RabidAlien
1st Lieutenant
Obituaries
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pbfoot
1st Lieutenant
How I missed this I don't know but will add a litlle bit
"During his North African service, he performed a bizarre attack by diving into and breaking up a German formation. He would be teased for it the rest of his life. It was called the "Houle attack."
Desert warfare was hard on pilots and aircraft. There was sand in everything, including cockpits. Hurricanes cruised with their canopies closed. The acrylic glass caused distortion, so
pilots opened the canopies when they went into action. With them open, the cockpit became like a sandblaster and goggles were a must.
When Houle started that memorable attack, his goggles blew off when he opened the canopy. Forced to clench his eyes shut, he didn't know he had flown through the enemy formation until after he did it. His faithful wingman was still on his tail, wondering if his leader had gone bananas.
Houle would earn many decorations, including the Distinguished Flying Cross -- twice. He quickly became a leader, and his first concern was always the welfare of those who served under him. Desert duty for combat pilots was particularly tough. There were no luxuries to return to, and losses were often high.
At one point, Squadron Leader Houle, aware his squadron had a morale problem, decided to fix it. He had all unnecessary weight removed from his Spitfire, including guns and seat. He sat on an empty wooden box and flew to Cairo. He came back sitting on a box of whisky and with every available space filled with booze. He threw a party. Morale improved
"Beurling was known as a hothead and a risk-taker. Houle was known for having little use for anybody not actively involved in the fight or directly supporting those who were. Being older than the average pilot and with more education, he was a natural leader. If he thought a superior officer was careless with the lives of pilots, he said so, regardless of rank.
Houle flew 338 sorties, many as squadron leader of 417, the first RCAF squadron in battle. He never boasted about kills, but was proud of the fact that, in command of Spitfires, he never lost a pilot in formation.
When 417 (City of Windsor Squadron) joined the war in the Mediterranean, it was said that other pilots, when selecting pilots to fly top cover, preferred six of any squadron to 12 of 417. After S/L Houle joined his fellow Canadians, the preference was reversed.
Houle was furious when, after two full tours, he was ordered back to training duties in Canada. His survival to that point defied odds. The life expectancy of a fighter pilot was six months, and in the early going, as little as three. He had skills that would save lives in battle, and not letting him use them where they were needed was unacceptable. He resigned. Beurling also rankled at the same treatment. He partied.
"During his North African service, he performed a bizarre attack by diving into and breaking up a German formation. He would be teased for it the rest of his life. It was called the "Houle attack."
Desert warfare was hard on pilots and aircraft. There was sand in everything, including cockpits. Hurricanes cruised with their canopies closed. The acrylic glass caused distortion, so
pilots opened the canopies when they went into action. With them open, the cockpit became like a sandblaster and goggles were a must.
When Houle started that memorable attack, his goggles blew off when he opened the canopy. Forced to clench his eyes shut, he didn't know he had flown through the enemy formation until after he did it. His faithful wingman was still on his tail, wondering if his leader had gone bananas.
Houle would earn many decorations, including the Distinguished Flying Cross -- twice. He quickly became a leader, and his first concern was always the welfare of those who served under him. Desert duty for combat pilots was particularly tough. There were no luxuries to return to, and losses were often high.
At one point, Squadron Leader Houle, aware his squadron had a morale problem, decided to fix it. He had all unnecessary weight removed from his Spitfire, including guns and seat. He sat on an empty wooden box and flew to Cairo. He came back sitting on a box of whisky and with every available space filled with booze. He threw a party. Morale improved
"Beurling was known as a hothead and a risk-taker. Houle was known for having little use for anybody not actively involved in the fight or directly supporting those who were. Being older than the average pilot and with more education, he was a natural leader. If he thought a superior officer was careless with the lives of pilots, he said so, regardless of rank.
Houle flew 338 sorties, many as squadron leader of 417, the first RCAF squadron in battle. He never boasted about kills, but was proud of the fact that, in command of Spitfires, he never lost a pilot in formation.
When 417 (City of Windsor Squadron) joined the war in the Mediterranean, it was said that other pilots, when selecting pilots to fly top cover, preferred six of any squadron to 12 of 417. After S/L Houle joined his fellow Canadians, the preference was reversed.
Houle was furious when, after two full tours, he was ordered back to training duties in Canada. His survival to that point defied odds. The life expectancy of a fighter pilot was six months, and in the early going, as little as three. He had skills that would save lives in battle, and not letting him use them where they were needed was unacceptable. He resigned. Beurling also rankled at the same treatment. He partied.
- Thread starter
- #206
syscom3
Pacific Historian
Lieutenant John Perkins: coastal forces skipper
While commanding MTB683 and attached to a Norwegian flotilla based at
Lerwick in Shetland, John "Polly" Perkins found himself alongside a
jetty up a Norwegian fjord having completed a clandestine operation,
landing agents and recovering refugees from the attentions of the
Gestapo. As it was a few days before Christmas 1944, he sent one of his
sailors ashore to root up some Christmas trees.
The MTB returned to Lerwick with three saplings which were displayed on
the upper deck and in the officers' and ratings' messes. But the
Norwegian admiral who had come aboard to be de-briefed on the operation
begged for two, which were swiftly flown to London as gifts to King
Haakon and the prime minister of the Norwegian government-in-exile.
