Author: davidt

Harold Reginald Mansell Davies

British Merchant Navy – 3rd Radio Officer

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Harold’s story is one of the saddest to come out of the Nerissa sinking. The SS Nerissa was his first ship as a radio officer and the start of his career in the British Merchant Navy.

Harold was born in 1912 in Port Talbot, Wales, the son of William Davies and Rachel Ann Thomas. He had three brothers, Percy Josiah, Ernest Strother and Aldridge Arthur. Their father was a train driver, earning 38 shillings a week and working 12 hours a day with no weekends.

William died in the flu epidemic of 1919 at age 46 leaving his wife Rachel to bring up the four boys, ages 11, 10, 8 and 5.

Harold went to Dan-y-Graig School and then Port Talbot Central. When he left school there were no jobs so he worked on a farm at Knutsford, Cheshire. He eventually trained as a radio operator and joined the Merchant Navy. Harold and his wife Vera Davidson had no children.

Letter from Harold written to his brother Aldridge from the SS Nerissa.

The following letter from Harold was sent to his brother Aldridge just days before the Nerissa sailed for Canada. The Nerissa was Harold’s first ship as a radio operator. Aldridge and Kathleen’s marriage took place on June 7, 1941 just a few weeks after Harold’s death and was of course a very sombre affair.

H.R. Davies
Wireless Officer
c/o Furness Withy & Co.
Royal Lines Bldgs.
Liverpool

Dear Aldridge,

Here I am on board ship at last, quite a good one too. I have been very fortunate in getting on her for my first trip. The only boring part about it is the fact that I have to stay on board while we are in port, which may be for another week or more, and as the wireless room is sealed up I have nothing to do except walk the deck. Still I expect I will become quite used to it in a day or so. I managed to run home for a few hours on Saturday night and came back Sunday afternoon, at my own risk of course, but it was worth it. Vera is coming to see me on Wednesday, her half day, so if I can run home again next weekend it will soon be time for us to sail and I will have filled the time up.

The food we get is very good indeed, and the officers that are left on board are quite friendly. The first and second wireless officers are quite good fellows from what I have seen of them. They have gone home on leave and it will be my job to advise them when we sail. I am not able to tell you where we will be going to but I expect I shall find out when we sail.

Vera is staying with Mother until things settle down a little and she sees how she will go on, or if Mother goes away for Easter. In the meantime she is keeping her eyes open to see if any houses should become empty in the Bentcliffe area. Regarding finances, the only allotment the Marconi Co. allow me to make is £5.00 per month which is reduced to £4.10.0 by allotment of subscription to the Radio Officers’ Union. The first £4.10.0 in my case will be made payable at the end of April so until that time things will have to go very slowly at home. I intend still paying my 10 shillings a week but of course you will understand that the next month will be the hardest time for them to pay their way at home. After that time, if everything goes alright the financial side will sort itself out. But as the allotment is so small in comparison I think the foregoing is the best I can do. I intend writing to Strother before I sail asking him to make a definite allowance per month as we all shall then be doing.

Kathleen is highly excited over your forthcoming event. I only hope that I may be able to be home when the time comes around. If I am not you will know that I wish you both all the happiness in the world. I can only hope that the “bloomin” war will soon finish and enable us to settle down around our own firesides and start living life reasonably and properly. What do you say? Anyway you know I wish you all that is good and best.

I hear that you have been having a run around Scotland last week. If the weather was as good as we had it here it must have been very nice for you to travel around in. I hope you are not moved before you receive this letter of mine or it may be some time before it catches up with you. I know you will be expecting a word or two from me.

I don’t think I have any further news to give you now so will close. Hoping to see you soon, safe and sound, and if I do not see you before the wedding I trust that everything will go off without a hitch.

If you receive this letter in good time drop me a line to the address on this letter and it will be brought down to me. So cheerio and God bless you.

Your loving brother,

Harold

Family Contact:

Malcolm C. Davies – nephew

The Lomas Family

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Joseph Lomas, his wife Elizabeth, and their three children, Terence age 6, Joan age 4, and Margaret age 3 were the only family on the Nerissa. Sadly they all perished in the sinking.

It’s strange how fate plays a part in our lives but if Erich Topp had only fired one torpedo into the Nerissa the Lomas family would have been saved. The Navy’s Ledsham was helping get No.2 boat launched and two officers were helping Joseph and Elizabeth Lomas get their three children into it. Having made it to their lifeboat station and boarded No.2 lifeboat they were so close to successfully evacuating the stricken ship. In seconds RSM Edwards saw all seven and the boat disappear in the second torpedo explosion. They were all thrown into the sea. We know from reports that Terence Lomas was helped onto a raft by Alfred Baldwin Raper but slipped off the raft during the night. Also, we know that the two stewardesses, Hilda Lynch and Florence Jones, gave their lifebelts to two of the Lomas children.

