The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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209032 SQMS Albert Edward "Spav" Spavins British Army Royal Army Service Corps from:West Lulworth My father, SQMS Spavins, was a Lancastria survivor. He told me that as he was one of the last people aboard ship he had to go to the boat deck because there was no room below. As the ship began to sink he tried to persuade one of his friends to jump with him. However, his friend could not swim. Dad jumped and as he looked up his friend lit a cigarette and waved him goodbye. He does not remember how long he spent in the water but eventually a mine sweeper, very overloaded, passed by and someone threw him a lifebelt and along with many others was towed home to England. He was wearing only a shirt when he got home. When he finally got a new uniform and equipment he came home on leave. He was in a bad way and told me that the Stuka dive bombers had somewhat un-nerved him. Dad recovered and some years later volunteered once again with RASC/EFI to go to Korea. It so happened that I was with The Somaliland Scouts at the time and when Dad returned from Korea I flew over to Aden and met the ship where I met my father and some of his friends. Albert Spavins Add to this record.  Related Content: Royal Army Service Corps Royal Army Service Corps Royal Army Service Corps Royal Army Service Corps HMT Lancastria Operation Dynamo - The Evacuation from Dunkirk and nearby Beaches Battle of France and The Low Countries 1940 Can you help us to add to our records? Add a record to our website. The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them Did you or your relatives live through the Second World War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial? Were you or your relative evacuated? Did an air raid affect your area? If so please let us know. Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice. Contact us. Celebrate your own Family History Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Secomd World War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc. Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.

The free section of the Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers. We have been helping people find out more about their relatives wartime experiences since 1999 by recording and preserving recollections, documents, photographs and small items. The website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions. If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running. Hosted by: The Wartime Memories Project Website is archived for preservation by the British Library Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV - All Rights Reserved We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.