Coastal Forces like to think that this incident is the origin of the
annual donation from 1947 of a Norwegian tree to Trafalgar Square each
Christmas, though an article in the quarterly Naval Review of October
1993 suggests that the provision of royal Christmas trees began in 1940
as a duty on the Norwegian Navy's clandestine "Shetland Bus" operations.
The Norwegian Embassy believes today that the annual donation was the
independent idea of the Mayor of Oslo.
John Perkins's career in coastal craft began with dangerous — if acutely
tedious — sweeping for air-dropped acoustic mines in the Manchester Ship
Canal. After a brief spell as second-in-command of a motor launch (ML)
at Lowestoft, he was appointed, virtually untrained, to the destroyer
Southdown on East Coast convoy duty.
As a temporary sub-lieutenant RNVR, thirsting for the excitement of the
fast night-time actions against enemy convoys in the narrow waters of
the Channel and North Sea, he bearded his appointing officer in the
Admiralty and got himself transferred to coastal forces.
Commanding MTB230, he was awarded his first DSC and a mention in
dispatches for actions against the enemy in the Nore area in October
1942 and March and June 1943, the first being against a heavily escorted
convoy off the Dutch coast where Perkins earned a reputation as an
"eager and aggressive torpedo marksman". The many difficulties of the
MTBs' early days included their unsilenced engines. Lacking starshell,
radar and radio navigation aids, they were often unable to find the
enemy or achieve the surprise necessary for the decisive close-in
torpedo attack — sometimes becoming the hunted, not the hunter. His own
lobbying helped to obtain the vital engine mufflers for the flotillas.
His second DSC was awarded for his part in another action off the Dutch
coast while commanding MTB683 in June 1944. He remembered the campaign
after D-Day as being one of "various bloody actions against flak ships".
In command of MTB766 Perkins was engaged in offensive operations up the
Scheldt river with the aim of opening up the port of Antwerp when his
seagoing career was brought to an end by "the Ostend disaster". Numerous
MTBs were berthed at Ostend when a mechanic spilt a bucket of petrol
into the water. This caught fire and the subsequent explosions, which
included the large compressed-air vessels of torpedoes, caused the loss
of 12 boats and the death of 68 sailors. Perkins was blown into the
water with his navigating officer, who was never seen again. After
survivors' leave he was appointed to the coastal forces staff division
of the Admiralty until his retirement.
Continuing his Cambridge-based education, Perkins qualified for the bar,
but seeing little future as a barrister obtained a post as deputy
company secretary with Rolls-Royce at Derby. In 1956 he moved to
Manchester to work for Clayton Aniline, part of the Ciba chemicals
company until 1967. He was for some years the managing director of
Ciba's pharmaceuticals division at Horsham until retiring in 1971 as
Ciba merged with Geigy.
A keen leisure sailor of a number of power boats, Perkins was brushing
up his navigation by taking the offshore skipper's course at Brighton
Marina sea school when his remarkable business skills were again
recognised by the offer of the job of managing director of the marina
construction project. The largest in Britain and formed mainly of
massive concrete caissons on an unsheltered coastline, the Brighton
Marina development started in 1971. By 1977 the infrastructure was
complete, and the marina was opened in 1978.
The cost of constructing the marina had far exceeded the original budget
and the backers were reluctant to commit more funding, so further
development was halted. In 1985 the marina was taken over by Brent
Walker, led by boxer-turned-businessman George Walker, and Perkins left
the company.
He subsequently became a director of Windsor race course.
His wife Mary predeceased him; he is survived by their son and daughter.
*Lieutenant John Perkins, DSC and Bar, coastal forces captain and
businessman, was born on January 1, 1920. He died on June 1, 2008, aged 88*
© Copyright 2008 Times Newspapers Ltd.
While commanding MTB683 and attached to a Norwegian flotilla based at
Lerwick in Shetland, John "Polly" Perkins found himself alongside a
jetty up a Norwegian fjord having completed a clandestine operation,
landing agents and recovering refugees from the attentions of the
Gestapo. As it was a few days before Christmas 1944, he sent one of his
sailors ashore to root up some Christmas trees.
The MTB returned to Lerwick with three saplings which were displayed on
the upper deck and in the officers' and ratings' messes. But the
Norwegian admiral who had come aboard to be de-briefed on the operation
begged for two, which were swiftly flown to London as gifts to King
Haakon and the prime minister of the Norwegian government-in-exile.
Coastal Forces like to think that this incident is the origin of the
annual donation from 1947 of a Norwegian tree to Trafalgar Square each
Christmas, though an article in the quarterly Naval Review of October
1993 suggests that the provision of royal Christmas trees began in 1940
as a duty on the Norwegian Navy's clandestine "Shetland Bus" operations.
The Norwegian Embassy believes today that the annual donation was the
independent idea of the Mayor of Oslo.
John Perkins's career in coastal craft began with dangerous — if acutely
tedious — sweeping for air-dropped acoustic mines in the Manchester Ship
Canal. After a brief spell as second-in-command of a motor launch (ML)
at Lowestoft, he was appointed, virtually untrained, to the destroyer
Southdown on East Coast convoy duty.