Elizabeth was born in Scotland but moved to London with her family when she was about 18 years old. Here she met and married Joseph Lomas. They lived in Camberwell and this was where the three children were born. They later moved to Charlton and lived a few doors away from where Elizabeth’s mother Ellen was living with her sister and the rest of the family. Joe was working at Woolwich Arsenal as a carpenter. After war broke out a chance arose for them to go to Canada and escape the heavy bombing of the London blitz. In 1940 the offer of employment was taken up and they made the long journey to live and work in Canada. Elizabeth never settled and was so homesick for her mother that she and Joe decided to return to England. They were told they could remain in Canada until the end of the war even though Joe’s work contract had ended but they took the terrible risk of boarding an armed troopship with three small children and paid the ultimate price. Elizabeth wanted to surprise her mother by arriving unannounced so no prior notice was sent of her intention to return to England. They probably didn’t realize that the ship they were boarding was to sail unescorted and that it was carrying shells and heavy motor trucks. Elizabeth’s mother never got over the loss of her daughter, son-in-law, and three grandchildren.

Family Contact:

Brian Wade – nephew.

Paymaster Cmdr. F.R.W. Nixon, R.C.N.

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Francis Robert Woodcock Nixon, always known as Jack, was born in Duncan, B.C. on 8th February, 1904. His family farmed on Thetis Island, close to Chemainus, B.C. on Vancouver Island. He received his early education at Ganges’ Private School on Saltspring Island, a small school run and owned by his future father-in-law. In 1914, Jack’s father died unexpectedly leaving his widow with two young boys to raise. Financially, things were very tight.

Jack went to the Royal Naval College of Canada at Naden to complete his education and prepare for a career as a Naval officer. Just after his 17th birthday, on 15 February 1921, he was given the opportunity by Cmdr. Nixon (no relation), the Commander of the College, to leave the college early and go to sea as a Paymaster Cadet. This meant he would now be able to contribute much needed money to his mother.

Jack served on HMS Hood (18 March 1921 – 21 March 1922) when she was on her world tour with the Prince of Wales. He became a Paymaster Midshipman on 16 January 1922, one year after leaving the college. He returned to Canada on HMS Vindictive and transferred to HMCS Naden in Esquimalt, B.C .(April 1922 – December 1922) He returned to the Hood from 28 January 1923 – 20 January 1925. He became an Acting Paymaster Sub-Lieutenant on 14 January 1924, shortly before his 20th birthday. On leaving the Hood, the Captain reported that “he conducted himself to my entire satisfaction. Most hardworking and zealous and has a keen sense of duty. Should make an efficient and reliable Accountant Officer.”

From April 1925 until August 1927, Jack served on HMS Vindictive. During this time he was promoted to Paymaster Lieutenant. He then returned to Victoria for leave and temporary duty at HMCS Naden (13 August 1927 – 28 February 1928). This gave him time to propose to Nora Tolson and make plans for a wedding on 3 July 1928.

After their wedding and a brief honeymoon, the newlyweds climbed aboard a train to start their married life in Ottawa where Jack was working at Headquarters (N.I.D.). These were happy times. They canoed and camped in the Gatineau Hills and on the Ottawa River, skied for the first time, met many other young couples, and made some lifelong friends both in and out of the Navy.

Jack and Nora moved from Ottawa to Halifax. From February 1931 to May 1932, Jack was taking courses – many of them in England. As well as taking an Accountant Officers’ Technical Course in Portsmouth, he earned a diploma in the Practical Meat Inspection in City Markets from the Corporation of London, and a Certificate (with honours) in Competency in Cooking from the National Training School of Cookery in London. This gave him the knowledge to competently victual a ship – one of the duties of a Paymaster and Supply officer. Nora joined him in England so they were able to explore the countryside and visit relatives.

In May 1932 Jack and Nora returned home to Vancouver Island and HMCS Naden. They settled in Esquimalt and started their family. In February 1933, their first daughter, Margaret, arrived. In March 1933 Jack was promoted to Acting Paymaster Lieut. Commander. In January 1935 they had their second daughter, Edith. Jack’s career was progressing well, their children had their grandparents nearby, and life was good. When he left Naden in December 1935, his commanding officer reported that “Paymaster Lieut.-Cmdr. Nixon conducted himself with utmost zeal, loyalty, ability, and tact and in every respect to my entire satisfaction.”

In January 1936, Jack, Nora, and their two girls were transferred to Halifax where they lived in a rented house at the head of Bedford Basin. Jack was an Accountant Officer for HMC Ships and Establishments East Coast. In July ’38 his commanding officer, Cmdr. Creery, reported that he “found his sound judgment and advice of great benefit.” On 1 December, 1938 Jack was promoted to Commander. He was responsible for guiding the Accounting Branch through its tremendous expansion as war approached. In October 1940, he was made Command Accountant Officer. During this busy time, the family moved from Bedford to a house close to the Naval Base in Halifax.

