Thame World War Two veteran of Convoy Escorts dies at 95

Jim Barrett, former landlord of Three Horseshoes, Towersey

ROYAL Navy Chief Communications Yeoman Jack Barrett, known to his friends in Towersey and Thame as Jim, who has died at the age of 95, was at sea throughout the Second World War, and saw action from the Far East to the Atlantic, the Arctic, the Aegean, the Mediterranean and East Africa.

Jim Barrett – 1920-2016

He retired from the Navy after 25 years’ service and became landlord of the Three Horseshoes in Towersey, which he ran with his wife, Clare. Jim was also one of those instrumental in creating the Towersey Folk Festival, which has become a national event and recently celebrated its 52nd anniversary.

Jim continued his service to the community in other ways, and was for many years a trustee and the hon. treasurer of the Thame and District Day Centre.

He was born on November 15, 1920, in Long Crendon. He held the 1939-45 Star, the Atlantic Star, the Africa Star, the Burma Star, the Italy Star, the France and Germany Clasp, the War Medal, and a medal given him by the Russian Embassy for his service on the Arctic Convoys. As a communications specialist, he served mainly in destroyers but also on battleships, cruisers and aircraft carriers.

After leaving school at the age of 14, Jim joined the Naval training ship Arethusa, and from there progressed to HMS Ganges, a training establishment where he learned the trade of signalman. In August 1939, aged 17, he joined the cruiser HMS Colombo as a Signalman and was on board when war was declared. His diary note for September 3, 1939: 1115: ‘”Britain declared war on Germany.”

For the next three years Jim was at sea in the in the North Atlantic, Mediterranean, Singapore, the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, Capetown, Aden, the Maldives, Somaliland, and Mombasa.

From having started his service as a Boy Second Class, he was now Acting Yeoman (Petty Officer) of Signals. He was 21 years old. His diaries record many actions at sea, including, in 1939, the capture of German merchant ship Henning Oldendorf. For November 19, his diary records: “Captured Henning Oldendorf under Russian flag and different name. Sent prize crew aboard and sent her to Leith. She had been at sea since 16th October. Cargo minerals.”

In November 1942, Jim joined HMS Faulknor as Temporary Yeoman (Petty Officer) of Signals, on which he served until the end of the war, in frequent action. By then his rank was Permanent Yeoman (Petty Officer) of Signals. In subsequent years he saw action with the Arctic convoys, and in Sicily, Salerno, the Aegean, the Mediterranean, at Anzio, at the liberation of the Channel Islands and in the Normandy landings, in 1944. Wikipedia reports that the Faulknor had a particularly active operational role during World War II, and was known as “the hardest worked destroyer in the Fleet’. As a communications specialist Jim served on the bridge of the Faulknor at the heart of the action.

Many of these events are reported as they happened in Jim’s detailed diaries, which carry eye-witness, immediate reports of many actions which were costly both in men and ships, especially in the Mediterranean and the Aegean.

Arctic Convoy JW53 – 1943

There are vivid reports in his diaries of the battles and the freezing cold of the Faulknor’s Arctic escort duties. His entry for February 25, 1943 reports:

“Today we have been closed up at action stations for nearly nine hours.  At lunchtime 14 JU88s attacked us splattering bombs all round but no one hit; the barrage made them keep up too high, then again 28 Jus (Junkers ) escorted by 40 ME (Messerschmidt) 109 and dropped everything they could but they seemed scared, just jettisoned their bombs anywhere, although some of the fighters jumped on us out of the clouds and machine gunned us, only one casualty in MVs, a man with a shrapnel splinter in his leg, he has been transferred with some difficulty to (HMS) Scylla.

“Just as dusk was falling another 10 JU88s came over; but no hits, although several near misses registered. And so the night goes on, snowing like the devil and we can hear the U boats making their sighting reports and homing other U boats. Signal comes through that all the escort are to drop two depth charges. This done nothing more was heard of the U boats and we have obviously made them keep well below the surface; whether any hits were registered we can’t say, it is too dark.”

The following year, during the Normandy landings, it fell to his ship to carry several eminent military people and politicians to the area, among them Field Marshal Montgomery, whom Jim recalled meeting. A countryman as well as a man of the sea, Jim knew the ways of the land about his home village – where the best blackberries could be picked, how to pluck and gut game birds, and how to grow great crops of vegetables behind his pub.

He was born on November 15, 1920 in Long Crendon, on the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire borders. He attended the village school until he was 14, when he joined the Training Ship HMS Arethusa. There his education continued – while he also remembers having to carry out chores like scrubbing decks. He then moved on to the training ship HMS Ganges, to learn his trade of Communications. When the war ended, after six years continuously at sea and in the thick of the action, Jim was Chief Yeoman of Signals – and still only 24 years old.

Jim’s wife, Clare, died in 2000. He is survived by three children, seven grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

Active and interested in people and events, with a razor sharp gift for marshalling his facts and dealing with practical matters –perhaps learned from his years as a Signals expert – Jim remained involved with the Thame and District Day Centre well into his 90s.