As a temporary sub-lieutenant RNVR, thirsting for the excitement of the
fast night-time actions against enemy convoys in the narrow waters of
the Channel and North Sea, he bearded his appointing officer in the
Admiralty and got himself transferred to coastal forces.
Commanding MTB230, he was awarded his first DSC and a mention in
dispatches for actions against the enemy in the Nore area in October
1942 and March and June 1943, the first being against a heavily escorted
convoy off the Dutch coast where Perkins earned a reputation as an
"eager and aggressive torpedo marksman". The many difficulties of the
MTBs' early days included their unsilenced engines. Lacking starshell,
radar and radio navigation aids, they were often unable to find the
enemy or achieve the surprise necessary for the decisive close-in
torpedo attack — sometimes becoming the hunted, not the hunter. His own
lobbying helped to obtain the vital engine mufflers for the flotillas.
His second DSC was awarded for his part in another action off the Dutch
coast while commanding MTB683 in June 1944. He remembered the campaign
after D-Day as being one of "various bloody actions against flak ships".
In command of MTB766 Perkins was engaged in offensive operations up the
Scheldt river with the aim of opening up the port of Antwerp when his
seagoing career was brought to an end by "the Ostend disaster". Numerous
MTBs were berthed at Ostend when a mechanic spilt a bucket of petrol
into the water. This caught fire and the subsequent explosions, which
included the large compressed-air vessels of torpedoes, caused the loss
of 12 boats and the death of 68 sailors. Perkins was blown into the
water with his navigating officer, who was never seen again. After
survivors' leave he was appointed to the coastal forces staff division
of the Admiralty until his retirement.
Continuing his Cambridge-based education, Perkins qualified for the bar,
but seeing little future as a barrister obtained a post as deputy
company secretary with Rolls-Royce at Derby. In 1956 he moved to
Manchester to work for Clayton Aniline, part of the Ciba chemicals
company until 1967. He was for some years the managing director of
Ciba's pharmaceuticals division at Horsham until retiring in 1971 as
Ciba merged with Geigy.
A keen leisure sailor of a number of power boats, Perkins was brushing
up his navigation by taking the offshore skipper's course at Brighton
Marina sea school when his remarkable business skills were again
recognised by the offer of the job of managing director of the marina
construction project. The largest in Britain and formed mainly of
massive concrete caissons on an unsheltered coastline, the Brighton
Marina development started in 1971. By 1977 the infrastructure was
complete, and the marina was opened in 1978.
The cost of constructing the marina had far exceeded the original budget
and the backers were reluctant to commit more funding, so further
development was halted. In 1985 the marina was taken over by Brent
Walker, led by boxer-turned-businessman George Walker, and Perkins left
the company.
He subsequently became a director of Windsor race course.
His wife Mary predeceased him; he is survived by their son and daughter.
*Lieutenant John Perkins, DSC and Bar, coastal forces captain and
businessman, was born on January 1, 1920. He died on June 1, 2008, aged 88*
© Copyright 2008 Times Newspapers Ltd.
RabidAlien
1st Lieutenant
Njaco
The Pop-Tart Whisperer
- Thread starter
- #210
syscom3
Pacific Historian
Vice-Admiral Sir Tony Troup
Last updated: 9:44 PM BST 11/07/2008
Submariner who was given his first command at only 21 and won two
DSCs during the Second World War.
Vice-Admiral Sir Tony Troup, who died on July 8 aged 86, became the
youngest-ever submarine captain when he took command, at 21 years 10
months, of the training submarine H32 in June 1943.
Just a few months later he was given command of /Strongbow,/ based at
Trincomalee, Ceylon. Operations had been largely restricted to patrols,
air-sea rescue and the landing and recovery of agents; but Troup sank
the 800-ton coaster /Toso Maru/ off Phuket with a single torpedo on his
first eastern patrol. He then sank or drove ashore nine junks, a tug and
two lighters with gunfire and by boarding and placing demolition charges.
The next patrol, however, brought mixed results. On October 11, in the
Malacca Strait, Troup attacked a merchant ship which was being escorted
by two sub-chasers, firing five torpedoes at a range of 3,000 yards. Two
exploded prematurely and the others missed; then, before he could renew
the attack, he found himself in shallow water.
Next day Troup encountered two Japanese submarines in quick succession.
He fired four torpedoes at Ro113 from 2,500 yards; all of them missed.
Half an hour later two more were launched at Ro115 from 4,500 yards;
these too missed. Reloading his one remaining bow torpedo, Troup sank
the 1,185-ton cargo ship /Manryo Maru/ at close range.
A week later he was ordered to take up position off the Nicobar Islands
for air-sea rescue duties during a carrier-borne air attack by the
Eastern Fleet. As the raid ended, he fired his stern torpedo into the
harbour, where it was caught by torpedo nets.
In November Troup patrolled the west coast of Sumatra, sinking a tug and
a lighter by gunfire and carrying out a successful re-supply operation
to coast watchers. On the last day of the month he found and sank three
junks close inshore, claiming 33 hits with 36 rounds from his 3-in gun
while coming under shell-fire from shore batteries.
Troup made one last patrol in the same seas at the end of the year, then
sailed to the southern Malacca Strait. A couple of weeks later he sank a
junk and was depth-charged in response, though there was no damage.
