Tokens of a fallen officer found after 75 years
SIR – On Sunday I will be marching past the Cenotaph carrying in my pocket my grandfather’s ID disc, which came back miraculously to his family 75 years after he was killed in North Africa.
Lieutenant Commander Peter Meyrick RN died while commanding HMS Walney on November 8 1942 in the attempt to seize the Algerian port of Oran from the Vichy French during Operation Torch.
The assault was a disaster. Of the 600 men who took part, 580 were killed or wounded, and both of the ships involved were blown up and sank in the port. Many gallantry awards were made, including a posthumous Victoria Cross.
The ships lay where they went down, and the war went on around them. It was not until six years later that they were salvaged by the French navy. The skeletal remains of 25 of the crew were recovered from Walney and buried at the military cemetery in Oran, with guards of honour provided by the French and British navies. Because none of the bodies could be positively identified, the Admiralty did not inform any of the crew’s families of the discovery, as it was felt to do so would do more harm than good.
Two years later, in 1952, my grandfather’s ID disc was passed to the Admiralty, having been recovered from the mud and debris in the ship. With, I regret, some cowardice, the Admiralty decided not to return it to his family because, they reasoned, no one had been told of the discovery of the bodies in the first place and to return it now would have required “considerable explanation”. Instead, the disc was consigned to a file with instructions for it to be put away for 25 years and destroyed in 2030. His widow, parents, brothers and daughter all died without ever knowing about it.
In November 2017, as Peter Meyrick’s only surviving family, my siblings and I put an In Memoriam announcement in The Daily Telegraph to mark the 75th anniversary of his death. This was spotted by Roger Fryer, a 77-year-old former civil servant who had worked for the Royal Navy’s legal branch, and one of whose duties was to trace next of kin.
Ten years previously, he had found the Admiralty file and ID disc for sale in a militaria fair. They aroused his professional interest, so he bought them and set about looking for my family, with no success. The announcement finally gave him his breakthrough and, having been put in touch by The Daily Telegraph, he and I had a very moving meeting a couple of weeks later at which, with quiet satisfaction on his part and enormous gratitude on mine, he was able to hand over a very precious and poignant token of the grandfather we never knew.
It is at once a tragic and uplifting story that invites so many questions, but I shall carry the ID disc with great pride on Sunday and give thanks for this remarkable serendipity and Roger’s tenacity in returning it to my family.
Timothy Martin
Ipswich, Suffolk