Where is the crest of HMS Vivien mounted on a wooden shield presented by the Admiralty to Bromyard? the snake on the crest of HMS Vivien (below) symbolises the legendary harlot Vivien in "Merlin and Vivien," the sixth poem in Tennyson's Idylls of the King
The plaque would have hung
in the Council office of the Bromyard Urban District Council and in
the District Council which replaced the Urban and Rural Councils
but
now that Herefordshire is a unitary authority, its former buildings
reallocated and the Council's records dispersed - "scattered to
the four winds" - one does not know where to look.
I appeal to the
people of Bromyard to locate the shield and see that it is put on
public display in the town to which it was presented by the Admiralty eighty years ago.
and send me stories of the links established between HMS Vivien and the men and women of Bromyard. Do please get in touch if you can help.
Between
October 1941 and the end of
March 1942, Warships Weeks were organised in cities, towns and villages
throughout Great Britain. Seven towns and villages in
Herefordshire held their Warship Week at the same time, from 29
November to 6 December 1941. Herefordshire is now a unitary authority
and the District Councils which replaced the Urban and Rural Council
have transferred their authority to the County Council.
The towns and villages in Herefordshire set out 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. Links were maintained by the
writing of letters and the provision of comforts and whenever possible
visits were arranged to the adopting area. Wooden shields mounted with the ship's crest and with an enscribed plate recording the adoption were
presented by the Admiralty to the Council and a plaque presented by
the community to the adopted vessel but where is the crest of HMS Vivien now that Herefordshire is a unitary authority?
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’.
**************
Bromyard is an ancient market town
in the valley of the Frome in Herefordshire midway between Leominster
and Worcester with a population of five thousand.
Bromyard
Urban District and Rural District raised £60,454 (£6 0s 4d. per head)
during
Herefordshire's Warships Week from 29 November to 6 December 1941
This was much lower than
the amount normally required to adopt a destroyer. The County town of Hereford raised twice this amount to adopt HMS Volunteer, a sister ship of Vivien. Worcester seventeen
miles to the East on the River Severn raised £770,000 to adopt HMS Worcester, but it had a population close to 600,000 and Bromyard was a
small town with a population of five thousand. Leominster twenty-five
miles to the West had a population twice that of Bromyard but had to be satisfied with
adopting the Albury Class Minesweeper HMS Fitzroy despite raising £128,146.
HMS Vivien
had of course been built, equipped and commissioned 25 years earlier on
28 May 1918. Warship Weeks were a means of raising money for the
building of new warships which led to morale boosting links between the
ships companies of existing ships and the towns which adopted them. The
same issue of the Kington Times which reported on the money raised to equip HMS Vivien also reported that she had received a cheque for £25 - £1 for each year her life - from the citizens of Bromyard.
Kington is on
the Welsh side of Offa's Dyke but in Herefordshire. It had
a smaller population than Bromyard but its local paper the
Kington Times published a lengthy article in November 1941 on the
competition between the two small towns to see which could raise the
most money. It appears that the reporter was not aware that Bromyard
was raising money to adopt a destroyer and Kington was raising
money to adopt a Corvette, HMS Gentian. The Admiraty sometimes failed to make the position clear, a
situation known to have arisen in other towns holding Warship Weeks. Bromyard adopted an elderly destroyer, HMS Vivien, but the money raised was used to
build a new warship, often a corvette.
The Admiralty may have thought Bromyard had acquired HMS Vivien on the cheap and in 1943 Bromyard raised a further £125,000 to equip her as reported (below right) in the Kington Times.
Kington v Bromyard - A spirit of rivalry is apparent between Kington and Bromyard in the Warship Week appeal.
At the public meeting at Kington the Vicar, formerly the Vicar of
Bromyard, in seconding a resolution to increase the target to £55,000
said he could not see Bromyard beating Kington. Bromyard in reply
asks whether Kington really wishes to challenge Bromyard to a race as
to which town and district will be first to raise the £55,000 (Bromyard
as well as Kington is raising £55,000 for providing a Corvette). Writing in the Bromyard paper, a correspondent says:
‘Bromyard is waiting to hear the challenge and she will have the
greatest pleasure in showing the erstwhile vicar just how wrong he
is.’
At a recent meeting of the Publicity Committee of
the Kington Warship Week effort, attention was drawn to this matter,
and the Vicar intimated to the committee that he had sent a letter to
the Bromyard paper explaining the purport of his remarks. As the
late Vicar of Bromyard and present Vicar of Kington he did not wish to
see his present parish fall short of his former one in its target for
Warship Week. He said that he would be delighted if his
references to both parishes served to stimulate the people of Bromyard
and Kington to friendly rivalry in this great national effort.