Three days later he was less lucky: /Strongbow/ was trapped in shallow
water by several anti-submarine vessels and subjected to close and
effective depth charge attack.
When Troup took tea after the war with Commander Tetsunoke Moriama, his
Japanese opponent told him that after eight hours of continual
bombardment he was sure that /Strongbow/ had been sunk. Troup admitted:
"They gave me a very bad time, and I was considerably dusted up."
Many of /Strongbow/' s/ /rivets had popped and the pressure hull had
collapsed inwards; the main engines had been blown off their beds; the
air compressors had been smashed and the torpedoes jammed in the tubes.
He crept into a known minefield, where he knew he would not be pursued,
then nursed his boat for 1,000 miles across the Indian Ocean to
Trincomalee. There the base engineers pronounced the boat unfit for
further service. Troup was awarded a Bar to an earlier DSC.
John Anthony Rose Troup was born into a naval family on July 18 1921. He
was educated at HMS /Worcester/, the nautical training college on the
Thames, and entered Dartmouth in 1936. His father had been boxing
champion at Dartmouth and insisted that Tony should take up the sport
(he consented, but was regularly beaten and grew to hate it). After
service in the cruiser /Cornwall/ and the destroyer /Active/ in the Far
East and the Atlantic, Troup volunteered for submarines in 1941.
He joined the newly built /Turbulent,/ commanded by Commander "Tubby"
Linton, which was part of the Fighting 10th Submarine Flotilla. In 1942,
after 254 days in the Mediterranean, nearly half of them submerged,
/Turbulent /was estimated to have sunk a cruiser, a destroyer, a
U-boat, and 28 supply ships totalling 100,000 tons; it had been depth
charged more than 250 times.
Troup was mentioned in dispatches while in /Turbulent/, but had left to
do his "perisher" course for submarine commanders when Linton was lost
on its next patrol. His first DSC was announced on the same page of the
/London Gazette/ as Linton's posthumous VC.
After Troup had limped home in /Strongbow/, he commanded three more
submarines in the post-war years: /Tantalus/, /Trump /and /Tally Ho/. He
was second-in-command of the Royal Navy's first angled-deck aircraft
carrier, /Victorious/ , from 1956 to 1959, and then held three
influential appointments as naval assistant to the First Sea Lord,
captain of the 3rd Submarine Squadron, and Captain of the Fleet in 1964-65.
He returned to the Far East as captain of the amphibious assault ship
/Intrepid/, then became became Flag Officer Sea Training, demanding the
highest standards of efficiency in all the ships sent to him at Portland.
As Commander Far East Fleet Troup took the salute at a steam past to
mark the end of the Anglo-Malaysian defence pact and the start of the
Five-Power Defence Agreement in 1971. When he was appointed Flag Officer
Submarines, aged 50, he insisted on making an inaugural ascent in the
new underwater escape tower at Gosport. His last appointment was as Flag
Officer Scotland and Northern Ireland.
For his retirement Troup acquired a crofthouse at Portchuillin, which
enabled him to indulge his passion for golf at the Lochcarron club. He
also owned a series of boats called /Seil/, the last and smallest of
which was a Devon yawl which he sailed until his children banned him
after he fell overboard. He was elected
to the Royal Yacht Squadron in 1964.
Troup joined the board of the shipbuilder Vosper Thornycroft and, from
1979 to 1988, was defence adviser to Scicon International. He was
president of the Submarine Old Comrades' Association.
Tony Troup, who was appointed KCB in 1975, wanted no memorial service
and left no papers, but recorded an oral history for the Imperial War
Museum.
He married, in 1943, Joy Gordon-Smith. The marriage was dissolved in
1952, and the next year he married Cordelia Hope, who survives him with
two sons and a daughter of the first marriage and two sons and a
daughter of the second.
Story from Telegraph News:
Vice-Admiral Sir Tony Troup - Telegraph
Last updated: 9:44 PM BST 11/07/2008
Submariner who was given his first command at only 21 and won two
DSCs during the Second World War.
Vice-Admiral Sir Tony Troup, who died on July 8 aged 86, became the
youngest-ever submarine captain when he took command, at 21 years 10
months, of the training submarine H32 in June 1943.
Just a few months later he was given command of /Strongbow,/ based at
Trincomalee, Ceylon. Operations had been largely restricted to patrols,
air-sea rescue and the landing and recovery of agents; but Troup sank
the 800-ton coaster /Toso Maru/ off Phuket with a single torpedo on his
first eastern patrol. He then sank or drove ashore nine junks, a tug and
two lighters with gunfire and by boarding and placing demolition charges.
The next patrol, however, brought mixed results. On October 11, in the
Malacca Strait, Troup attacked a merchant ship which was being escorted
by two sub-chasers, firing five torpedoes at a range of 3,000 yards. Two
exploded prematurely and the others missed; then, before he could renew
the attack, he found himself in shallow water.
Next day Troup encountered two Japanese submarines in quick succession.
He fired four torpedoes at Ro113 from 2,500 yards; all of them missed.
Half an hour later two more were launched at Ro115 from 4,500 yards;
these too missed. Reloading his one remaining bow torpedo, Troup sank
the 1,185-ton cargo ship /Manryo Maru/ at close range.
