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Ernest Spencer . British Army Duke of Wellington's (West Riding) Regiment from Leeds These details are of my paternal grandfather, Ernest Spencer. We can not find any information on him.
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F Spencer . British Army Duke of Wellingtons West Riding Regiment F Spencer served with the Duke of Wellingtons West Riding Regiment British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch. Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.
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FC Spencer . British Army Kings Liverpool Regiment FC Spencer served with the Kings Liverpool Regiment British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch. Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.
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F/Sgt. Frank Richard Spencer . Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve 514 Sqdn. from Manchester (d.16th June 1944) 514 Sqdn Lancaster II LL690 JI-J Valenciennes
took off at 2314 from RAF Waterbeach. Believed to have fallen victim to a night-fighter, coming down between Iwuy (Nord) and Rieux-en-Cambresis two small villages 9km NE and ENE respectively of Cambrai. Five lie in Rieux Communal Cemetery while F/S Hutt rests at Iwuy Communal Cemetery. Sgt Bloom is commemorated on panel 235 of Runnymede Memorial. The crew:
F/O E.A. Kingham
Sgt J. Black
F/S F.A. Spencer
Sgt B. Bloom
Sgt F.N. Ansell
Sgt D.G. Davis RCAF
Also lost from 514 Squadron on this raid was Lancaster II DS816-JI-O. Crew:F/S C.F. Prowles, Sgt H.A. Osborn, F/O A.H.Morrison, F/S R.B. Spenser, Sgt R. Surtees, Sgt. J. Porelli and Sgt. A.A.Holmes.
(Bob)
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G Spencer . British Army G Spencer served with the British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch. Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.
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G Spencer . British Army G Spencer served with the British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch. Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.
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G Spencer . British Army Kings Liverpool Regiment G Spencer served with the Kings Liverpool Regiment British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch. Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.
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Pte. George Thomas Spencer . British Army from Cancel Street, Hunslet George Thomas Spencer stayed behind to blow up a bridge and was going to be awarded a medal. Unfortunately, his Commanding Officer was killed so the report never went in. George Thomas Spencer was also the champion egg eater of the British Army. My family last had contact with his family in 1951. We would like to have George Thomas Spencer's date of death.
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GR Spencer . British Army Royal Armoured Corps GR Spencer served with the Royal Armoured Corps British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch. Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.
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Harold Jarvis "Dinky" Spencer . British Army Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry from Woodsetts, Worksop Harold Spencer served in WW2, he was my father. Sadly he died at the aged of 66 when I was 26. Does anyone remember him serving in his Regiment, the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry, or can anyone give me information about where he served in the War, what rank, what character he was. I am trying to put family history together for future generations.
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Pte. Harold Spencer . British Army Worcestershire Regiment 7th Btn. No funny story I'm afraid. The above details belong to my Father who passed away some years ago. I have all his belongings from his time in service as a young man from 1941 to 1946. From these I know he served in the Worcestershire Regt in 7th battery but no more.
If anyone who experienced service in India during this period can shine any light on the kind of experiences my Father would have endured I would love to be put in touch.
Thank you for this opportunity.
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Pte. Harold Percy Spencer . British Army 1st Btn. Sherwood Foresters from Longmead Drive, Edwards Lane, Nottingham Harold Spencer served with the 1st Battalion Sherwood Foresters in Palestine in 1939 and in Cyprus in 1940. He was taken prisoner by the Germans at Tobruk, North Africa on 20th June 1942. He was held in various POW camps, but the last known was Stalag 17a at Kaisersteinbruck bei Bruck. Harold was repatriated in 1945.
My great-uncle never recovered, emotionally, from his experiences as a POW and never once told his family about what happened. My mum says that he had been a very outgoing man, always playing with his nieces and nephew before the war, but was definitely a changed man when he returned home. He was single when he joined up and remained a bachelor his whole life. He died on 14th January 2004.
