This is a private letter that was found after my grandfather died, aged 90, in 1984. It is a letter of thanks from a French family. My grandfather was the Captain of the SS Dona Isobel and had been present in the evacuation of Calais in 1940. He had orders to evacuate members of the Calais administration and ‘others’. This letter is from one of the families he rescued; it details their new life in Fulham. Whilst I never knew about this rescue my grandfather always maintained that the Royal Navy escort’s captain hailed him and told him to get out of the Calais as soon as possible due to its being overrun, my grandfather refused to comply, showing his orders. In reply, the destroyer’s captain shouted, “Well, I own the Prince of Wales cafe in the town, it’s all yours now!” He never got to see his own cafe!
Ernest experienced much during the war; his ship, the SS Blacktoft, was attacked by German planes and E-boats off Harwich. For his bravery in the action he was awarded the OBE in July 1941. At the end of the war he was the first civilian ship to enter Trondheim in Norway. The British had recently seized Hitler’s private yacht, the Aviso Grille. This was the yacht that Hitler intended to sail up the Thames, to set up his HQ in Windsor, in 1940. My grandfather was offered the chance to take a souvenir from the ship. He asked for the ship’s barograph, which he kept running for the rest of his career. Today it sits in a wardrobe, unseen and unknown, but keeping its secrets tight, after 80 years.
