I received an email, 17th February 2006, with three images of Henry McCormick. His grandson is trying to find out which of Walker's ships this gentleman served upon. I do know it was NOT HMS Kite. If anyone recognises the name and/or the images please let his grandson know on the following email address, replace the * with an @ in order to call him direct. rayjonno*aol.com

Image 1 - I think he has his hat on backwards so that his ship's name  was not displayed??

Henry McCormick and group of shipmates maybe?

Allan Bentham

The war was almost over. The Battle of the Atlantic certainly was. The few German U-boats left were in disarray, short of fuel, ammunition and spares. The British fleet was now occupied elsewhere. On a foggy evening few noticed as HMS Starling limped into port on the Isle of Man. After many months guarding convoys and hunting U-boats the ship was badly in need of repair. Over the next few days the ship’s chippy, Chief Petty Officer Arthur Fowler, was to be hard at work tearing out damaged timber and replacing it. His task completed, he was left with a pile of high-quality off-cuts which he was reluctant to regard merely as scrap. A devout Christian, he had attended Sunday services at three of Ramsey’s Churches. During the following months, even at sea, he whittled away at the off-cuts, rejecting many of his own efforts. He eventually presented three plaques, his carvings of the ensign of HMS Starling, to churches in Ramsey. We hope that they are still to be seen. 

Saturday March 25 1944 ... A Wigan man has just taken part in the greatest anti-submarine action of the war so far, in which six German U-boats were destroyed and numerous others routed, AB Fowler, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Fowler of Chatham Street, Wigan. is serving in H.M.S. Starling, which under Britain’s leading anti submarine ace captain Frederick Walker. as gained a victory in the Atlantic which the First Lord of the Admiralty (Mr. AV Alexander) has likened even to the Battle of Trafalgar. Nine hours after the first sighting, a final pattern of depth charges fired by HMS Starling, brought ranch wreckage to the surface and established the destruction of the third U-boat within the space of 16 hours. Shortly after Starling had fired her last depth charge, a U-boat surfaced nearly a mile on the sloop’s port quarter. HMS Starling at once engaged with gunfire, scoring hits with both her four inch and smaller armament. The U boat’s crew quickly abandoned ship, and eight minutes after surfacing, the enemy sank. The entire crew were then picked up and made prisoners of war.

My thanks to Allan Bentham for the above, I do hope you have more to follow.

In an early morning mist the returning sloops of the Royal Navy forming the N0. 2 Support Group were officially welcomed when entering dock at Liverpool in triumph. To these little ships including "Starling", "Wild Goose", "Woodpecker", "Kite", and "Magpie" goes the credit of creating a record run of kills. In twenty two days they routed a U-boat pack as it lay in wait to attack British convoys and scored a "hat trick" of sinkings in one period of 16 hours. Not a single ship in convoy was lost in a trip of over 6,000 miles. No casualties in personnel were suffered, but the sloop "Woodpecker" (Commander H.L.Pryse) was torpedoed near the end of operations and taken in tow. Eight days later, under stress of heavy weather, she foundered, but her entire company was safely transferred to other ships. Our artist the stirring scene as the victors, led by the senior ship, H.M.S. "Starling", and followed by others, including "Wild Goose", and "Magpie", steamed into dock, cheered by Captain "D" (Captain Brewer, R.N.), staff officers, bluejackets and Wrens. A band of the Royal Marines played appropriate music for the occasion. Behind "Starling" is "Wild Goose", flying a large ship's flag from her main-head.  Wrens in the left foreground have broken ranks in their enthusiasm, blue-collared ratings are beyond, then dockyard workers, Marines, police, soldiers, and civilians on right. Mr Alexander, First Lord, in welcoming home the officers and men, described Captain FJ Walker DSO and two Bars who led No. 2Escort Group as "our leading anti-submarine ace." He said that Captain Walker and those under his command had now sunk seventeen U-boats, and added, "if you take any victory you secure over a great pack of U-boats that have from time to time numbered as many as twenty or more, you are engaging in a battle with almost as many numbers as there were in the Battle of Trafalgar."