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Tpr. Henry Lee Spencer . British Army 2nd Btn. Royal Tank Corps from West Ham My father was a prisoner in Stalag XXA (54) in Thorn. He was Henry Lee Spencer, born March 27, 1912, Plaistow, West Ham; died June 28, 2000 Duncan, British Columbia, Canada. Trooper 7881077, 2nd Battalion, Royal Tank Corps, 1929 - 1935. Trooper, R.T.R., Calais HQ 1st Armoured Division, captured May 25, 1940 during defense of Calais. Survived "death march" to Poland. Prisoner number 7358, Stalag XXA(54). "Escaped" to the East on Wednesday 14th of February 1945 working his way down to Odessa where embarked on SS "Moreton Bay", 7th of March 1945.
A couple of Dad's chums were Frank Bylett, Norwood, London SE25; and Bill Barlow, Salford, Lancs.
Like most men, Dad said little about his P.O.W. experiences. I remember him talking about:
- how utterly unprepared the Brits were to defend Calais
- he saw one of his best friends killed by a Vichy/Nazi French sniper in one of the dock cranes at Calais
(This would explain my Dad's lifelong antipathy for the French. I remember when I was a young man I asked Dad if he had ever shot a man. With a twinkle in his eye, he said "No - but I think I winged a Frenchman.")
- he was in a bunker when a German officer opened the hatch, pointed a Tommy gun at them, and said in good English, "It's all over for you chaps."
- he saw men, too exhausted to walk, murdered in cold blood in the May 1940 march to prison camp
- how life as a prisoner was very unpleasant, and how men became very petty
- how the Brits never doubted for a moment that they would win the war
- how they starved in the last winter (1944 - 1945)
- how the guards in the last winter (1944 - 1945) were mostly old men and youths
- Dad slapped around a young fellow who was ready to give up and die after years as a P.O.W. - a not uncommon problem
- prisoners "borrowed" a piano and installed it in a hut
- they listened to the BBC and the guards would ask them for the latest news
- he put sand in the tanks of German lorries headed for the Russian front, when he was assigned to petrol them up
- he respected the men of the regular German army
- Brits utterly despised the Nazis - as did most men of the regular German army
- how the Polish resistance begged for help in January / February 1945, but British prisoners were warned not to help them
- how hazardous was his escape through the Baltics to Odessa
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Flt.Lt Hubert Arthur Spencer . Royal Air Force 61 Squadron from Grays, Essex I qualified as a wireless operator for aircrew and joined 61 Sqdn in February 1945 and operated from Skellingthorpe until May 1945.
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J Spencer . British Army J Spencer served with the British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch. Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.
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AC/1 J. Spencer . Royal Air Force No 2 MT Coy. 99 Squadron
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Capt. Jack Spencer . British Army Royal Army Ordnance Corps from Bury, Lancashire The sinking of the “Anslem”
Before the Second World War, one of my ambitions was to sail 1,000 miles up the Amazon on one of the Booth Line ships sailing regularly from Liverpool. The two vessels making this trip were the “Anselm” and the “Hildebrand” and the cost of the 100-day voyage was £100. Long before I was able to get anywhere near achieving my ambition the war came along and I quickly found myself a serving officer in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps.
After going through some training and service in the UK, I was notified in June 1941 that I was to go on seven days embarkation leave. Naturally, no indication was given as to my likely destination, but this was in fact the second time I had been destined for service overseas. On the first occasion in early 1940 my name was removed from the list of men due to leave for Singapore; this was because quite suddenly I had been selected for an immediate commission in the RAOC and I was required to report to an entirely new unit. This posting has nothing whatever to do with this story, but I mention it because many of my colleagues who did leave for Singapore finished their days on the Burma Railway project and in later years when on a business trip to Thailand I visited the British cemetery at Kanchnaburri – close by the bridge over the River Kwai. It was on that visit when the man in charge of the cemetery – which incidentally was beautifully maintained – allowed me to look through the long list of names of those who were buried there. I looked for the names of many of those with whom I had served and discovered that many of them had finished their days in the cemetery at Kanchnaburri. It was a very moving moment for sad reflection, the more so when I looked around and said to myself “There but for the Grace of God go I”.
