My Uncle Peter

‘D’ Day commemorations bring back memories for me of my Uncle Peter. I didn’t know him as I was not quite 2 years old when he died. He didn’t make it to ‘D’ Day as he died on 25th April 1941 (aged 19) when his ship HMS Exmoor was in the North Sea, off Lowestoft, on convoy protection duty and was lost.

Having been engaged in researching our family tree I have discovered there was some doubt about how his ship was ‘lost’. The original story I heard from my Grandmother was that his ship was torpedoed by a ‘U’ boat and this is contained in official reports. However, when delving into archived material there is also some thought that his ship may have hit a mine laid by ‘us’.

He was an “Ordinary Telegraphist” and I can only imagine what he would have been doing when his ship was hit…