Between October 1941 and the end of
March 1942, Warships Weeks were organised in cities, towns and villages
throughout Great Britain. The intention was to raise a sum by
investment or deposit in all types of war savings representing the cost
of building one of His Majesty’s ships ranging from the smallest to the
largest vessels. Once the target had been raised the community adopted
the vessel along with its crew and the bond was strengthened by
presentations in recognition of the money raised. Adoption plaques were
presented by the Admiralty to the community and a plaque presented by
the community to the adopted vessel. Links were maintained by the
writing of letters and the provision of comforts and whenever possible
visits were arranged to the adopting area.
Most of the V&W Class
destroyers in commission with the Royal Navy were adopted during the
Warship Week scheme and in a number of cases local sea cadet units
later took the name of the ship. To
find more about Warship Weeks see Peter Schofield’s article on‘National Savings and Warship Weeks’.
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Wrrexham
was just one of the seven districts in East Denbyshire which held a
Warship Week from 29 November to 6 December 1941 as reported in the Liverpool Echo on 8 November 1941:
Liverpool Echo, Saturday 8 November 1941
Mr. A.V. Alexandra, will speak at Wrexham Odeon Theatre on Sunday, 30
November in connection with the local Warship Week, Wrexham aims at the
provision of a destroyer, and seven other districts of East
Denbighshire are holding a Warship Week during the same period, which
ends on 6 December. The aggregate value of the targets is
£505,000.
Wrexham and the neighboring villages of Holt, Isycoed and Marchweil
raised £366,061 - £11 3s 11d per head - during a successful Warship
Week. in June 1942 the Town Clerk submitted the replica of the badge of HMS Veteran
which had been received from the Admiralty mounted on a wooden
shield and the Council resolved that the Badge be exhibited in
the town and later be hung in the Council Chamber. It had been planned
to affix the plaque from the Borough to the Admiralty onto the ship’s
Quarter-deck but unfortunately it was sunk before this could happen.
Wrexham Leader, November 27th 1942 Vice-Admiral
C. Tibbits attended the Wrexham Town Council on Tuesday evening for the
ceremony of exchanging plaques relating to HMS Veteran,
the destroyer adopted by Wrexham, as a result of Warships Week in
December last. The Mayor said the sad news was recently received of the
loss of HMS Veteran in
action, and he thought it would be appropriate if they stood in silence
as a mark of esteem and respect for the gallant ships company who lost
their lives in the service of their country.
The Wrexham Evening Leader article of 29 January 2004 includes the following :
John has been researching HMS Veteran
for about 20 years since he stumbled across a plaque depicting the
vessel at the Guildhall in Wrexham. He said “I have been
researching this ship since the early 1980s; it has been difficult as
there is not much information available about it. It all started
when I saw the plaque of HMS Veteran
in the Guildhall, and no one could tell me anything about it”.
His research uncovered a whole host of interesting tales, including the
fact that Wrexham had sponsored HMS Veteran.
An article in the Wrexham Evening Leader on 29 August 2006 included:
It
was seeing the plaque whenever he visited the Guildhall that first
kindled John’s interest. He comes from a naval family – an
ancestor fought at Trafalgar on the Tonnant
– and a number of relatives went to sea. But when the family
divided into naval or farming interests, John’s branch opted for the
farming. He now lives at Pentre Maelor, Wrexham ………. John says
“Veteran was built in 1919 and spent the first five years of her life
in the Atlantic fleet. There was a spell of other duties before
1937 when she went to Spain to rescue British nationals from the
Spanish Civil War. The Germans were also lifting their nationals
from Spain at that time and, coincidentally, on board the cruiser
Deutschland was a cadet named Otto von Bulow. The man who was
later to command U404 when it sunk HMS Veteran in September 1942”.
I suppose the relatively short period between the adoption of the ship
by Wrexham and its sinking meant that there was little time for
twinning events to have been arranged, especially since ship movements
would surely have been classified in 1942. Wrexham is quite some
distance inland and so a visit by the ship to Wrexham would have been
out of the question!
If
you want to find out more about the wartime service of a member of your
family who served on HMS Veteran
you should first obtain a copy of their service record To
find out how follow this link:
http://www.holywellhousepublishing.co.uk/servicerecords.html
If
you have stories or photographs of HMS Veteran you would like to
contribute to the web site please contact Bill Forster
Return
to the Home Page for HMS Veteran Return to the Home Page of the V & W Destroyer Association Return to the Index Page for the 69
V & W Class Destroyers
Return to the Home Page for Warship Weeks