At the risk of continuing this diversion from the main point of my story, it is worthy of recording that on this visit to Thailand I was working on a project for the World Bank and I was accompanied by a chap with whom I spent a lot of time while working for the Bank. The man to whom I refer was Japanese and during the war had actually worked on the survey and construction of the Burma Railway. When we went off on our duties on railway projects in various parts of the world it was the custom of this Japanese colleague of mine to wear a kind of field uniform with peak cap and high ankle boots similar to the uniform worn by Japanese soldiers during the war. On this particular visit to Kanchnaburri I knew in advance we would be visiting the cemetery so I told my colleague: “On this occasion please do not turn up in your usual outfit – wear something casual”. He was always willing to please and did as I asked, but the fact that he was with me made the visit even more emotional than it would have been without him.
I must now come back to my embarkation leave in June 1941. After the seven days were up I reported to a transit camp for officers at the Great Eastern Hotel on Marylebone Road in London. There I met several officers with whom I had trained in the early days after our commissioning; one of them was John Tucker who prior to the war was an executive with Marks & Spencer; another was named Barrie and he was a Shell employee. There were several more I knew well, but Barrie (I have forgotten his first name) was the comedian of the whole party and soon after we had our first briefings he made the comment: “We are bloody silly to come on this lark”. I may say these briefings of course gave us no indication at all of where we were destined for, but as we were issued with mosquito boots and other paraphernalia – including pith helmets – it was generally assumed that we were destined for West Africa – the White Man’s Grave! For this reason Barrie lost no opportunity at very frequent intervals to make his famous comment reminding us “We were bloody silly to go on this lark”.
After several days in London we boarded a train at some mysterious station I think near to Hammersmith. The train was a special one with only one stop – Liverpool. On arrival we marched down to the landing stage and, always having been keen on a sea voyage, I was delighted to see the magnificent Royal Mail ship “Reina del Pacifico” – she looked beautiful and our detachment made the for gangway. There we were advised that we had got to the wrong ship; the gangway man pointed a long way downwards to a very small vessel lying at the next berth. He said “That is your vessel – the Anselm.” Well, it looked a small ship but it was in fact about 6,000 tons and I was quite pleased to think I was at last going to sail on the Booth Line ship but I realised it was most unlikely we would be sailing 1,000 miles up the Amazon.
We eventually set sail with other ships from the Mersey and headed for the Clyde where we were marshalled with many other vessels to form quite a large convoy. On the trip to the Clyde the “Anselm” had shown signs of tending to limp along very slowly, but a few days after leaving the Clyde she was in quite serious trouble and was left behind by the convoy as she was quite unable to keep up the pace. The convoy did not have a very big naval escort and it must have been very difficult for the Commodore to reach his decision to allocate two of his corvettes to the “Anselm” and “Challenger” (a Royal Navy survey vessel). We made very slow progress and Barrie continued to remind us how silly we were to come on this trip. I was fortunate to get accommodation in a four-berth cabin with John Tucker, Barrie and John Dow, and considering it was wartime we had quite a pleasant voyage – for about a week!
For seven nights we were ordered to sleep with our clothes on as we were passing through an area at great risk from enemy submarines. On the eighth night we were considered to be safe and permission was given to sleep in pyjamas. However, on this particular night I was unable to get any sleep at all. I first went to my bunk at about 10.30pm; an hour later I got up, donned my dressing gown and walked all round the ship; on the boat deck it was a beautiful night with an oil calm sea. I looked all around and had a strange feeling of unease. I returned to my cabin and still I could not sleep. The other three occupants were fast asleep so I crept out again at 1.00am and again at 3.30am. On both occasions I marvelled at the beauty of the calm night, but I still had a most strange feeling of unease. It must have been 4.00am when I finally got to my bunk and at about 5.00am there was a low-sounding thud which seemed to knock the ship sideways from the port side.
