The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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217328 Tel. Ernest Leonard Pegrum Royal Navy HMS Nelson from:Hertfordshire Just looking at my Grandfather’s naval service medals and they cover both wars. His names was Ernest Pegrum, he signed up in 1917 aged 15 and was on various training ships until August 1919 when he served on HMS Dragon. Ernest and his brother George (Royal Marine) were in Canada escorting HRH Prince of Wales and (I believe) the Royal Family and I have a postcard showing him and some of the crew at a roadside halt. A few months later in October/November HMS Dragon was involved in a conflict in Russia where she was involved in shelling the Latvian coast and sustained some casualties. My Grandfather was signed off in 1928. I do not have the WWII service records yet but have a beautiful Crossing the Equator certificate dated 9.4.1941 with Cape Town in the background and the silhouettes of ships that were (presumably) in the convoy. I recall my mother saying he was torpedoed on HMS Nelson. I believe that he served on HMS Pasley in 1945. I understand around D Day the Nelson and the Dragon were in Portsmouth at the same time (I wonder what Grandad thought on seeing his old ship). HMS Dragon was later damaged in an attack and scuttled as a Mulberry harbour breakwater. I would just like him to be remembered. He never said much about it of course – or I was too young to listen. David Few Add to this record.  Additional Information: I have now been able to complete the puzzle of my Grandad's WWII naval service. He was on HMS Nelson from 25 July 1940 and was promoted to Leading Telegraphist on 4 June 1941.By June 1942 he was in Scotland for telegraphist training. His previous ship had been HMS Rodney in April 1940. During a visit to the Portsmouth Naval Museum a couple of years ago I saw a cine film by Commander George C Blundell showing the Crossing of the Equator on HMS Nelson dated 9 April 1941 - the same date as the Certificate above. Sailors were dressing up in a variety of clothing and being dunked and generally having a good time. Grandad would have been about 39 by then! Sadly the film has now been removed from view. David Few Reply Related Content: HMS Nelson 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.