A week later he was ordered to take up position off the Nicobar Islands
for air-sea rescue duties during a carrier-borne air attack by the
Eastern Fleet. As the raid ended, he fired his stern torpedo into the
harbour, where it was caught by torpedo nets.
In November Troup patrolled the west coast of Sumatra, sinking a tug and
a lighter by gunfire and carrying out a successful re-supply operation
to coast watchers. On the last day of the month he found and sank three
junks close inshore, claiming 33 hits with 36 rounds from his 3-in gun
while coming under shell-fire from shore batteries.
Troup made one last patrol in the same seas at the end of the year, then
sailed to the southern Malacca Strait. A couple of weeks later he sank a
junk and was depth-charged in response, though there was no damage.
Three days later he was less lucky: /Strongbow/ was trapped in shallow
water by several anti-submarine vessels and subjected to close and
effective depth charge attack.
When Troup took tea after the war with Commander Tetsunoke Moriama, his
Japanese opponent told him that after eight hours of continual
bombardment he was sure that /Strongbow/ had been sunk. Troup admitted:
"They gave me a very bad time, and I was considerably dusted up."
Many of /Strongbow/' s/ /rivets had popped and the pressure hull had
collapsed inwards; the main engines had been blown off their beds; the
air compressors had been smashed and the torpedoes jammed in the tubes.
He crept into a known minefield, where he knew he would not be pursued,
then nursed his boat for 1,000 miles across the Indian Ocean to
Trincomalee. There the base engineers pronounced the boat unfit for
further service. Troup was awarded a Bar to an earlier DSC.
John Anthony Rose Troup was born into a naval family on July 18 1921. He
was educated at HMS /Worcester/, the nautical training college on the
Thames, and entered Dartmouth in 1936. His father had been boxing
champion at Dartmouth and insisted that Tony should take up the sport
(he consented, but was regularly beaten and grew to hate it). After
service in the cruiser /Cornwall/ and the destroyer /Active/ in the Far
East and the Atlantic, Troup volunteered for submarines in 1941.
He joined the newly built /Turbulent,/ commanded by Commander "Tubby"
Linton, which was part of the Fighting 10th Submarine Flotilla. In 1942,
after 254 days in the Mediterranean, nearly half of them submerged,
/Turbulent /was estimated to have sunk a cruiser, a destroyer, a
U-boat, and 28 supply ships totalling 100,000 tons; it had been depth
charged more than 250 times.
Troup was mentioned in dispatches while in /Turbulent/, but had left to
do his "perisher" course for submarine commanders when Linton was lost
on its next patrol. His first DSC was announced on the same page of the
/London Gazette/ as Linton's posthumous VC.
After Troup had limped home in /Strongbow/, he commanded three more
submarines in the post-war years: /Tantalus/, /Trump /and /Tally Ho/. He
was second-in-command of the Royal Navy's first angled-deck aircraft
carrier, /Victorious/ , from 1956 to 1959, and then held three
influential appointments as naval assistant to the First Sea Lord,
captain of the 3rd Submarine Squadron, and Captain of the Fleet in 1964-65.
He returned to the Far East as captain of the amphibious assault ship
/Intrepid/, then became became Flag Officer Sea Training, demanding the
highest standards of efficiency in all the ships sent to him at Portland.
As Commander Far East Fleet Troup took the salute at a steam past to
mark the end of the Anglo-Malaysian defence pact and the start of the
Five-Power Defence Agreement in 1971. When he was appointed Flag Officer
Submarines, aged 50, he insisted on making an inaugural ascent in the
new underwater escape tower at Gosport. His last appointment was as Flag
Officer Scotland and Northern Ireland.
For his retirement Troup acquired a crofthouse at Portchuillin, which
enabled him to indulge his passion for golf at the Lochcarron club. He
also owned a series of boats called /Seil/, the last and smallest of
which was a Devon yawl which he sailed until his children banned him
after he fell overboard. He was elected
to the Royal Yacht Squadron in 1964.
Troup joined the board of the shipbuilder Vosper Thornycroft and, from
1979 to 1988, was defence adviser to Scicon International. He was
president of the Submarine Old Comrades' Association.
Tony Troup, who was appointed KCB in 1975, wanted no memorial service
and left no papers, but recorded an oral history for the Imperial War
Museum.
He married, in 1943, Joy Gordon-Smith. The marriage was dissolved in
1952, and the next year he married Cordelia Hope, who survives him with
two sons and a daughter of the first marriage and two sons and a
daughter of the second.
Story from Telegraph News:
Vice-Admiral Sir Tony Troup - Telegraph
RabidAlien
1st Lieutenant
From one submariner to another,
ccheese
Member In Perpetuity
Charles
- Thread starter
- #215
syscom3
Pacific Historian
Toronto lawyer survived D-Day, defended Lord Haw-Haw in Old Bailey
Wounded during the Battle of Normandy, he was reassigned to defend a
Nazi broadcaster accused of treason. After returning to Canada, he
practised civil law for 60 years
GAY ABBATE
July 15, 2008
TORONTO -- It was April 3, 1943, and Stanley Biggs was on the Queen
Mary, the ship transporting him and other Canadian soldiers across
the Atlantic to fight the Nazis. As he passed the time playing
bridge, a familiar voice came across the shortwave radio, announcing
the imminent demise of the ship and everyone aboard.