In April 1941, Jack decided to go to England to inspect the Canadian Naval installation he had been setting up from Canada. Nora was expecting their third child in July so it seemed like an opportune time to go so he would be home for the baby’s arrival. He left on the Nerissa.

After the loss of the ship and her husband, Nora stayed in Halifax for the birth of their third daughter, Frances. As soon as the baby was old enough to travel, she packed up her children and returned to Victoria where she raised her daughters. Nora never remarried. She died in 1995. Nora and Jack now have 7 grandchildren and 9 great grandchildren. They would be very proud!

Family Contacts:

Frances Stocks, daughter
Rob Stocks, grandson

L/Bdr. L.P. ‘Jack’ Cockrell, R.C.A.

Of the 125 Canadian troops who boarded the Nerissa only 35 survived. Jack was one of these soldiers. He showed tremendous courage in the 9 hours he spent in the North Atlantic waiting to be rescued.

The following is Jack’s statement from the “Court of Inquiry”:

“It was about 10:30 at night when the torpedo struck us. Most of the fellows had taken off their boots and jackets. The lights went out, and the first thing I definitely remember of what I was doing, I was in the passage way. I started up the stairway and then went back to see if my friend Cockburn was alright. I didn’t see him and presumed he had gone on deck. I ran to Lifeboat Station No. 3 and found him there. I would say there were between 35 and 40 in the boat. The crew were not there to launch the lifeboat so we started to let the boat down ourselves. One end dropped into the water and the other end gave way suddenly and the whole boat submerged. When it came up there were 20 men hanging on to it. It was right side up but was leaking badly. There was no plug in it someone said. It didn’t sink completely. We had something to hang on to. During the night 8 of the men died from exposure. We were about 40 feet from the Nerissa when the second torpedo went in and later the magazine blew up. We were picked up in the morning. Twelve of us were left in the boat – myself, Sgt. Butler, L/Bdr. Cockburn, and Sgt. Bruce of the Canadian Army personnel.”

These are some of Jack’s memories from Douglas How’s article “In Search of the ‘Charmed’ Nerissa”:

Jack Cockrell found himself on the cabin floor, dazed, in running water. He seized a haversack with emergency gear, a flashlight and his beloved mouth organ. He found the stairwell to the boat deck jammed and men trying to open a door. He and another soldier broke through it with a fire axe and the rush was on.

For hours there was dying in No. 3 lifeboat, with water coming in as fast as it could be baled out. The living were too weak to remove all who no longer did. “I think,” Cockrell would say, “most of us had a close mental relationship to death many times.” There were hours of drenching waves, despair, cold, then hope when a plane flew overhead. Cockrell used his flashlight to signal. He saw no reaction, but others said they saw an “O.K.” signal. When the flashlight failed he began playing his mouth organ to “cheer people up” but soon ran out of tunes and energy.

At dawn, Cockrell would say, “we seemed to be alone on a very large ocean except for the occasional body drifting with the current.” Of the estimated 21 men from No. 3 who had seen Nerissa vanish, only 9 he believed were alive, and he was drifting into a stupor, a sort of gentle fatigue. “I didn’t feel the cold. I felt like putting my head down and sleeping.”

For years, scattered survivors and others have gathered information about the Nerissa, notably Jack Cockrell. He remembers her sinking as the salient episode of his war, “far worse” than being wounded and sent home as an armoured corps officer in Holland in 1944. Years ago he set out to write about it because he felt it should be done, gave up when he realized he didn’t have enough experience, then generously sent me what he’d accumulated.