Even though there was not a loud explosion I knew straight away that we had been torpedoed and my immediate thought was – that is why I have been uneasy and that must be what my subconscious mind had been anticipating. I jumped down from my bunk and believe it or not I had to waken the other three officers and tell them we had been torpedoed. At first they thought I was fooling, but when the lights went out and the voice from the bridge gave orders to abandon ship they were fully convinced. We all went up on deck with life jackets and minimum clothing. I surveyed the scene and saw the torpedo had struck forward and must have exploded in the troops’ sleeping quarters. Afterwards I learned it had blown away the escape ladders and the men could not get out. An RAF Padre, named George, asked to be lowered to the men, knowing he would never escape. It was a very brave and Christian act. Several years afterwards – it was after the end of the war – I read in the newspapers that the Padre had been awarded the George Medal posthumously.
The ship was sinking fairly quickly and the water was gradually creeping along the deck nearer and nearer to where I was standing with John Tucker at our lifeboat station. There was a lot of difficulty with the lifeboats; some were not lowered at all, while one was successfully lowered and filled with men when the next boat swung out and dropped on top of them. A lot of men threw rafts and other floatable material into the sea and then jumped in afterwards to their rescue platforms. This meant that some men already in the water got quite hefty stuff dropped on top of them. John Tucker and I watched all this and resolved not to jump until the water got close to our feet. While waiting for this to happen we could not help being amused to see an RAF officer clinging to a rope – he was in full service dress including peak cap – while trying to manoeuvre a raft with his feet so that he could get on to it, presumably hoping he would not get wet! There was also another humorous moment when our friend Barrie arrived on deck, exclaiming more convincingly than ever “I told you we were bloody silly to come on this lark!”
On looking around us I observed that the ”Challenger” and one of the corvettes were standing by to pick up survivors while the other corvette was sailing round dropping depth charges. I looked across to the “Challenger” and decided no matter what happened I could swim that distance – I should think it was no more than 500 yards. It was a strange feeling – for I had an inner feeling of confidence that I would make it. When the water crept up to us we did jump and I resolved to make a bee-line for the “Challenger”, but the strange thing is I remember absolutely nothing of the time I was in the water. This is not surprising for after I was eventually hauled up on the “Challenger” I developed the largest black eye I have ever had. This must have been caused by a small raft or other material dropping on me while in the water. I suppose I must have been in a pretty bad way for I was put to bed in an officer’s cabin on the “Challenger” and I must have slept for quite a long time.
The “Challenger” was a very small vessel and she picked up close on 600 survivors. The “Anselm”’s total complement – troops and crew – was about twelve hundred and I believe over three hundred men lost their lives. The morning after the sinking an armed merchant cruiser, the P & O liner “Cathay” arrived on the scene. She was not allowed to stop but lowered scrambling nets and we had to scramble up in quite a heavy sea. The Royal Navy men on “Cathay” were very kind and helped out with clothing and necessaries; eventually we put in to Freetown, Sierra Leone and later sailed in a small vessel “Surprise” to Lagos, Nigeria where I stayed for two years.
In Nigeria I landed a job in which I was very happy. I was in charge of an ammunition depot at Oshodi. I had five British NCO’s, about 100 African troops of the West African Frontier Force and a small army of casual labourers to handle the ammunition. I was the only officer on the depot and my house was a bamboo hut with palm thatch roof. The depot was about twelve miles from Lagos so I was pretty much my own boss.
Being so near to Lagos I was able to go into the city about once a week and I often used to attend the Saturday night dances at the Ikoyi club. On one of these visits there were several naval officers in the club – obviously from a vessel newly arrived in the harbour. One of these officers came over to me and said “Are you Captain Spencer?” I said that I was and to my amazement he said “You were on the Anselm, do you not remember me?” I had to admit that I did not remember him. He then informed me that he had been in charge of one of the lifeboats going around picking up survivors and he had a very full boat when they encountered me in the water. As he couldn’t get me in the boat he put a rope round my shoulders and dragged me along to the ladder of the “Challenger”. I suppose this account of what happened – and the black eye – together explain why I do not remember my time in the water!
