UNDER THE WHITE ENSIGN

 

 

 
  • With thousands of others, my father joined the RNR as war approached. He served most of the war in the Indian Ocean on HMS Ranchi, an armed merchant cruiser. 
  • In the later part of the war he served in the North Atlantic on the US built escorts HMS Bayntun and HMS Inman. 
  • He left in 1945 but joined up for the Korean Emergency, serving in the destroyers HMS Scorpion and HMS Crispin
  • Using material from ships' logs at the Public Records Office in London, together with family documents and photographs, I produced a short history of his career in the navy.  The .pdf file is available here. 

 

 

HMS Ranchi

John Shaw joined HMS Ranchi as an Ordinary Seaman on 2nd September 1939, and served in this vessel until 18th  March 1942.  HMS Ranchi was an armed merchant cruiser (AMC), one of a number of civilian vessels commandeered by the admiralty in the difficult days at the start of the war, when escort vessels in particular were in short supply.  She was built for P&O by Hawthorn, Leslie & Co., Newcastle, and was designed for the London-Bombay run.  She was originally built with two funnels, but the aftermost funnel was removed in October 1939, when she was fitted out as an armed merchant cruiser.  At this time her decks were strengthened, special signal gear was installed, and guns were fitted.  The armament consisted of eight Mark VII six inch guns, deployed in two batteries, port and starboard, and two three inch high-angle guns for air defence.  I am not sure where the six-inch guns were located.  Some photographs suggest the upper deck;   on the other hand, the photo of night firing suggests this was not the case.

 

Life aboard HMS Ranchi


 

21 September – 21 November 1942 John is aboard HMS Jeannie Deans, a Clyde paddle steamer, launched at the Govan Yard in Glasgow, on 7th May, 1931.  She entered war service on 30th October 1939 as a paddle minesweeper.  After service at Ardrossan, Portsmouth, and Milford Haven, she was converted to an auxiliary anti-aircraft vessel, based at Sheerness and sailing up and down the Thames Estuary and even as far north as the Humber.  Perhaps her commissioning as an anti-aircraft vessel was the reason that trained gunners such as John were assigned to Jeannie Deans.  She survived the war and was broken up at Antwerp in 1967.  

 

 

 

1 May–31 July 1943

He on HMS Bayntun K310, a Captain class frigate, one of 32 Evarts Class diesel-electric frigates built in the United States and transferred to the Royal Navy.  Bayntun, the first ship of her class, was completed in Boston, USA, on 20 January 1943, and arrived in the UK in April 1943.  John was therefore part of the first Royal Navy crew to operate such a vessel.

 

23 February - 31 August 1944

He was aboard HMS Inman, with headquarters at HMS Caroline, at Belfast.  Inman was a Captain Class diesel-electric powered escort vessel, built in the USA as the Everts Class.   Inman- K571 – was completed on 13 January 1944.  She was built in the amazing time of 3 months and 18 days.  Because John was in the US from 1 January, it is obvious that he was there as part of the first crew of this new ship.  In January 1944, 29 of these ships were en route from USA to Belfast.

 

 

8 July– 31 December 1952

John was back in the navy aboard HMS Scorpion (D 64), a Weapon Class destroyer, completed in 1947. On 19th February the records show that he is a loader on the STAAG rapid-fire anti-aircraft gun .

 

20 February-16 December 1953

Now we find John on HMS Crispin (D 168), a CR Class Emergency War Design Destroyer.  On 15th June 1953 Crispin represented Plymouth Command at the Coronation Review. John was almost certainly aboard for the review by the new Queen Elizabeth II.