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HMCS Beaver
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Those known to have sailed in HMCS Beaver during the Second World War 1939-1945. The names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed,
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Records of HMCS Beaver from other sources.
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The Wartime Memories Project is the original WW1 and WW2 commemoration website.
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Want to know more about HMCS Beaver? There are:-1 items tagged HMCS Beaver available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War. |
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Geoffrey Norman Cox HMS Europa My father, Geoffrey Norman Cox, served during WW2. He volunteered at the age of 19 and joined the Minesweeper Corps. I have his service record which shows him starting his Naval career at HMS Collingwood and HMS Europa. He served on a number of ships including Eland, St Wistan, Leonidas, Forward, Marshall Sault and Beaver. He saw action in the North Sea, the West African Gold Coast and English Channel.
I would love to hear from anyone who has information about any of these ships and anyone who might have served on these ships.
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PO. John Edward Mann HMS Drake My father Ted Mann, enlisted in the Royal Navy on 16th of August 1939 and was discharged on 18th of December 1945. During this period he served on a number of ships which included HMS Drake, Pembroke, Unicorn 2, Lightning, Comerant, Spearhawk, Flycatcher & Beaver.
He was discharged at the rank of Petty Officer.
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Mid seaman William John Parnell My father served in the Royal Navy during WW2 on quite a few different ships listed below:
- Raleigh Mid sea - 10 March 43 - 18 May 43
- Drake Mid sea - 19 May 43 - 2 June 43
- St Christofer Mid sea - 3 June 43 -8 July 43
- Hornet? Mid sea - 9 July 43 -23 July 43
- Aggresive Mid sea - 24 July 43 - 27 July 43
- Aggresive Mid sea -28 July 43 -30 Nov 43
- Wasp (M^203) Mid sea - 1 Dec 43 - 9 March 44
- Wasp A/AB - 10 March 44 - 30 Sept. 44 AFO 5250/42
- Brake 1v (ML203) - 1 Oct.44 =31 Dec. 44
- Beaver 11 (ML203) - 1 Jan. 45 - 31 Jan 45
- Beehive -1 Feb 45 - 2 April 45
- Drake - 5 April 45 - 4 June 45
- Cabbala 5 June 45 - 12 July 45
- Cabbala 13 July 45 - 9 Sep. 46 released in Class A
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2nd Officer. Judith Grace Fiddian Naval Section Bletchley Park  We know that Judy Fiddian, had obtained a degree in Modern Languages (though we don't know where) and assuming she went to university at the age of 18 she would have gone in 1938 as she was born in December 1919. So we might suppose that she would not have got her degree until 1941, but this is quite reasonable as I don't believe she joined the WRNS until that year as a Petty Officer. She left university fluent in at least French and German but I'm not sure if this was at first recognised as of any great value. This might suggest she had not gone to Cambridge as this was a major recruitment source for Bletchley Park. So, I think it more likely that she joined as a senior non-commissioned officer in 1941 and it was only the following year that her superiors began to see a role for her in intelligence.
It is not known where Judy first served but in September 1942 she was based at HMS Beaver, a shore base at Immingham in Lincolnshire on the south of the Humber estuary from which Coastal Forces operated Motor Launches for harbour defence and submarine chasing. At some point after this I believe she was seconded either to work at Bletchley Park (known as Station X) or one of the Y Stations. The latter were British signal intelligence sites based around Britain and overseas, first used in WW1 that could either intercept signals or identify their source. Since Judy had been promoted to 3rd Officer from 27 September 1942, a commissioned officer of the rank of sub-lieutenant, she would be in charge of a group of Wrens so I think she would have been trained at Bletchley Park initially. But by early 1943 I believe she was working at one of the Y-listening Stations at Withernsea, north of the Humber on the East Yorkshire coast.
Based on the account given in The Bletchley Girls published in 2015 Judy was an officer in charge of about 12 girls posted there as special duties linguists who listened in to German naval communications. According to Pat, one of the Wrens and a Petty Officer, the girls would twiddle the knob of their radio receiver until they picked up a signal from a German ship. When this happened, the officer in charge (Judy) would have to be fetched if she wasn't in the watch room in case it was significant. The listener would take down the enemy message and a copy would be sent to Station X by teleprinter and they would be phoned to say it was on the way.
Judy was quite stern at times, carrying the weight of responsibility for her girls, but she also had a fun side. On 6 November 1943 Judy was promoted to 2nd Officer, equivalent to a Lieutenant and may have spent time back at Bletchley Park.
She was, of course, in the Naval Section and they operated out of Block A, known as Naval Intelligence. It was this section that produced the intelligence reports from German Navy Enigma Signals which were decrypted by Hut 8, but they also decrypted and produced reports from non-Enigma naval ciphers. Judy is listed in the Roll of Honour of all those who worked in signal intelligence during WW2 at Bletchley Park (known as BP to the staff) and at other locations. A Certificate of Service for her is presented below. Later in the war, during 1944 and 1945 she was based at another Y-listening Station known as HMS Lanka. This was another shore base, but in Colombo on what was then Ceylon and this may have been her final posting during the war.
My siblings have collectively provided some additional information. Although none of us were aware of her involvement with Bletchley Park specifically, it was known that she had worked in intelligence. Also because of her language skills she spent time just after the war in Paris and then Berlin but whether this was acting merely as a translator or continuing in intelligence we do not know. My cousin told me that she spoke French like a native so she was obviously very fluent. We are all very proud of Auntie Judy and the part she played during WW2 and so have arranged for her to be commemorated on The Codebreakers Wall at Bletchley Park.
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Sandy Stewart HMS Beaver I am looking for information about my father, Sandy Stewart, from Wick in the north of Scotland. He served, as far as I can make out, on HMS Beaver, Watchful, Minos, Lemo, Fisher Boy, BYMS19 (Sakeer II), Cormorant, St Angelo, Nile, MMS173 Edding and St Judno (MMS 189). I have been told he was torpedoed in the Far East sometime during the war, but he never spoke about it. Does anyone remember him?
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