Jack Spencer.
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2nd Lt. Jack Spencer . British Army Royal Army Ordnance Corps from Bury, Lancashire The sinking of the Anslem
Before the Second World War one of my ambitions was to sail 1,000 miles up the Amazon on one of the Booth Line ships sailing regularly from Liverpool. The two vessels making this trip were the Anselm and the Hildebrand and the cost of the 100-day voyage was £100. Long before I was able to get anywhere near achieving my ambition, the war came along and I quickly found myself a serving officer in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps.
After going through some training and service in the UK, I was notified in June 1941 that I was to go on seven days embarkation leave. Naturally, no indication was given as to my likely destination, but this was in fact the second time I had been destined for service overseas. On the first occasion in early 1940 my name was removed from the list of men due to leave for Singapore; this was because quite suddenly I had been selected for an immediate commission in the RAOC and I was required to report to an entirely new unit. This posting has nothing whatever to do with this story but I mention it because many of my colleagues who did leave for Singapore finished their days on the Burma Railway project, and in later years when on a business trip to Thailand I visited the British cemetery at Kanchnaburri – close by the bridge over the River Kwai. It was on that visit when the man in charge of the cemetery – which incidentally was beautifully maintained – allowed me to look through the long list of names of those who were buried there. I looked for the names of many of those with whom I had served and discovered that many of them had finished their days in the cemetery at Kanchnaburri. It was a very moving moment for sad reflection, the more so when I looked around and said to myself "There but for the Grace of God go I".
At the risk of continuing this diversion from the main point of my story, it is worthy of recording that on this visit to Thailand I was working on a project for the World Bank and I was accompanied by a chap with whom I spent a lot of time while working for the Bank. The man to whom I refer was a Japanese and during the war had actually worked on the survey and construction of the Burma Railway. When we went off on our duties on railway projects in various parts of the world it was the custom of this Japanese colleague of mine to wear a kind of field uniform with peak cap and high ankle boots similar to the uniform worn by Japanese soldiers during the war. On this particular visit to Kanchnaburri I knew in advance we would be visiting the cemetery so I told my colleague: “On this occasion please do not turn up in your usual outfit – wear something casual”. He was always willing to please and did as I asked but the fact that he was with me made the visit even more emotional than it would have been without him.
I must now come back to my embarkation leave in June 1941. After the seven days were up I reported to a transit camp for officers at the Great Eastern Hotel on Marylebone Road in London. There I met several officers with whom I had trained in the early days after our commissioning; one of them was John Tucker who prior to the war was an executive with Marks & Spencer; another was named Barrie and he was a Shell employee. There were several more I knew well but Barrie (I have forgotten his first name) was the comedian of the whole party and soon after we had our first briefings he made the comment: “We are bloody silly to come on this lark”. I may say these briefings of course gave us no indication at all of where we were destined for, but as we were issued with mosquito boots and other paraphernalia – including pith helmets – it was generally assumed that we were destined for West Africa – the White Man’s Grave! For this reason Barrie lost no opportunity at very frequent intervals to make his famous comment reminding us "We were bloody silly to go on this lark".
After several days in London we boarded a train at some mysterious station I think near to Hammersmith. The train was a special one with only one stop – Liverpool. On arrival we marched down to the landing stage, and always having been keen on a sea voyage, I was delighted to see the magnificent Royal Mail ship "Reina del Pacifico" – she looked beautiful and our detachment made the for gangway. There we were advised that we had got to the wrong ship; the gangway man pointed a long way downwards to a very small vessel lying at the next berth. He said "That is your vessel – the Anselm!" Well, it looked a small ship but it was in fact about 6,000 tons and I was quite pleased to think I was at last going to sail on the Booth Line ship but I realised it was most unlikely we would be sailing 1,000 miles up the Amazon.