"There are 5,000 Canadians aboard the Queen Mary hoping to reach
Southampton by sundown. There is no way this will happen. The
Messerschmitts are on the way."
The voice belonged to William Joyce, nicknamed "Lord Haw-Haw" by the
British. The American-born Joyce had moved to England but fled to
Germany just before the war. There, he became part of the Nazi
propaganda machine, broadcasting weekly to England and Allied
soldiers from 1939 to 1945. Joyce warned that German fighter aircraft
would destroy the ship, but it reached port safely.
That was Mr. Biggs's first introduction to Lord Haw-Haw. Seventeen
months later, with Germany defeated, the two men sat just a few feet
apart in an Old Bailey courtroom in London. Mr. Joyce was in the
prisoner's box on trial for treason; Mr. Biggs, a trained lawyer
recovering from war wounds, was attached to his court-appointed legal
defence team.
For long weeks in September and October of 1945, he did nothing but
research treason laws dating back to the 14th century. In the
process, he became an expert on the subject, writing several articles
and giving speeches on the subject after his return to Canada. Of his
involvement in the trial, he wrote in his memoirs: "It was a most
interesting and worthwhile experience for a young lawyer to do
research and to hear the presentation of argument for the Crown by
the Attorney-General. " The memoir, As Luck Would Have It In War and
Peace, was released by Trafford Publishing (Victoria) earlier this
year.
It was the duty of the defence team, Mr. Briggs wrote, "to research
all of the relevant evidence we could find and to see that, if Joyce
was guilty, he was not convicted except in full evidence with the
law." During the trial, Joyce never spoke but kept looking around the
courtroom as if expecting family or friends to show up, Mr. Biggs
wrote. No one ever came. A jury convicted him of treason and he was
hanged in 1946.
Stanley Champion Biggs was not, in his own words, "a religious
scholar, a cosmic scientist, a World War II history professional, "
areas of endeavour he considered beyond his abilities. The list of
what he actually was is much longer: a combat infantry officer, a
devoted lawyer for more than six decades, a poet, a school trustee,
an environmentalist long before environmentalism was fashionable. He
also devoted his life to the principle of doing good for its own sake.
He was born to the law, one of four children to solicitor Richard
Atkinson Biggs and Gertrude Champion, the belle of Brantford, Ont.
His grandfather, Stanley Clarke Biggs, founded the firm of Biggs
Biggs.
Young Stan grew up on Roxborough Street in Toronto's Rosedale
neighbourhood. He graduated from the University of Toronto Schools
and then studied law at the University of Toronto, graduating in 1936
and then enrolling in the three-year law program at Osgoode Hall Law
School. In 1939, he joined the family law firm and was called to the
bar that June.
To celebrate, he and classmate J. F. Barrett went to the world's fair
in New York. A group of young ladies graduating from Bishop Strachan
School in Toronto plotted to join them there. Among them was Mr.
Barrett's younger sister, Barbara, who clicked with Mr. Biggs. The
granddaughter of Sir Joseph Flavelle, a financier and meat packer who
was well known for his philanthropy in Toronto, they became engaged
by September and married the following June.
After the war broke out, Mr. Biggs volunteered with the Queen's Own
Rifles, leaving behind his wife, who was pregnant with their second
son. After months of training in England, he was among the thousands
of Canadian soldiers who landed on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day -
June 6, 1944.
The regiment landed near Bernières-sur- Mer at about 8 a.m., only to
enter a maelstrom. A storm had just passed through the area and rough
seas meant that all-important support tanks had been delayed. Unable
to wait, the infantry was forced to go ashore unprotected, with the
result that the QOR suffered the worst casualties of any Canadian
unit crossing the beaches that day: 60 men killed and another 78
wounded.
Mr. Biggs, however, emerged without a scratch. He made it through 86
days of continuous front-line combat during the Battle of Normandy,
and the long struggle to deny Germany's bitter attempt to halt the
Allied breakthrough, until finally he was shot in the leg.
The machine-gun bullet that took him out of the fighting landed him
in a courtroom. During and after his convalescence in England, the
military decided to make use of his legal skills. Attached to the
office of the Canadian Judge Advocates General, he prosecuted or
defended soldiers accused of such crimes as assault or rape.
He returned home in December, 1945, with the rank of captain and
resumed the life of a civilian lawyer. At first, he helped his father
with his client list but also did pro bono work, defending accused
who could not afford a lawyer. There was no legal aid system in
Ontario until the 1960s.
Mr. Biggs continued to practise law until 2004. "He loved the law,"
daughter Dinny Biggs said. "He was passionate about the rule of law,
about studying its background, the evolution of law and
jurisprudence. "
One of the highlights of his career was his involvement in the
creation of the broadcaster CTV. He handled the negotiations that
brought together the original parties who acquired the licence for a
second national television station.
His client, Joel Aldred, had originally sought the licence on his
own. But with the Canadian Board of Broadcast Governors reluctant to
grant one to a single entity, Mr. Biggs helped him form a partnership
with Ted Rogers.
The new partners entered into an agreement with another group, headed
by newspaper owner John Bassett. The channel went on the air in 1961,
but disagreements eventually arose between the two groups. Mr. Biggs
came up with a solution that allowed Mr. Aldred to sell his shares
while leaving Mr. Rogers as a partner.
