In a box of photos, letters and other stuff I’m now custodian of were, amongst other things, papers relating to my grandfather, Able Seaman J114619 Cyril Bartram.

War is a difficult subject, especially the way WW2 imagery is used (misused?) in recent times. We should remember that war isn’t a good thing, but something we should leave behind, while remembering those that fought, on all sides. This isn’t a game, this is real people. Which is where the post comes in, giving me lots of tangible, physical evidence of how one bit directly affected my family, nearly 80 years ago.

So then: what I know, what I can piece together and what I remember being told- not by him- I don’t know if he spoke much about his service, but if he did, it would hardly have been to his very young grandson. The stuff I was told was by my grandmother, after his death.

I’d like to thank Barrie Downer, chairman of The Submariner’s Association for some of this information, supplied within a few hours of my query. Other information has come from The National Archives and, of course, the box of papers.

This is a long post, and may contain errors or omissions. I’m not an expert historian or researcher and have little knowledge of the Royal Navy, of ships, or of German PoW camps. I’m a middle-aged IT Engineer who can use Google. Much of what I do know on those subjects comes from Wikipedia and a few evenings of research. With that disclaimer out of the way….

Edit: for more accurate dating, and additional info see this post, “Deeper”.

Grandad signed up for the Navy at 15, in 1925, with the rank “Boy II”. He became “Boy I” in 1926, Ordinary Seaman in 1927, and Able Seaman in 1928. From then his service record looks like this:

Date	Where	Note
5/8/1926	HMS GANGES	Boy’s Training Establishment at Shotley
24/9/1926	HMS VICTORY	Royal Navy Barracks at Portsmouth
3/10/1926	HMS BENBOW	Iron Duke-class Battleship
12/5/1927	HMS VALIANT	Queen Elizabeth-class Battleship
13/2/1928	HMS QE	Queen Elizabeth-class Battleship
7/5/1930	HMS VICTORY	Royal Navy Barracks at Portsmouth
12/81930	HMS OSPREY	‘for HMS HEATHER’
1/6/1931	HMS WARSPITE	Queen Elizabeth-class Battleship
8/11/1933	HMS VICTORY	Royal Navy Barracks at Portsmouth
9/12/1933	HMS VERNON	Torpedo and Mining School at Portsmouth – for Seaman Torpedoman’s Course
26/5/1934	HMS DOLPHIN	Submarine Depot at Gosport ‘for Submarine Training Course’
16/10/1934	HMS MEDWAY	Depot Ship of 4th Submarine Flotilla at Hong Kong
21/12/1934	HMS VERNON	‘for Stokes Bay establishment’
1/1/1935	HMS MEDWAY	‘for HMS OSWALD’
1/10/1935	HMS CYCLOPS	Submarine Depot Ship at Malta ‘for HMS OSWALD’
24/08/1936	HMS MEDWAY	‘for HMS OSWALD’
15/4/1937	HMS DOLPHIN	Submarine Depot at Gosport
27/7/1937	HMS DOLPHIN	‘for Submarine L26’
3/9/1937	HMS DOLPHIN	Submarine Depot at Gosport
27/1/1938	HMS DOLPHIN	‘for Reserve Group Submarines’
15/8/1938	HMS LUCIA	Submarine Depot ship ‘for HMS STARFISH’
16/5/1939	HMS FORTH	Submarine Depot ship ‘for HMS STARFISH’
10/10/1939	HMS TITANIA	Submarine Depot ship ‘for HMS STARFISH’
23/12/1939	HMS ELFIN	Submarine Base (Blyth) ‘for HMS STARFISH’

At this point I’ll cut the official record short and pick up the story.

The interesting point here is that his 12 years Continuous Service expired on 5th December 1939, so under normal circumstances he wouldn’t have been involved in what follows, according to Barrie, but this was wartime, of course.

For whatever reason, he was still on HMS Starfish when it was depth-charged while on patrol on January 6 1940, after a failed attack on a German M-Class Minesweeper: that is fairly well documented here: suffice to say it would have been an ordeal, waiting, submerged:

According to the German minesweeper’s report, M 7 had detected the submarine in Grid AN 9385 at 1040 and carried out depth charge attacks at 1053, 1140, 1256, 1510, 1518 and 1518 hours. At 1932, the submarine was forced to the surface and came under fire from its MG C/30 guns. About ten men jumped in the water followed shortly after by the remainder of the crew.

All the crew were rescued and captured, although at first he was reported “missing, presumed drowned”, as the telegram sent to Warwick St, Walsall said.

Nothing else was heard until January 23, when the routine radio announcements (according to my grandmother, by Lord Haw-Haw) declared him safe as a prisoner of war.

Edit: for more accurate dating, and additional info see this post, “Deeper”.

He ended up in Oflag IX-A PoW camp in Germany, and the first communication I have found has him writing home in February 1940. This camp was more usually one for RAF Officers (Offlag standing for Offizier-Lager), which seems odd.

In May 1941 he was in Stalag X-B, according to receipt cards for his Red Cross parcels, though one was sent to Stalag IX-C first, suggesting he may have passed through there. Action by the Red Cross seems to have led to a move to Marlag und Milag Nord, in 1942- certainly his letters have him there in July, when the Marlag camp was completed- not far from Tarmstedt, Lower Saxony. Marlag camps were the designated camps for Navy personnel (with Milag being for Merchant Navy), so it seems odd that he didn’t end up here sooner.

In November/December 1942 he was in Stalag_IV-A in Reserve Lazarett (Field Hospital) 742, and asking if my grandmother had heard about his repatriation, which was still a while away, it seems. There is an official German photo of this time, presumably taken to show how well they were being cared for:

..and also a receipt from a Dentist in Dresden in November 1942, that presumably he was taken to, for 83 Reichsmarks.

It’s my understanding that he had contracted TB at some point, so this explains the Hospital.

In with the photos is one of HMS Somersetshire, a hospital ship, but the photo isn’t dated and there are no letters in this period; we only know it is between December 1942 and October 1943, when we find him back in the UK, in Barrow Gurney Hospital near Bristol, having been repatriated, where apparently the first thing he did was write home (though actually, it was a telegram).

When he was fully home, there was a ceremony with Sir George Schuster, Walsall’s wartime MP.

Excuse the picture, scanned from a 2005 reprint in the Express and Star. Note the sub is misnamed HMS Swordfish– a sister ship that came to an even worse end, sunk by a mine with the loss of all crew.

Sir George then wrote to the people in the photo. You can read the letter here (PDF, 2.7MB). I don’t think he ever sent the photo, certainly I hadn’t seen it until the 2005 newspaper reprint- and it’s a bit wordy for me, but this was a politician in 1943.

Shortly after this (in 1944) he was invalided out of the Navy.

Grandad died on 30 August 1973. He hadn’t been a well man for some years, something my grandmother always blamed on his wartime experiences. As the date of his death will tell you, he was, in relative terms, one of the lucky ones; he survived the war, saw at least some of his children’s childhood, and knew his 4 grandchildren, unlike so many that didn’t get to do that. There’s photos of holidays and family celebrations that feature him, and I can dimly remember him, almost a half-century later.