
As Remembrance Sunday approaches in November, I thought I would share – with permission – a memorial that one of my neighbours in Hadleigh, Suffolk made to a Merchant Navy seafarer lost in action.
The memorial is to the householder's late father Geoffrey Phillip Garrod, a radio officer who went down during the Second World War in his vessel the MV Frederick S. Fales.
The ship was torpedoed and sunk in HX 72, the first convoy to die after leaving Halifax, Nova Scotia. The date was 21/22 September 1940.
It is very pleasant to witness in this present day that someone is remembered.
Brian Lazenby
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As you will know, this year marks the 80th anniversary of VE Day. I enclose a copy of a transmission, sent by telegraphy in May 1945, from the Admiralty to 'all ships', expressing the victory message to the Merchant Navy, from the minister of war transport.