin for
a wash and brush up before breakfast. I was just doing this when
there was a heck of a bang. I shot
out on deck where I was
appalled to see, 2 cables away, a corvette type of ship with her bows blown off to the 4.7 gun mounting. She was blowing off
clouds of steam but slowly got
under way, having eased the surv
ivors away, and started heading fo
r the beach adjoining the
Mulberry caissons. We were all saddened on deck as no lifeboat was lowered to help those in the water and, in particular, one
sailor who was manfully swimming
towards the beach a long way ah
ead. Lifeboats were not lowered
for fear of mines. I then
hurried back to my cabin and did three small
water-colour sketches of what I had seen.
In July 1994 I found these sketches and
wrote to Navy News to ask if anyone could identify the ship. To my delight the next
Navy News had several letters in it whic
h gave her name as HMS Orchis (K76).
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Ord.Sea John Quine SS Fort Brandon In 1944 I was serving aboard SS Fort Brandon in Antwerp. I got cheesed of after a night of bombing in the siberia dry dock. For some relief I decided to go to the Rex movie cinema the next day. At 3.15pm a v2 hit the cinema killing over 500 people. I should have stayed aboard.
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