The Rev William Potter was Vicar of the Church of St Mary in Kington, Herefordshire, from 1940-6 and prior to that from 1934 -1940 the Vicar of St Peter's Church at Bromyard. Kington with a population of 3,700 raised £59,393 to adopt HMS Gentian,
a Flower Class corvette, but the Rev William Potter's former parish of
Bromyard with a population of 4,700 today raised £60,454 to adopt HMS Vivien. There seems little doubt that the "friendly rivalry in this great national effort"
between the two parishes helped boost the money raised by both but the
Rev William Potter's former parish of Bromyard came out ahead.
The Bromyard News and Record, 3 September, 1942
I am told by the Local History
Society that this issue contains
a lengthy report on the presentation of a shared plaque by the
Admiralty to the Urban and Rural Districts of Bromyard. If you have
access to back issues in the library please send me a scan of
this article or notes on
its content and I shall add it to this web page.
Kington Times, 17 July 1943
The
Kington Times published a lengthy article in July 1943 on Bromyard
raising a further £125,000 to equip HMS Vivien on top of the money
already raised for her adoption. The article can be read in full on the right above. Bromyard UD and RD raised a further £125,000 to equip HMS Vivien,
the ship they adopted in December 1941. They had raised £400,000 in
National Savings (this figure probably included money raised for planes
in “War Weapons Week”). Cdr R.G. Glossop RN was presented with the
crest of the town for the ship.
Leominster, second in size to
Hereford and nearly three times the size of Bromyard, was half
way to Kington near the border with Wales
Leominster adopted a minesweeper HMS Fitzroy which was sunk in June 1943
Bromyard Urban Council Minutes
with acknowledgement to the work of the "Vivien Volunteers"
The plaque was presented to the Council by the Admiralty on Saturday 29th August 1942
The plaque presented by Bromyard to HMS Vivien was returned after the war and placed over the fire-place in Dumbleton Hall, Church Street
Is it still there now?
HMS Vivien – Photographs of
this ship and its Crew, which had been sent by the Commanding Officer,
were received by the Council, and it was resolved that a letter of
appreciation be sent to the Commanding Officer, also that the
photographs be framed and circulated to the Parishes and schools in the
District.
Western Morning News, 24 March 1944
Records the adoption of HMS Vivien
What do you remember about Warship Week in Bromyard?
Andrew Taylor's father, Arthur Edward Taylor, was an Able Bodied Seaman, an AB, on HMS Vivienfrom
1943-5. He came from Ledbury east of Hereford and told Andrew that
the crew made wooden toys as gifts for the children of Bromyard and
when Arthur came home to Ledbury on leave at Christmas he went
by bus to Bromyard to deliver the toys. If you
were one of the children given a toy and still have it send me a
photograph by e-mail for adding to this page.
Andrew Taylor is the Honorary Curator of The Herefordshire Light
Infantry Museum in Hereford and in June 2021 he sent me some wonderful
photographs taken aboard HMS Vivien in May 1945 which I have added to a new page on this website. Jan Brodie-Murphy of the Royal British
Legion in Bromyard posted an enquiry about Warship Week
and the adoption of Vivien on the Bromyard History Facebook page
and on Monday 2 August was interviewed on BBC Herford and
Worcester about the search for the ships crest presented to Bromyard
when HMS Vivien was adopted.
It would have looked rather similar to the crest on the left but there
was an engraved brass plate beneath the crest recording the adoption by
Bromyard during Herefordshire's Warship Week. Can you help us find it
before this year's 80th anniversary?
Ellie Brown posted on the Facebook page that the School Log for
Pencombe School includes this entry: "Pencombe school raised £5.10d for
the Vivien
in Warship Week 1941, through the sale of badges and a penny rivet
collection". The aim of Warship Week was to raise the cost of building
the hull of a destroyer and its steel plates were riveted together
instead of being welded. The children saved their pennies to pay for
the hundreds of thousands of rivets holding its hull together
and received National Savings Certificates in return.
Do you have stories to tell about Warship Week in Bromyard?
Where is the crest of HMS Vivien mounted on a wooden shield presented by the Admiralty to Bromyard? the snake on the crest of HMS Vivien (left) symbolises the legendary harlot Vivien in "Merlin and Vivien," the sixth poem in Tennyson's Idylls of the King
The plaque would have hung
in the Council office of the Bromyard Urban District Council and in
the District Council which replaced the Urban and Rural Councils
but
now that Herefordshire is a unitary authority, its former buildings
reallocated and the Council's records dispersed - "scattered to
the four winds" - one does not know where to look.
I appeal to the
people of Bromyard to locate the shield and see that it is put on
public display in the town to which it was presented by the Admiralty eighty years ago.
and send me stories of the links established between HMS Vivien and the men and women of Bromyard. Do please get in touch if you can help.
If
you want to find out more about the wartime service of a member of your
family who served on HMS Vivien
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 Vivien you would like to
contribute to the web site please contact Bill Forster
Return
to the Home Page for HMS Vivien 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
