The Search For HMS Fidelity
It was Remembrance Sunday so perhaps that's why the conversation led to the topic of family members lost in World War II. It had begun with my husband’s relative, Janice, telling of her son’s interest in computers and my husband’s enthusiastic response as to the usefulness of the Internet for research. “If the internet is so wonderful, see if you can find out what happened to my Uncle Jack,” she challenged. ‘Uncle Jack' was actually Jack Workman, declared ‘Missing; Presumed Dead’ in the early part of 1943. His parents received a telegram informing them of the news, but they received no further explanation as to where his body might be or how he had met his death. All they knew was that Jack had been on a ‘secret ship.’ Intrigued about Jack's death and the mysterious ship I accepted the challenge, starting that very evening. That night, my first port of call was the Commonwealth War Graves Commission because I knew Jack’s correct name, rank and number would be found, together with the name of his ship and the date of his death. Sometimes details of the next of kin are also included. I used the search engine WebFerret to locate the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. It's a free software programme that searches larger search engines for your key words, discarding duplicate results and pinpointing your search results to help you find whatever you're looking for quickly and efficiently. From the little information given, I quickly discovered that ‘Uncle Jack’ was Able Seaman John Thomas Workman of the HMS Fidelity. The date of his death was the 1st January 1943. From the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website I was able to print out a commemorative sheet with his details. This was later used to make a front cover for the file of information I was to collect about HMS Fidelity, using the Internet. Armed with the knowledge of the ships' name I used my search engine again to find further information about HMS Fidelity. With WebFerret one has the option to use a Boolean facility, which provides a more focused search. A list of websites soon appeared and I was quickly able to see from the website description that www.gordonmumford.com was the most likely place to further my investigation. It was a goldmine! Not only has Gordon Mumford written two books about his maritime experiences, but his website contains detailed information about the Merchant Navy and the active role she took during the war. There is also a section explaining the importance of the navy throughout World War Two and an extensive set of web links relating to naval history, all of which proved helpful in allowing me to understand the Fidelity within her historical context. I discovered that HMS Fidelity had originally been a French ship called Le Rhin, which had been taken over by the British in 1940. She was a Royal Navy ‘Q’ ship, disguised as a Merchant Navy ship in Convoy ONS-154. The convoy wasn't entirely composed of Merchant Navy ships, there were escort ships too, although the Fidelity wasn't even meant to be that. She was 'hidden' under the veil of the Merchant Navy so that her true purpose was hidden. She and her hand-picked crew were on secret mission, carrying commandoes to Indo China, for who knows what purpose. Possibly to wage a guerrilla operation behind Japanese lines. In the memorial section of Gordon Mumford website he lists the names of those killed on the HMS Fidelity and the 14 torpedoed merchant ships of Convoy ONS-154. There is also an explanation of what happened that fateful day. Here are the chilling facts relating to HMS Fidelity which I found on the site.
'One of the ships sunk in this convoy was HMS Fidelity (ex – French Le Rhin) which had been taken over by the British in June 1940. Converted to a Special Service Vessel (SSV), she was armed with four X 4 inch guns, four torpedo tubes, two seaplanes, and a motor torpedo boat. She was transporting commandoes (Royal Marines) to Indo – China.
This
list of those killed on the Fidelity was obtained from a publication of
the Royal Marines Historical Society (Pub Kingswell, 'Fidelity wi
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