Crew Lists - George Charles COLE - COMPLETED

[dragonmoon777]

Hi Trevor,

Thank you for the copy of the image, I received it fine.

His service records states the following:
Carolina (Trollope) 29 May 1944 to 6 July 1944 (last ship he was on - Normandy Invasion)
Victory 7 July 1944 to 23 June 1946 Physically unfit for Naval Service (I believe this was when he was in Canada.

It says nothing about Canada, yet many of the injured were taken to Canada being in the Atlantic.  His routed was England to the US.  My father use to say it was lucky that he ended up in Canada as he probably would have lost his leg if he had to wait to go back to England.  He underwent surgery and also physio there.

My mother believes that he told her he arrived in Australia in 1947 by jumping ship deciding that this was the place he wanted to stay he got everything legitimised so he could work on the Snowy Mountain Scheme (abt 1950) and then the VIC Railways a few years later.

So whether he decided to go back to England, save for his fare and return in 1949, I'm not sure.  He didn't seem the type of man to lie about these things, so it's quite interesting.

But as we all know looking into this Ancestry business, it's amazing what skeletons you find .

Best Wishes
Penny

[t mo]

hi penny
i think i,ve sussed out some more info from that part of the record you sent hms trollope was a captain class frigate she was launched 20 nov 1943 torpedoed by an e boat off cap d,antifer 6 july 1944 , the victory part appears to be a canadian navalshore  base on vancouver island .
have a look at these sites for more info www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk  click on royal navy then in the search box put trollope and it will come up with a 3 options click on the top one from there scroll down to the last pic which should be trollope .
www.wartimememories.co.uk/ships/trollope.html  on this site it is asking for names to add to the list of those they already have .
also google hms trollope ww2 as there are several sites worth looking at .
your dad was probably right about better treatment in canada than here in eng at that time .
what was this snowy mountain scheme you talk of only i,ve never heard of it before .
speak soon
trevor

[dragonmoon777]

Hi Trevor,

Firstly I would just like to thank you for all the research you are doing for me, I really appreciate it. Even putting up with my typing errors, you are good, lol!

HMS Victory was the main port in Portsmouth, England at the time, it may have included this sister port in Vancouver. 

Yes, I too have many of these links about the Trollope, one of the two ships he was on that got torpedoed (also have info on the other one). Talkl about bad luck, good luck to have survived. I have this pic. and other information.  I also emailed the list last year with my Dad's details, I see they haven't added him yet, will email them again. I also note a story attached to one of the guys listed that he sustained head injuries and was taken back to England., I guess it depends on which boat picked them up from the water and where it was heading, as Dad said there were a number of boats all over the place picking up survivors.

The reason my Dad wa happier to be in Vancouver was because of the distance (they were actually physically closer at the time) and a retired surgeon who was a Specialist in Dad's type of injury had just started back at work because of the war (great timing), Dad believed he saved his leg.

If you google "snowy mountains hydro-electric power scheme" you will find out all about it.  Basically Australia imported many people from all walks of life after the war to work on this huge project.  Many did not need any documentation to support who they were, but if you were a British Subject you had to have the correct Legal Documentation.  It was an amazing and dangerous project for it's time.

Thanks once again.

Best Wishes
Penny

[t mo]

hi penny
well i,ve just looked in ancestry and find my past both for immigration and emmigration records for  geo c cole and apart from the one that i gave you earlier i can,t see any others so i,m thinking he must have done his recuperation in canada was then discharged unfit for further service and came back to blighty before eventually emmigrating to aus s the thing to look at is the time line is so tight 46/49 it doesn,t give a lot of leeway for trawling the world really especially as in that time here it would have been still very much a time of starting to rebuild the country as whole after 6 yrs of war .
does the service record make no mention of his repatriation to eng before his discharge and also did he join the navy or was he called up for war service only .
i never gave it a thought that portsmouth would be called hms victory the obvious never does with me and it,s a thing with the navy that all there shore based stations have hms names here in felixstowe it was called hms beehive a base for motor gun boats in ww2 .
thanks also for the info on snowy mountain scheme it certainly was one big project especially for that era .
very best wishes
trevor