Mr. Biggs continued his pro bono work throughout his career,
providing free legal advice to numerous non-profit groups.
That list included the Queen's Own Rifle of Canada Trust, the
Canadian Opera Foundation and the Toronto School of Art, which his
artist-wife used some of her inheritance to help establish in 1968.In
1955, Mr. Biggs was named Queen's Counsel. In 1995, he received the
Law Society Medal, which the Law Society of Upper Canada awards in
recognition of distinguished service in the law profession.
Not content to write just briefs, Mr. Biggs also loved to dabble in
poetry. During the war, he wrote The Queen's Own Rifles on D-Day, a
poem that now hangs in the Canadian War Museum. He wrote the piece
one day in 1944 when several dozen members of his regiment were
killed and dozens more were injured during fighting.
Mr. Biggs was also a landowner. During his lifetime, he planted more
than 150,000 trees, beginning in the late 1940s, when he bought his
first piece of farmland. He eventually sold that and bought a 40-
hectare farm in Mono Township in Dufferin County, Ontario. The land
was hilly and not suitable for crops, so he rented it out for cattle.
For relaxation, he started planting seedlings, eventually turning the
property into a managed tree farm. In 1991, he was recognized by the
Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources with an award for woodland
improvement.
Humour was another important aspect of Mr. Biggs's life. His was not
slapstick humour but rather a keen wit, said his long-time secretary,
Marjorie Fogg. "He always had cute little answers to things," she
said.
Mr. Biggs wrote of the importance of humour in his life in his
memoirs: "Without the humorous twists in my exposure to life ... I
think I would have cracked up long ago. I have always felt that the
therapeutic value of good humour should be gladly welcomed."
Toward the end of his life, Mr. Biggs prepared a final message for
his family and friends summing up the philosophy by which he lived
his own life: "Live fully, share extremes, stay well, keep chuckling,
have the thrill of dedication to good causes, be good on Earth for
its own sake."
STANLEY BIGGS
Stanley Champion Biggs was born in Toronto on Dec. 6, 1913. He died
June 17, 2008, at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto after a brief
illness. He was 94. He is survived by children Christopher, Barrett,
John and Dinny, and seven grandchildren. His wife, Barbara,
predeceased him in 2005.
Wounded during the Battle of Normandy, he was reassigned to defend a
Nazi broadcaster accused of treason. After returning to Canada, he
practised civil law for 60 years
GAY ABBATE
July 15, 2008
TORONTO -- It was April 3, 1943, and Stanley Biggs was on the Queen
Mary, the ship transporting him and other Canadian soldiers across
the Atlantic to fight the Nazis. As he passed the time playing
bridge, a familiar voice came across the shortwave radio, announcing
the imminent demise of the ship and everyone aboard.
"There are 5,000 Canadians aboard the Queen Mary hoping to reach
Southampton by sundown. There is no way this will happen. The
Messerschmitts are on the way."
The voice belonged to William Joyce, nicknamed "Lord Haw-Haw" by the
British. The American-born Joyce had moved to England but fled to
Germany just before the war. There, he became part of the Nazi
propaganda machine, broadcasting weekly to England and Allied
soldiers from 1939 to 1945. Joyce warned that German fighter aircraft
would destroy the ship, but it reached port safely.
That was Mr. Biggs's first introduction to Lord Haw-Haw. Seventeen
months later, with Germany defeated, the two men sat just a few feet
apart in an Old Bailey courtroom in London. Mr. Joyce was in the
prisoner's box on trial for treason; Mr. Biggs, a trained lawyer
recovering from war wounds, was attached to his court-appointed legal
defence team.
For long weeks in September and October of 1945, he did nothing but
research treason laws dating back to the 14th century. In the
process, he became an expert on the subject, writing several articles
and giving speeches on the subject after his return to Canada. Of his
involvement in the trial, he wrote in his memoirs: "It was a most
interesting and worthwhile experience for a young lawyer to do
research and to hear the presentation of argument for the Crown by
the Attorney-General. " The memoir, As Luck Would Have It In War and
Peace, was released by Trafford Publishing (Victoria) earlier this
year.
It was the duty of the defence team, Mr. Briggs wrote, "to research
all of the relevant evidence we could find and to see that, if Joyce
was guilty, he was not convicted except in full evidence with the
law." During the trial, Joyce never spoke but kept looking around the
courtroom as if expecting family or friends to show up, Mr. Biggs
wrote. No one ever came. A jury convicted him of treason and he was
hanged in 1946.
Stanley Champion Biggs was not, in his own words, "a religious
scholar, a cosmic scientist, a World War II history professional, "
areas of endeavour he considered beyond his abilities. The list of
what he actually was is much longer: a combat infantry officer, a
devoted lawyer for more than six decades, a poet, a school trustee,
an environmentalist long before environmentalism was fashionable. He
also devoted his life to the principle of doing good for its own sake.
He was born to the law, one of four children to solicitor Richard
Atkinson Biggs and Gertrude Champion, the belle of Brantford, Ont.
His grandfather, Stanley Clarke Biggs, founded the firm of Biggs
Biggs.