We eventually set sail with other ships from the Mersey and headed for the Clyde where we were marshalled with many other vessels to form quite a large convoy. On the trip to the Clyde the Anselm had shown signs of tending to limp along very slowly, but a few days after leaving the Clyde she was in quite serious trouble and was left behind by the convoy as she was quite unable to keep up the pace. The convoy did not have a very big naval escort and it must have been very difficult for the Commodore to reach his decision to allocate two of his corvettes to the Anselm and Challenger (a Royal Navy survey vessel). We made very slow progress and Barrie continued to remind us how silly we were to come on this trip. I was fortunate to get accommodation in a four-berth cabin with John Tucker, Barrie and John Dow, and considering it was wartime we had quite a pleasant voyage – for about a week!
For seven nights we were ordered to sleep with our clothes on as we were passing through an area at great risk from enemy submarines. On the eight night we were considered to be safe and permission was given to sleep in pyjamas. However, on this particular night I was unable to get any sleep at all. I first went to my bunk at about 10.30 pm; an hour later I got up, donned my dressing gown and walked all round the ship; on the boat deck it was a beautiful night with an oil calm sea. I looked all around and had a strange feeling of unease. I returned to my cabin and still I could not sleep. The other three occupants were fast asleep so I crept out again at 1:00 am and again at 3.30 am. On both occasions I marvelled at the beauty of the calm night but I still had a most strange feeling on unease. It must have been 4.00 am when I finally got to my bunk and at about 5:00 am there was a low-sounding thud which seemed to knock the ship sideways from the port side.
Even though there was not a loud explosion I knew straight away that we had been torpedoed and my immediate thought was – that is why I have been uneasy and that must be what my subconscious mind had been anticipating. I jumped down from my bunk and believe it or not I had to waken the other three officers and tell them we had been torpedoed. At first they thought I was fooling but when the lights went out and the voice from the bridge gave orders to abandon ship they were fully convinced. We all went up on deck with life jackets and minimum clothing. I surveyed the scene and saw the torpedo had struck forward and must have exploded in the troops’ sleeping quarters. Afterwards I learned it had blown away the escape ladders and the men could not get out. An RAF Padre, named George, asked to be lowered to the men, knowing he would never escape. It was a very brave and Christian act. Several years afterwards – it was after the end of the war – I read in the newspapers that the Padre had been awarded the George Medal posthumously.
The ship was sinking fairly quickly and the water was gradually creeping along the deck nearer and nearer to where I was standing with John Tucker at our lifeboat station. There was a lot of difficulty with the lifeboats; some were not lowered at all, while one was successfully lowered and filled with men when the next boat swung out and dropped on top of them. A lot of men threw rafts and other floatable material into the sea and then jumped in afterwards to their rescue platforms. This meant that some men already in the water got quite hefty stuff dropped on top of them. John Tucker and I watched all this and resolved not to jump until the water got close to our feet. While waiting for this to happen we could not help being amused at seeing an RAF officer clinging to a rope – he was in full service dress including peak cap – while trying to manoeuvre a raft with his feet so that he could get on to it, presumably hoping he would not get wet! There was also another humorous moment when our friend Barrie arrived on deck, exclaiming more convincingly than ever "I told you we were bloody silly to come on this lark!"
On looking around us I observed that the Challenger and one of the corvettes were standing by to pick up survivors while the other corvette was sailing round dropping depth charges. I looked across to the Challenger and decided no matter what happened I could swim that distance – I should think it was no more than 500 yards. It was a strange feeling – for I had an inner feeling of confidence that I would make it. When the water crept up to us we did jump and I resolved to make a bee-line for the Challenger but the strange thing is I remember absolutely nothing of the time I was in the water. This is not surprising for after I was eventually hauled up on the Challenger I developed the largest black eye I have ever had. This must have been caused by a small raft or other material dropping on me while in the water. I suppose I must have been in a pretty bad way for I was put to bed in an officer’s cabin on the Challenger and I must have slept for quite a long time.