Obituary

COCKRELL, Lionel Philip (Jack) Passed away suddenly on the snowy evening of December 21, 2008. He was born in Norwich, England on the 28th of October 1918. Jack and his family emigrated to Vancouver, B.C. in November 1922. Only a few months later, due to family misfortune he was placed in an orphanage and later became a ward of the Children’s Aid Society. Jack received his early education in Vancouver. He joined the Militia in 1934. Two years later Jack joined the permanent force at Work Point Barracks as a member of the 5th Heavy Battery, R.C.A. It was during this time he met his future wife Dorothy McVie. The young couple were married in Esquimalt, at St. Paul’s Anglican Church on December 2, 1939. At the outbreak of W.W. 2 Jack served for short periods of time at Black Rock, Breakwater Battery and Golf Hill until posted overseas to the 1st Field Regiment R.C.H.R. Jack survived the sinking of the R.M.S. Nerissa in April 1941. He was commissioned at the Royal Military Academy in February 1944 and posted to the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps. He served in Europe with the 25th Armoured Regiment and the 28th (B.C.R.) Regiment. Jack was wounded in October 1944 and was returned home to Victoria, B.C. a few months later. After a period of convalescence he served for a brief time with the Royal Canadian Dragoons. Jack left his military career in September of 1947 to join the Federal Civil Service (D.N.D) as an Ammunition Examiner at Colwood. A promotion to Assistant Chief Inspector meant a cross country move to Ottawa. The next move took the family to Bedford, Nova Scotia where Jack became Superintendent of the Ammunition Laboratories. A further promotion meant a move back to Ottawa with even greater responsibilities. The next chapter in Jack’s career was with the Federal Government’s Indian Affairs and Northern Development Branch. He served as a senior consultant with Parks Canada, Indian Affairs and the Department’s Administration and Finance unit. His work resulted in extensive travel both in Canada and foreign countries. Jack claimed that these were his happiest, most challenging and productive days of his working life. A massive heart attack at the age of 58 brought an end to his employment with the Federal Civil Service. As soon as Jack regained his strength, he went back to work on a contractual basis with Park’s Canada and successfully completed several projects before “”calling it a day””. Retirement brought Jack and Dorothy back to Vancouver Island, where Jack devoted the same energy and enthusiasm to volunteer work as he had to his military and public service careers. Dorothy formed a band and taught Jack to play the drums, for the next 15 years they played at many afternoon tea dances and entertained at care homes and charity events. As a member of Branch #91 of the Royal Canadian Legion, Jack served as President, as a Service Officer, Chairman of several committees as well as Zone Commander for South Vancouver Island. His major projects for the Legion were organizing the B.C. Ceremony for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Memorial Wall in Victoria’s new arena. Jack continued to serve on committees until reaching his 86th birthday. Jack was predeceased by his parents Horace and Elsie. His sisters Marjory and Dorothy. He is survived by his wife Dorothy, sister Kathleen Clifton, Vancouver. Sons Robert Cockrell (Lesley) Victoria, John Cockrell (Pam) Rocklin, California, and daughter Maureen Miller (Dave) Nepean, Ontario. Grandchildren, John (Heather) Salem, Oregon, Carrie Ann (Daryl) Rocklin, California, Shannon Miller, Ottawa, Ontario, Jessica MillerPoos (Mark) Ajax, Ontario. Great grandchildren, Hayley, Evan, Calli, Jacob, Brianna, Jazzlyn and new baby Ella Claire. Many nieces, nephews as well as great nieces and nephews. A special thank you to Joanne and Greg for all their support and friendship to Dorothy and Jack over the past few years. Jack was a man who strongly believed in service to country and community. He loved a challenging debate, a good laugh and the Toronto Maple Leafs, but most of all he loved his family and his good buddy Fuji. He will be deeply missed! Memorial service to be held at a later date. Notification of time and place will appear in the Times Colonist. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Jack’s name to the Heart & Stroke Foundation, 107-1001 Cloverdale Avenue, Victoria, V8X 4C9. 519025

Gnr. John S. Holt, P4641 RCA.

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My father was one of the three stowaways who joined the Nerissa in St John’s 23 Apr 41. P 4641 Gnr. Holt, J.S. was 21 at the time. He and his buddies were bored with their assignment in St. John’s as Coastal Artillery gunners, and wanted to get to where the action was. Little did he know what he was getting into. He told us that, because he was a stowaway, he was on duty at a Bofors gun when the torpedo hit. The few times he spoke about the experience, he told us tales of bailing a leaking lifeboat and singing all night. I thought that he was exaggerating until I found this website.

Jack Holt, as he was known to his friends, went on to join the 1st Medium Regt, RCA, when he finally got to the UK. He served with them throughout the war. He was wounded in Sicily, got malaria in Italy, and ended the war in Amersfoort, Holland. He finally demobilized in early December 1946 but had no job to go to back to at Canadian Car and Foundry in Montreal so by Christmas 1945 he was re-enlisted as a Craftsman (equivalent to a Private) in the Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. He had a good post-war career, rising to the rank of WO2 in the vehicle technician trade, before he was commissioned from the Ranks (CFR) in 1966. He retired as a Captain in November 1973 with a total of 35 years of service. After retiring, he was hired back as a civilian technical representative to oversee the Centurion Tank rebuild program contracted by Canada to the Dutch Army – and being done in Amersfoort, Holland! At the time, I was serving with the Canadian Forces in Europe as a Captain in RCEME, and ended up in charge of the tank rebuild file, working with my father. A few years later, Canada decided to buy Leopard tanks from Germany, and Jack Holt went to Munich to act as the technical rep for that program, while I went back to Canada to work on Leopard tank training. He passed away in Munich on 4 May 1978 while undergoing an emergency operation for cancer.

Brigadier General Peter Holt.

Sgt. Walter Herbert Coles

Corps of Military Staff Clerks

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Sgt. Walter (Herb) Coles. Click a photograph to view a larger version.