Young Stan grew up on Roxborough Street in Toronto's Rosedale
neighbourhood. He graduated from the University of Toronto Schools
and then studied law at the University of Toronto, graduating in 1936
and then enrolling in the three-year law program at Osgoode Hall Law
School. In 1939, he joined the family law firm and was called to the
bar that June.
To celebrate, he and classmate J. F. Barrett went to the world's fair
in New York. A group of young ladies graduating from Bishop Strachan
School in Toronto plotted to join them there. Among them was Mr.
Barrett's younger sister, Barbara, who clicked with Mr. Biggs. The
granddaughter of Sir Joseph Flavelle, a financier and meat packer who
was well known for his philanthropy in Toronto, they became engaged
by September and married the following June.
After the war broke out, Mr. Biggs volunteered with the Queen's Own
Rifles, leaving behind his wife, who was pregnant with their second
son. After months of training in England, he was among the thousands
of Canadian soldiers who landed on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day -
June 6, 1944.
The regiment landed near Bernières-sur- Mer at about 8 a.m., only to
enter a maelstrom. A storm had just passed through the area and rough
seas meant that all-important support tanks had been delayed. Unable
to wait, the infantry was forced to go ashore unprotected, with the
result that the QOR suffered the worst casualties of any Canadian
unit crossing the beaches that day: 60 men killed and another 78
wounded.
Mr. Biggs, however, emerged without a scratch. He made it through 86
days of continuous front-line combat during the Battle of Normandy,
and the long struggle to deny Germany's bitter attempt to halt the
Allied breakthrough, until finally he was shot in the leg.
The machine-gun bullet that took him out of the fighting landed him
in a courtroom. During and after his convalescence in England, the
military decided to make use of his legal skills. Attached to the
office of the Canadian Judge Advocates General, he prosecuted or
defended soldiers accused of such crimes as assault or rape.
He returned home in December, 1945, with the rank of captain and
resumed the life of a civilian lawyer. At first, he helped his father
with his client list but also did pro bono work, defending accused
who could not afford a lawyer. There was no legal aid system in
Ontario until the 1960s.
Mr. Biggs continued to practise law until 2004. "He loved the law,"
daughter Dinny Biggs said. "He was passionate about the rule of law,
about studying its background, the evolution of law and
jurisprudence. "
One of the highlights of his career was his involvement in the
creation of the broadcaster CTV. He handled the negotiations that
brought together the original parties who acquired the licence for a
second national television station.
His client, Joel Aldred, had originally sought the licence on his
own. But with the Canadian Board of Broadcast Governors reluctant to
grant one to a single entity, Mr. Biggs helped him form a partnership
with Ted Rogers.
The new partners entered into an agreement with another group, headed
by newspaper owner John Bassett. The channel went on the air in 1961,
but disagreements eventually arose between the two groups. Mr. Biggs
came up with a solution that allowed Mr. Aldred to sell his shares
while leaving Mr. Rogers as a partner.
Mr. Biggs continued his pro bono work throughout his career,
providing free legal advice to numerous non-profit groups.
That list included the Queen's Own Rifle of Canada Trust, the
Canadian Opera Foundation and the Toronto School of Art, which his
artist-wife used some of her inheritance to help establish in 1968.In
1955, Mr. Biggs was named Queen's Counsel. In 1995, he received the
Law Society Medal, which the Law Society of Upper Canada awards in
recognition of distinguished service in the law profession.
Not content to write just briefs, Mr. Biggs also loved to dabble in
poetry. During the war, he wrote The Queen's Own Rifles on D-Day, a
poem that now hangs in the Canadian War Museum. He wrote the piece
one day in 1944 when several dozen members of his regiment were
killed and dozens more were injured during fighting.
Mr. Biggs was also a landowner. During his lifetime, he planted more
than 150,000 trees, beginning in the late 1940s, when he bought his
first piece of farmland. He eventually sold that and bought a 40-
hectare farm in Mono Township in Dufferin County, Ontario. The land
was hilly and not suitable for crops, so he rented it out for cattle.
For relaxation, he started planting seedlings, eventually turning the
property into a managed tree farm. In 1991, he was recognized by the
Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources with an award for woodland
improvement.
Humour was another important aspect of Mr. Biggs's life. His was not
slapstick humour but rather a keen wit, said his long-time secretary,
Marjorie Fogg. "He always had cute little answers to things," she
said.
Mr. Biggs wrote of the importance of humour in his life in his
memoirs: "Without the humorous twists in my exposure to life ... I
think I would have cracked up long ago. I have always felt that the
therapeutic value of good humour should be gladly welcomed."
Toward the end of his life, Mr. Biggs prepared a final message for
his family and friends summing up the philosophy by which he lived
his own life: "Live fully, share extremes, stay well, keep chuckling,
have the thrill of dedication to good causes, be good on Earth for
its own sake."
STANLEY BIGGS
Stanley Champion Biggs was born in Toronto on Dec. 6, 1913. He died
June 17, 2008, at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto after a brief
illness. He was 94. He is survived by children Christopher, Barrett,
John and Dinny, and seven grandchildren. His wife, Barbara,
predeceased him in 2005.
RabidAlien
1st Lieutenant
ToughOmbre
Senior Master Sergeant
TO
evangilder
"Shooter"
Njaco
The Pop-Tart Whisperer