The Challenger was a very small vessel and she picked up close on 600 survivors. The Anselm’s total complement – troops and crew – was about twelve hundred and I believe over three hundred men lost their lives. The morning after the sinking an armed merchant cruiser, the P & O liner Cathay arrived on the scene. She was not allowed to stop but lowered scrambling nets and we had to scramble up in quite a heavy sea. The Royal Navy men on Cathay were very kind and helped out with clothing and necessaries; eventually we put in to Freetown, Sierra Leone, and later sailed in a small vessel Surprise to Lagos, Nigeria, where I stayed for two years.
In Nigeria I landed a job in which I was very happy. I was in charge of an ammunition depot at Oshodi. I had five British NCO’s, about 100 African troops of the West African Frontier Force, and a small army of casual labourers to handle the ammunition. I was the only officer on the depot and my house was a bamboo hut with palm thatch roof. The depot was about twelve miles from Lagos so I was pretty much my own boss.
Being so near to Lagos I was able to go into the city about once a week and I often used to attend the Saturday night dances at the Ikoyi club. On one of these visits there were several naval officers in the club – obviously from a vessel newly arrived in the harbour. One of these officers came over to me and said "Are you Captain Spencer?" I said that I was and to my amazement he said "You were on the Anselm, do you not remember me?" I had to admit that I did not remember him. He then informed me that he had been in charge of one of the lifeboats going around picking up survivors and he had a very full boat when they encountered me in the water. As he couldn’t get me in the boat he put a rope round my shoulders and dragged me along to the ladder of the Challenger. I suppose this account of what happened – and the black eye – together explain why I do not remember my time in the water!
Jack Spencer
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JE Spencer . British Army Royal Armoured Corps JE Spencer served with the Royal Armoured Corps British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch. Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.
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Pte. John Edward Spencer . British Army 6th Btn. Royal Norfolk Regiment from Swayfield, Grantham, Lincolnshire Jack Spencer served with 6th Btn. Royal Norfolk Regiment.
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Leonard Ernest Spencer . Royal Navy from Southampton Len Spencer served in the Royal Navy in WW2, he lived until the age of 95.
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Les Spencer . Home Guard Feltwell Btn.
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Dvr. R Spencer . British Army Royal Army Service Corps Dvr.R Spencer served with the Royal Army Service Corps British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch. Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.
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RA Spencer . British Army Royal Armoured Corps RA Spencer served with the Royal Armoured Corps British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch. Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.
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RL Spencer . British Army RL Spencer served with the British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch. Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.
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F/Sgt. Ronald Bernard Spencer . Royal Australian Air Force 514 Sqdn. from Australia (d.16th June 1944) F/Sgt R.B. Spencer was lost after a raid on Valenciennes on 16th June 1944. Six of the crew of Lancaster II DS816 JI-O are buried at Croisilles British War Cemetery (one member survived and evaded capture). The full crew were:
F/Sgt C.F. Prowles, KIA
Sgt. H.A. Osborn, KIA
F/Sgt R.B. Spencer, KIA
Sgt. R. Surtees, KIA
Sgt. J. Porrelli, KIA
Sgt. A.A. Holmes, KIA
F/O A.H. Morrison, evaded capture
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L/Bdr. Samuel "Chunky" Spencer . British Army 7th Armoured Div Royal Horse Artillery from Wirksworth, Derbys
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SF Spencer . British Army SF Spencer served with the British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch. Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.
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TB Spencer . British Army 15/19th Hussars TB Spencer served with the 15/19th Hussars British Army. I have his unissued dogtags, made in preparation for deployment to the Far East and would love to get them home to his family. I am happy to cover all costs. If you are a family member or can put me in touch with them please get in touch. Update: The Wartime Memories Project is no longer in contact with Dan , his website, facebook page and email have all ceased to function. But if you can add any details about the person listed, please use the add to record link below.
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S/Ldr. Terence Spencer DFC. Royal Air Force 350 Sqdn. S/Ldr Spencer served with 350 and 41 Squadrons during WWII.
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