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211028
Cpl. Wadsworth Hail "Dave" Davis
Royal Air Force
My Dad, Wadsworth Davis, was en route to Capetown on the SS Anselm. The SS Anselm was sunk by torpedo during the voyage and I can remember Dad telling us as children of how he was in a boat that capsized and how he ended up being trapped by ropes under the lifeboat. He said the next memory was of coming round on an American destroyer with someone pumping water from his lungs. He also told us or the bravery of everyone and of the Rev.
He was reminded of the event when in the early 1970's an article was published in the Daily Mail about the events. He never forgot it and named our house after the boat and those who were lost. I distinctly remember his reaction to a disaster film he took me to see at the Odeon cinema in St Albans. The film was of a liner that sunk and being a kid I had no idea of the affect it probably had on him.
Dad was a radar technician and set up and serviced radar stations in North Africa. He left us in 1976 after a long battle with Leukemia that was possibly caused by tuning in radar transmitters by standing in front of it whilst holding a neon bulb. When the bulb glowed the set was tuned. These days we would call it a microwave oven.