The ship, the SS Silver Walnut survived WW11 with many of its crew after being involved in the invasion of Sicily in 1943.
In later years, my father, one of the AB seaman who had been onboard, wrote:
"Our escort ships appeared far too small and far too few, but the supply of war ships was stretched to the breaking point at this time in the war, April 1943. We headed south (toward the southern tip of Africa) on a murky day on a quiet sea."
Some of the young men aboard the SS Silver Walnut (that travelled from Wallasey and Liverpool to Port Said in the Gulf of Aden in ‘43 on the way to the invasion of Sicily) didn't return home.
Gordon Douglas Harrison, 23 years old at the time, with wavy hair and sitting in the back row between two men with caps on their heads, did survive.
He returned to Norwich, Ontario, fathered five children (myself included), and when he was able, produced many fine stories related to his time overseas with other brave young men.
On Remembrance Day I’ll walk to the cenotaph at Victoria Park and quietly voice his name, along with the names of two young men from London who never returned but are listed in a book of memoirs produced by their mates.
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