Of the sloops themselves all were built since the outbreak of war. Details of their construction remain secret. "Chief credit for the 'sock on the nose' for Admiral Doenitz", said Captain Walker, "must unquestionably go to HMS 'Wild Goose'. Of the six U-boats destroyed, four were initially detected by 'Wild Goose', who also played a major part in their destruction. 'Wild Goose' handed me her contact on a plate. I could ask nothing better than to take the field again partnered by this doughty and well-trained warrior". Thanks to Terry Briody for the above.

From Tony Green. HMS Wren. May 25th 2004. I served as a sub-lieut on HMS Wren from May '44 to Feb '46. The memories of those days still hold me enthralled. The short video of our return to L'pool after sinking the six subs was particularly emotional for me having been personally involved in the ASDIC room and also as OIC 'B' gun during that hunt. Prior to joining the RNR I had been a cadet on the TSS City of Pretoria. We were near the Azores on our way to Singapore when the Japs hit Pearl Hbr. We carried on to Singapore but by the time we arrived the Japs were almost there so believe it or not, we had to drop all our cargo (All military supplies) on the dock at Batavia (Now Jakarta). We then towed a damaged British submarine to Bombay and then on to Alexandria. From there we tried three times to get to Malta but each time were beaten back to Alex or Haifa. We then went round the Cape to New York and loaded a full cargo of ammunition for the UK. We arrived safely but by that time I was fed up trying to fight the Germans with a Hotchkiss machine gun on the port bridge wing so left the ship and transferred to the RNR as a midshipman. The City of Pretoria meantime loaded a full cargo of military supplies, sailed towards Murmansk and was never seen again. That's why I am able to write this now!! Since 2004 I have been unable to contact Tony, nor are my emails getting through - I can only fear the worst and hope it is not so. 2009, this is still the case.

April 2005: Depth Charge Launcher on display in the Maritime Museum in Albert Dock Liverpool, was not there last year so has to have been a recent addition. It is situated at the entrance to the Battle of The Atlantic section before the running video from a destroyer bridge and the Naval 6lb gun.

Some of the lucky ones. A U Boat crew await rescue by Captain Walker. 75% of U Boat sailors left port, never to return home, these were fortunate, they did!  Image: Maritime Museum Liverpool

Richie Lyon sent me the above image. He served aboard Magpie from 1944. Image was taken in Bristol 1945 when on visit to "adopted" town - Chipping Norton.

  (see message above)   I am looking for any crew members still living who picked up survivors from HMS Woodpecker in February 1944 after it was torpedoed.  I am looking especially for the Seaman who pulled my father out of the sea. My fathers name is Able Seaman Stanley Carter and was a front gunner. I feel that I will not be able to trace the Seaman but I have to try.  I do know that the seaman was not working in the engine room or the torpedo room beyond that I cannot help any more.  If anyone has any ideas please let me know. Shirley Carter Shirley_e_Carter@mariam01.fsnet.co.uk

June 2005: I'm asking for help from all of you on this page. I am researching my grandfather's naval career. Ideally I'd like to contact anybody who may remember him, with the possibility of finding some photos. Evan Walter Fisher born 1900, joined up on his 13th birthday. Fought in the battle of Jutland aged 16 1/4. Trained gunners through the inter war years and was Gunner Command on HMS Starling from March '43 to October. Known as Walt or 'Jacky' (because of the Fisher). He was from Bath and rather hard of hearing due to those 15 inchers. If anybody has any info I'd be delighted to hear from you,  thanks, Nick Fisher.  mrnickfisher*hotmail.com - replace * with @ to email Nick.

My Grandfather was Edwin Freestone (deceased) who for many years was the Chief ERA on the Starling and Secretary of the Captain Walkers OLD BOYS ASSOCIATION in Bootle (now disbanded). Do you know any information about my late grandfather I would love to find out as much as possible I do have a few photos of him and a video given to me with him in the engine room of Starling (although a very brief second is shown the video is called perilous waters.)  Yours truly, Terry Pearce

Kenneth Gravenor Snape
And here he is. Sadly he died in December 2006. It is also sad that its usually
after the fact that their descendants finally see their memorabilia.

