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Eric Robert Walder's Royal Navy service in Italy and the Pacific

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posted on 2024-06-05, 20:08 authored by Their Finest Hour Project Team

Eric Robert Walder was in the Royal Navy as a boy in the early 1930s (1931) in Gosport.

In 1939, he was Acting Leading Seaman (details are shown in the picture of his records). He was on a destroyer and was based in New Zealand for the Pacific Convoy. On the way, they stopped in Naples to help with the evacuation of Mount Vesuvius in 1944 when he was due for leave.

He stayed in the Pacific until after the victory in Japan. He didn't talk a lot about the war. He was tracing U-Boats; he trailed boats for 72 hours straight. He later received an MBE and various awards.

There is a letter to his sister who worked for the Land Army, stationed in Bicester. She married the contributor's uncle after the war (see photograph). He grew up in Gosport and was also in the Navy; he served on HMS Malaga and in the tropics.

History

Item list and details

1. Newspaper: The Evening Post, Wellington, New Zealand, declaring the end of the war in 1945 2. Newspaper: Chicago Daily Tribune, 1943 3. Photograph of John Weston (contributor's uncle) near the start of the war 4. Letter to the contributor's aunt: Women's Land Army 5. Photograph of the contributor's father 6. War awards; cap badge; part of uniform 7. War medals including Palestine Medal (1936-39), Pacific Star (1939-45) and MBE 8. Lava from Mt Vesuvius, 1944, with coin 9. Certificate of service 10. Niké box for women's stockings (likely the contributor's mum's)

Person the story/items relate to

Eric Robert Walder (1915-1984); Joan Walder (later Weston); John Weston

Person who shared the story/items

Adrian Walder

Relationship between the subject of the story and its contributor

Father; aunt (sister of father); aunt's husband

Type of submission

Shared at Royal Navy Submarine Museum, Gosport, Hampshire on 27 October 2023.

Record ID

103012 | GOS005