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700 messages posted to the guestbook Page: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] [44] [45] [46] [47] [48] [49] [50] [51] [52] [53] [54] [55] [56] [57] [58] [59] [60] [61] [62] [63] [64] [65] [66] [67] [68] ( 69 ) [70] Add a message Search the guestbook for crew names   Cynthia Schofield from Wallsend Tyne & Wear said... 30/09/2000  NULL  Robert (Bob) Septimus Craig I am the daughter of Robert(Bob) Septimus Craig, A Petty Officer Stoker who perished on H.M.S. Barham when I was nine months old. I have many happy memories of Mrs Cooke (The Captains widow)and her kindnesses to my mother (Jean Craig) and myself. She and my mother formed a warm friendship which lasted until Mrs Cooke passed away. I would be interested to hear, via my daughters e-mail address(above) of anyone who knew my father. Bryan James Samuels from Plymouth. England said... 28/09/2000  NULL  Bryan James Samuels I am a survivor from the Barham, and a contemporary of George Elliott. I was 17 and eleven months when she was sunk. My defence station was P2 in the 6" gun battery and was on watch at that station when we were hit. Situated on the port side close to where the 'fish' hit and because of the melee with men rushing up from the messdecks below, I was very fortunate to escape, which I did by going up though the galley into the starboard battery and then up through the bakery flat and out onto the upper deck. By this time the ship was listing to port at about 45 degrees and I had to crawl up the deck and down onto the starboard glasis. As I got over the guard rails and down onto the ships side, I saw the terrific explosion aft of me and the next thing I remember was trying to swim to the surface. I surfaced in inches of oil and saw many bobbing heads and several dead shipmates floating around me. I was eventually picked up by Hotspur. To this day the memory remains with me as if it was yesterday and I am sure the other survivors have the same experience. I am delighted that you have set up this homepage, Sara, and I will be a frequent visitor. It is very difficult for me to get to reunions or to the Abbey now-a-days so this will help me keep up to speed. God Bless you, Jim. Ken Gibson from West Vancouver, Canada said... 23/09/2000  NULL  Ken Gibson, Peter Black Congratulations on creating the HMS Barham Survivors Assciation website. It is important to keep alive the memory of the 861 men who lost their lives. I am a survivor now 79, and would like to sign the guestbook in memory of a close friend, Peter Black, Electrical Artificer, who went down with the ship. We both attended H.M. Dockyard School, Malta, 1933 to 1936. As a volunteer entertainer for seniors in care facilities I met von Tiesenhausen in the West Vancouver Care Centre in March 1999. The staff of the centre knew that he was a former U-Boat Captain, but did not know the details of the sinking of the Barham. During my visit of the 20th of September 2000, after his death,I was asked to tell the full story of the loss of the Barham. The audience was shocked at the number of lives lost. Much interest was shown. They are going to get Frank Wade's book for their library. I also mentioned the Waterside Website. Please find herewith, "My escape from the sinking battleship HMS Barham." Bernadette Turner from Tenterfield NSW Australia said... 21/09/2000  NULL  William, Keenan My fathers half brothers were supposed to be aboard the Barham name of William? & Keeenan? Hutson does anybody have any information regarding these names.Thank you. Joanna Harriet Thomas nee Pitts from London, U.K said... 15/09/2000  NULL  George Stanley Pitts daughter of Captain George Stanley Pitts RM My father went down in the Barham when I was two years old. My mother was so shocked about his death and the violence of war she only went to the Survivors' Association service once when I was very young; I don't know if I went as well. (She came from a pacifist family). I always knew there was a Book of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey but I could not face asking to see it, though I worked as a tour guide for British Tours and visited Westminster Abbey at least once a week over a year. It is thanks to Joan Dove (the widow of Surgeon Commander Sorley and Sarah O'Donnoghue's grandfather) who lived with us in North Wales before November 1941 and remained in contact and a friend of my mother that I heard of "A Midshipman's War". She sent us a copy. On reading the chapter on the "Barham" it laid some ghosts, I ceased to think of him floating deep in the water, but more at peace. For me it seemed that the torpedoing was random and therefore more acceptable. For the past three years I have attended the Survivors' Association Service at Westminster Abbey, my mother came two years ago. At the Union Jack Club with Sarah O'Donnoghue we met Commander Grogan and George Parker who has written about the "Barham". As a child I remember visiting Connie Cook, Captain Cook's widow she lived in a Mansion flat off Baker Street. She provided me as well as many other people with amongst other things American shoes, brogue lace ups which I can still see. She, I understand, worked tirelessly helping widows and their families. It is her energy which resulted in the collection to provide the candlesticks by the altar in the nave in Westminster Abbey which were carved by Robert Thompson whose symbol was a mouse carved in most of his work. I recently learnt that my mother and a friend Mary Vincent Smith whose husband John was a Doctor in the Navy, spent the evening together with Connie Cook on the day peace was declared. My second cousin Dr Tom Pitts, my father's contemporary, recently told me that once after he retired when he was hospital visiting, a sailor who was on the Barham asked if he was related to my father. He then said that he was the last person to be let through the hatches by my father, before he closed them and the ship exploded. brian e horner from 1061 utsalady,camano,wa,usa said... 02/09/2000  NULL  ERIC HORNER MY FATHER ERIC HORNER DIED ON THE BARHAM WHEN I WAS ELLEVEN MONTHS OLD.HE WAS A STOKER,I BEIIEVE HE SERVED ON THE SHIP FOR ABOUT THREE YEARS.ITS AMAZING TO KNOW THAT FOR THE PAST THIRTY YEARS CAPTAIN TIESENHAUSEN WAS LIVING SO CLOSE.I WISH I HAD KNOWN.THANK YOU SARA FOR THIS WEB SIGHT. Mike Barham from Mississauga, Ontario, Canada said... 31/08/2000  NULL  NULL I was looking for family tree information when i happened across this page. My immediate family originated in Coventry, and i am tracing ancestory back. I am glad to know this piece of history and will look for any links between its name and my background. Thank you. My condolences to any remaining survivors and their families. Diana O'Neill from Eastbourne , East Sussex said... 27/08/2000  NULL  David.N.MATTHEWS Hello, my father Lieut.David.N.MATTHEWS.RNR.was a survivor of H.M.S.BARHAM.Thankyou for setting up the guestlist.I have a casualty list sent to me when my father died in November 1987 with Wilfred Burton,ROYAL MARINE listed on it .This message is for Yvonne Simcock,Kidsgrove Staffs . I will keep looking at the site now that I have found it. Ron Nicholson from Portsmouth said... 18/08/2000  NULL  Charles Nicholson My father,Charles Nicholson, was a stoker P.O. lost in H.M.S Barham. Thank you Sara for developing this website in the memory of such a tragic loss of so many lives.I hope to visit Westminster Abbey in the near future now that I am aware of the book and candles there.My fathers name is on the Portsmouth War Memorial and also on the Memorial in Scarborough N.Yorkshire where he was born. Marc Tiley from London said... 14/08/2000  NULL  NULL The Barham's story is fascinating history and it is good to see it is kept alive. (I am researching a documentary for the BBC which includes teh attacke at Dakar in 1940) Our guestbook is now closed for new messages. Thank you for your support. 01/01/2025

last updated:  23 January 2025

andrew gillespie