This image of HMS Starling was copied from an original and sent to me by Lorna Papaphilippou; her father served on board with Walker.

I have lived in Australia since the middle 1960s. I have here a friend who is a former naval commodore and who is active in the Royal Naval Association in Canberra.  He has asked me to be guest speaker at a meeting of the Association in the New Year and has asked me to speak about my father's naval career. In doing so, l shall focus heavily on the qualitites of FJ Walker. My Dad - and doubtless many others - would be delighted to know that 'the fighting captain' thus lives on far away on the other side of the world.  Best wishes Phil Teece. Australia.  (RIP Tom - mk)

February 2nd 2010. An email from the Mayor of Sefton.  It has been a humbling experience to spend the last couple of hours reading your recollections and those of the officers and men who served with Captain Frederick ‘Johnny’ Walker as part of his escort group during World War 2.  Please accept my assurance that all the ships standards, pennants, flags and other cherished memorabilia that was presented to and placed in the care of Bootle and subsequently Sefton Council are all still very much cherished and treated with the reverence and respect to which they truly deserved by each and every person who enters Bootle Town Hall. 

You may also wish to add as a small foot note - The ships bell from HMS Starling is rung to bring the elected members of Sefton Metropolitan Council to order at the start of each full council meeting that takes place in Bootle Town Hall.  It has been my honour and privilege to have served for 14 years as an elected member of the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton and sit in the council chamber of Bottle Town Hall beneath the very flags and pennants etc to which I refer.  I am your most humble servant.  Cllr. Alf Doran

Mayor of Sefton.

The ship will remind us of their bravery ; The Daily Post's campaign to save Captain Johnnie Walker's last ship is backed by his daughter Gillian. Here she tells Peter Elson about her distinguished father Daily Post (Liverpool); Oct 24, 2002; p. 9  

THE cold, great granite blocks of Gladstone Dock lie tight and mute, encasing leaden, still waters. These silent stones have witnessed countless comings and goings over the years, but none that compared with the exploits of Captain "Johnnie" Walker.  These dock walls once echoed to his ship HMS Starling's signature tune "A Hunting We Will Go" - a clarion cry to battle as his flotilla forged out into the Mersey on yet another U-boat mission during the Battle of the Atlantic. Capt Walker received the DSO and three bars for his group sinking more U-boats than any other, destroying 20 submarines in total.  Capt Walker's daughter, Gillian Walker, is giving her full support to the Daily Post campaign to save HMS Whimbrel. This is the sole surviving vessel from Capt Walker's escort group, now laid up at Alexandria by her present owners, the Egyptian Navy.

Miss Walker says: "I think it's a wonderful idea to get the Whimbrel back. She's not only the last ship of my father's group, but also the last Battle of the Atlantic warship, so it would be awful if she was lost. "The Egyptian attitude is all in our favour, so this is worth trying. It's a very good idea especially to moor her in the Canning Dock, which I remember very well. It's strange that a U-boat can be preserved in Birkenhead while it takes such an effort get Whimbrel back home to Liverpool."

 Miss Walker was last in Liverpool almost exactly four years ago when a statue of her father was unveiled at the Pier Head by the Duke of Edinburgh. Prince Philip commanded HMS Magpie, a Black Swan sister ship to Whimbrel and Walker's two commands Starling and Stork. 

Miss Walker vividly remembers those days, nearly six decades ago at Gladstone Dock, when her father was arguably the most famous man in Liverpool. After nearly a month at sea, Capt Walker returned to Gladstone Dock on February 24, 1944, to an ecstatic welcome, having sunk six U-boats in one of the most brilliant operations ever recorded in the Royal Navy's long history. 

