Fred volunteered for naval service when he was only 17 years old. After training as an aircraft mechanic, Fred was assigned to HMS Campania (D48). HMS Campania was built at Harland & Wolff shipyards in Belfast, Northern Ireland. When construction started in 1941 she was intended as a refrigerated cargo ship for transporting lamb and mutton from New Zealand, but was requisitioned by the British Government during construction and completed and launched as an escort carrier, entering service in early 1944. HMS Campania operated escorting convoys and doing anti-submarine work in the Atlantic and Arctic theatres. Her Swordfish aircraft were an important weapon in fending off enemy attacks on allied merchantmen. Fred made five perilous return trips from Scotland to Murmansk/Arkangelsk with HMS Campania, effectively protecting 10 separate convoys. In an article published in The (Hertfordshire) Comet in 2005, Fred recalled “We were under attack all the time, but the worst thing was the cold. The weather was awful. We sailed through gale force winds and storms. It was so cold that people could make snowmen on the deck. We never had proper clothing and the typical food would be dried cod and beetroot. But I was very young then and we all just had to get on with it. I never complained because I was a volunteer and was never conscripted so whatever befell me, it was my own fault!”
Fred’s main duties were to maintain the munitions for the aircraft, including bombs and depth charges. There was no respite. No question of relaxation time, day or night. “You just worked until you dropped because they had to be fixed. We had about 18 planes on board including American Wildcats to deter torpedo bombers, Swordfish and Fairey Fulmars. Some of the most skillful pilots ever, were on those convoys” With the carrier decks moving fifteen feet on a good day, pilots would be guided in and once they hit the deck they would be slowed by arrester wires. Of course, the wires and decks iced up, so it was a highly dangerous manoeuvre. Many planes were lost overboard and any crew would be lucky to be rescued from the cold before they perished.
Fred observed “No-one wins a war. One side just loses more than the other side. I have realised the futility of war”. Fred’s humility was evident when he commented on the furore which followed Downing Street’s initial plan to recognise convoy veterans’ efforts with a badge rather than a medal. He said “How can you say one group deserves a badge more than another? It was hard on the convoys but I bet it was hard in the jungles of Burma and for people living in London through The Blitz”.
A bricklayer by trade, Fred moved to Stevenage in 1952 with his wife Violet and their daughter Helen. They were among the first residents of the new town. Fred served on North Herts District Council and helped set up the town twinning association between Stevenage and Ingelheim. Fred and Violet celebrated their platinum wedding anniversary before Fred passed away aged 93.
[submitted by volunteer Ed Thompson based on records held at the Arctic Convoy Museum]