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Leonard Bertie Watson joined the Royal Navy and was soon made Petty Officer. He was
later assigned to HMS Samphire, a Flower-class corvette and built by Smiths Dock Co in
South Bank-on-Tees and Commissioned into the Royal Navy on 30th June 41.
On 30th January 1943, HMS Samphire was part of a convoy escorting a merchant ship
when it was torpedoed and sunk off Bougie, Algeria by the Italian submarine Platino. The
ship was escorting convoy No. TE-14 which was taking part in the North African campaign.
The captain, two officers, and 42 of the ship's crew perished.
The British ship, HMS Zetland was part of the convoy and arrived back at the scene of the
sinking after an asdic search for the submarine of about 20 minutes. They found the poor
unfortunate shipwrecked men shouting and screaming, floating helplessly and covered in
the oil-spillage from their sunken ship. HMS Zetland launched a boat as soon as she could
but sadly managed to save only four survivors from HMS Samphire, who were landed at
Bougie, Algeria.
In Memoriam: Leonard Bertie Watson is remembered on the Chatham Naval Memorial
ROBERT GEORGE WHITTINGTON Private - Royal Army Medical Corps
1915 - 14th October 1945
Robert Whittington lived in Windsor Road, Foots Cray with his wife Gladys Emily. The
couple had two young children. Before joining up in 1940, Robert had been at Male Nurse at
Orpington Hospital. For the first few years of the War, he served for three and a half years
at the Scottish 15th Hospital in Cairo, Egypt, nursing hundreds of patients involved in the
many battles fought between the German Commander Rommel and British General
Montgomery in the North African Campaign.
In 1944, Robert was transferred to Belgium and served in the 115 British General Hospital,
Belgium. Unfortunately, he was involved in a traffic accident on 9th October 1945 and died
in hospital just five days later. He had a poignant reunion with his brother, Charles, who
was also stationed in Belgium, and managed to visit him in hospital.
In Memoriam: Robert Whittington was buried in Ostend New Communal Cemetery,
Belgium.
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