"It was a marvellous occasion with the ships arriving in line after they had sunk six U-boats and everybody had gathered on the dock, including me," says Miss Walker, now in her late 70s. "They had a line of signal flags across the dock saying 'Johnnie Walker still going strong!'. Johnny Walker's Whisky company sent my father a case of whisky to celebrate. 

"My father wasn't really a drinker, but his main party trick in the ward room was standing on his head and drinking a glass of beer. My mother wasn't shocked, she thought it was great. I could do it too - we Wrens wore bell bottoms you see. "My father was a modest man, but I remember him getting annoyed when he failed his driving test. He came back and said, 'If I can drive a bloody battleship then I should be able to drive a flipping car!' "He was super fun to have around. He loved swimming, playing tennis and going fishing. He had plenty of energy and a jolly good sense of humour. The best place we had was in Weymouth before the war. It was the first time we were all together as a family, but it only lasted a year or two." 

Johnnie Walker was not only a superb tactician, but had an incredible presence that gained the affection and respect of his crews. He welded his group into a highly-efficient fighting force that deployed new methods of anti-submarine warfare.'He was an optimist. He knew his job and how to get the most out of people. In a way, he loved his men as much as he loved them. My father did as much for them as he could at sea. 

"That's why I suppose Capt Walker's Old Boys Association was formed as they wanted to remember him," says Miss Walker, whose mementoes include the patchwork leather jacket her father wore on Starling's bridge.  

"My father's success was widely known and the Liverpool papers were full of his exploits because it was a bit of good news and the rest of the war news were so bad. I felt very proud of him, but being very young at the time took it for granted. He just did the job he was instructed to do. With Capt Walker leading the U-boat campaign, the strain on his wife, Eileen, was enormous. Miss Walker says: "She was a very strong woman who had a had a lot of illness in her life, but was absolutely devoted to my father and we were a very happy family. 

The Walkers lived at Grassendale Park, literally a few yards from the Mersey. Previously, the family were in Dover, while Capt Walker worked on Admiral Ramsay's staff during Dunkirk. "He nattered at the Admiralty to give him a ship, as he was trained as an antisubmarine bloke. He eventually got appointed to HMS Stork which pleased him very much," says Miss Walker. 'We moved up to Liverpool, although I was away at school then and only allowed home once because of the air raids. I joined up as a Wren in 1943 when I was 18 years old, but my younger brother, Andrew, was only born in 1939 and my elder brother, Timmy, had been out in Rome for three years training to be a priest."

Tim was lost in the Mediterranean while serving aboard the submarine HMS Parthian, a few weeks before Capt Walker died himself from over exhaustion. He collapsed at a Liverpool cinema and died shortly afterwards. Miss Walker says: "My mother was very strong and brave over it and at the time he died she said how awful it was for me 'losing your father at such a young age'. I said, 'It's worse for you.' It left a dreadful gap in my mother's life. She never remarried and would never have considered it. "My father's death was a terrible shock as he'd always been a very healthy bloke and never had anything wrong with him. He was just tired out every time he came home. He was on ship's bridge day and night, suffering acute lack of sleep. It wasn't just the U- boats, but also the horrific North Atlantic winter storms." When Capt Walker died he was accorded a near state funeral through the streets to Liverpool Cathedral. Miss Walker says: "My mother and I didn't join the procession down to the dock, we just boarded HMS Hesperus there. I think my brother Nick marched behind the coffin through Liverpool.

Capt Walker was buried at sea in Liverpool Bay. "It was a deeply moving. It's the only occasion I can never remember saluting my father. It was a very solemn occasion, with everyone gathered on the quarter deck as the coffin went overboard.  My mother threw a wreath. It was a very dull, misty day. The sort of day they'd encounter when they went out 'on the hunt'.  It's all a long time ago and I wouldn't expect the next generation to know, which is why saving Whimbrel will help.  "My father never thought he was doing anything special. He would be utterly surprised by the whole fuss, he'd laugh his head off at the idea of one of the Virgin Trains named after him."

See also http://www.mikekemble.com/ww2/whimbrel.html

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