Roland Purcell was my late father, who passed away in 1963. I was only seven years of age at that time and knew very little about my father’s WW2 service. I was looking through some tins of historic paperwork kept by my late mother, and in these tins were some documents related to his wartime service. I then obtained my father’s army records from Glasgow which gave me some detailed information about his service activities.
At age 21, he joined the Royal Artillery in January 1941, and after training volunteered for the Maritime Regiment manning guns on merchant ships. This regiment was later renamed Royal Maritime Artillery and the ships were referred to as DEMS (Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships). I then had some research done from the National Archives that detailed which vessels he served on and where the vessels had been.
His first vessel was the MV Antigone. He signed on there in Hull on 12th of January 1942 and sailed on 29th of January 1942 to New York via Loch Ewe in Scotland, arriving in New York on 26th of February 1942.
He remained in New York until he joined the MV Myrtlebank, which was under repair and sailed on 25th of June 1942 calling at Trinidad and Table Bay, South Africa, where it underwent further repairs, then sailing to Port Sudan, Suez, Mombasa via Aden, then to Australia via Dar-es-Salaam, arriving in Melbourne on 15th of December 1942. The ship sailed to Sydney 5 days later and then continued around the coast, collecting wheat before sailing on 20th of January 1943 to South America. It arrived at Balboa, Panama Canal, on 3rd of March 1943, then proceeded to Guantanamo Bay en route back to the UK via New York, from whence it sailed on 20th of March 1943 to Belfast, arriving on 9th of April 1943, and finally sailing to Swansea, where Roland was discharged to shore on 15th of April 1943. There he found that he had been allocated to the newly reformed 5th Maritime Regiment whilst at sea. He was then on leave from 19th of April 1943 until 17th of May 1943.
On 16th of June 1943 he joined the SS Ranitiki in Liverpool. This was a troop ship, and the official log book shows it was to be a 3-month voyage. The ship sailed on 19th of June 1943 going to Freetown, Montevideo, and Buenos Aires before returning to Liverpool on 10th of August 1943
via Freetown, arriving back in Liverpool on 24th of September 1943, where he was paid off.
The trail goes somewhat cool in the next 12 months as the next recorded time served on a ship was on 15th of October 1944, when he signed on to the MV Antonio at Barry Island. It sailed for Bari in Italy via Augusta, Sicily and then to Bone and Algiers, where the vessel stayed until 31st of January 1945 when it called at Gibraltar before returning to the UK, arriving back on 15th of February 1945.
I was told by my late mother that Roland survived a sinking, but there are no records of this in the information I have so far. However, there are some sizable gaps in Roland’s army service. I am wondering if this sinking could have been in the large gap between 1st January 1944 and his next recorded service on a ship in October 1944. This would have included the periods of time prior and subsequent to the Normandy lanings. One of my surviving aunts told me that Roland was aboard vessels that transported troops across the Channel during D-Day.
Roland was at sea again in March 1945, joining the SS Empire Archer at Hartlepool on 17th of March 1945, sailing to the Thames and then on to New York, arriving there on 14th of April 1945 and putting into a shipyard for repairs to a propeller. The ship sailed on 13th of May 1945 to Gibraltar, arriving on 28th of May 1945, then proceeded to Augusta and Oran. It then sailed to Rio de Janeiro, arriving on 2nd of July 1945, then returning to the UK 5 days later with a load of iron ore. The ship arrived back at Dover on 1st of August 1945, where he was discharged. That was his last recorded shipboard service as a gunner.
In October of 1945, he was posted to Germany as part of the BAOR, where he served in the 26th Light AA Regiment, later transferring to the 124th Light AA Regiment, which was re-organized first as the 29th Field Regiment of the RA and then later as the 19th Field Regiment.
On 19th of June 1947, Roland transferred to "A" Class army reserve. On 13th of January 1948, he transferred to "B" Class army reserve at the end of 7 years’ Colour Service. On 13th of January 1953, he was discharged at the expiry of his 12 years of army service. He was awarded the following wartime campaign medals: Pacific Star, Atlantic Star, Italy Star and 1939-1945 war medals. He was also given a signed memento from the Maritime Royal Artillery as an ‘appreciation of the valuable services you personally rendered’.
Whilst in New York on shore leave during the war, he visited the famous Jack Dempsey’s Restaurant, and in one of his old documents I found a piece of yellow card which read ‘Good luck boys’ and was signed by Jack Dempsey. I have checked the signature, and it is genuine.
It beggars belief that, starting at the age of 21, my father sailed the oceans throughout the Second World War with all the dangers they encompassed, that he travelled the world over and survived where so many thousands did not. It’s ironic, really, that he died of lung cancer at the age of 42 but saw more in his 42 years than most do in a normal lifetime. It is important to his descendants that his wartime story be told, and it was with a sense of pride that my father served his country with distinction as did all his comrades both in the armed services and in the merchant navy. God bless every single one of them.
