Royal Naval College Greenwich and Museum

[timlewin]

some views to add, lots more to come....

[ivorthediver]

From memory the engine shown is an Eagle Engine but I must admit that without a nameplate to describe it I'm at a loss
unless some of you know and can help us please.........

Ivor,

Apparently the engine is a Napier Lion VII D Aero engine (supercharged),the type that powered the Miss Brittain III powerboat, see the following excerpt:-

Miss Britain III was designed, built and driven by Hubert Scott-Paine, a noted pioneer of flying boats and fast naval attack craft. The stepped hydroplane hull was constructed using alcad aluminium sheet over an aluminium and wooden frame. She was powered by a Napier 'Lion' series VII B engine; the aero version was the world air-speed record holder. In 1933, Miss Britain III was narrowly beaten in the Harmsworth Trophy. However, in that same year she was the first boat to pass the 100 mph (161 km/h) mark on salt water in the Solent.
Read more at Royal Museums Greenwich Collections


Sorry about earlier link to the engine that has now been rectified and the link is to Miss Britain III from whence the excerpt was taken.

Thank you Harry , I must admit in my enthusiasm to get around I missed the Aluminium boat link as it had no theme plate attached to it , so thank you for the correction here.

Kind regards Ivor

[ivorthediver]

some views to add, lots more to come....

Ahh the man himself ....morning Tim , you have jumped ahead of me as that was the next section as detailed in the forward / introduction .

The painted Hall and the Naval chapel is coming soon , however your photographs are very welcome and will use them later as the floor in the "Painted Hall" was ALL covered over due to the restoration works due to end at the end of September when it will all be removed and the overhead scaffolding taken down ......... and we were unable to take any photo's due to the protective flooring which masked it all..... which Karen was upset about as she would have liked to view that item more than anything else as her Dad [Chalky] had an involvement in it .......so again my thanks .

We may visit it next year specifically to view it again when funds are in a better state

[timlewin]

more photos; the picture of the memorial was taken on the day of the commemoration for Surgeon Lt. Francis Mason Hayes. This brave doctor came to GB pre-war where qualified as a surgeon and then joined the staff at Greenwich hospital, just down the road from the College but no longer there these days. For social reasons he also joined the RNVR. During his time at the hospital he worked tirelessly helping the many victims of the Blitz which was centred on East London and the Greenwich area, and the Docklands. eventually he was called up and posted to HMS Veteran, a V&W destroyer. This was in the build-up to Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa. The Allies put together a convoy, RB1, also known by its code name of Convoy Maniac. The put together a motley collection of US East Coast passenger steamers, honeymoon cruisers, this was before the era of cheap local flight, and with canvas and timber changed their profiles to resemble those of famous ocean liners from a distance. Their stowage spaces were packed with empty drums and timber to slow down and possible sinking to reflect ships of much greater size. The purpose of this convoy was to draw U-boat attention away from the fleet of real ocean liners way to the South of the normal track bringing the hundreds of thousands of troops for the invasion. This was a ruse that worked. Two of the ships were torpedoed but because of their flotation cargo sunk very slowly, their people were rescued by Veteran which then hurried after the convoy to catch up. Tragically she as seen and torpedoed with a total loss of life including her American doctor, Francis Mason Hayes. This convoy was so secret that news of his certain death was not passed to his family so they cruelly hoped he had been saved, maybe a prisoner, until after the war ended. Because of this we did not know of his existence as a true US volunteer to the RN long before the USA joined in. The memorial was originally made listing only 21 names. It was nearly 2 years later we discovered our omission and added his to the memorial which is why his engraved name is lighter than the others. The commemoration was organised for a day when all of the Hayes family gathered in GB for a family wedding. It was a privilege to add him to the tally of these brave and selfless Americans who came to help us.

PS; one of the ships that survived the convoy was SS President Warfield, named for the president of the steamship company owning her. Post war she was purchased by a shadowy group, renamed EXODUS and sailed into history again ferrying Jewish concentration camp survivors to the newly forming State of Israel. Leon Uris book "Exodus" covers this, and the book "Convoy Maniac" covers the convoy itself, my copy was a present from Chalky White, my indispensable partner in all these memorials.

[timlewin]

pictures that should have gone with that last post

[timlewin]

more views; home to TTL was the end part of King Charles Court, West side, the opposite, East side was the house of the Admiral President. King Charles Court is now home to Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance. They have a collection of paintings on their staircase by Thornhill, artist of the Painted Hall.

[timlewin]

all of the public spaces, Chapel, Painted Hall, undercroft, Admiral Presidents House are available for event hire.

During the Falklands War my parents lived in their flat in King Charles Court and to save time crossing London dad would go by helicopter from Grand Square to Northwood, approx. 20 minutes door to door, unless he had to visit No. 10 first. I was in the City in those days and sometimes on rare occasions I drove to the office I would stop to share breakfast en route.. The College was pretty shabby when the MoD finally handed it over so the Greenwich Foundation should be saluted for the huge amount of renovation work they have undertaken. Fitting it is now a university, it very nearly became a Japanese hotel complex.

In the Maritime Museum where the main entrance is now is a great glass roofed atrium, Neptune Court, this was funded by an appeal to the National Lottery fund by TTL, he was a hard man to refuse.....

[timlewin]

When I first became involved with all this history stuff the first project which I inherited from TTL and included Chalky White as part of my inheritance, was the US Volunteers. I am writing more about this in the TTL section but I thought this would be a good place to attach this link;-

https://vimeo.com/154581956

this is the film of the original commemoration to the US Volunteers, minus the then undiscovered Surgeon Lt. Hayes. It includes Winston Churchill, Chalky White, Arch Bishop of Canterbury, Beth Bush and a host of other famous people but best of all has super views of Greenwich Naval College in the first 10 minutes. As the film covers all of the service and speeches you need to be ready to skip the less interesting parts, although a comfortable chair, bumper of booze does open the mind to enjoying all of the proceedings. The only person you wont see is me!

Tim

[timlewin]

so here is a picture of me; when it came to be the 200th anniversary of Trafalgar the Foundation wanted to organise a 400 people Royal banquet in the Painted Hall to which Prince Andrew was to principal guest. I believe 99% of those attending paid to be there to raise funds for the everlasting restoration work. At the time I was the Hon. Consul to the UK for the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, then part of Ukraine. I was also very good friends with the head of the State owned former Royal Winery at Massandra, created to provide wines for the Royal table in their palaces along the South Coast of Crimea (Krym in Russian)
I arranged with the winery to present to the banquet two special barrels, one of Port, the other of Marsala, Nelson's favourite wine. The wines duly arrived as part of the "diplomatic" package and we organised the presentation in the Painted Hall, by coincidence, I tell everyone it was my plan, this ceremony took place on the day that President Yushenko of Ukraine came to London to receive his "Man of the Year" award from HM the Queen. The Ukrainians took this opportunity to present me with my one and only medal, the Order of St. George 3rd class.

The wine was excellent, we toasted our little ceremony with 1945 "Victory" Port.

The Banquet, which I did not attend, emptied both barrels, I got the Ukrainian Ambassador a seat with the Maltese High Commissioner, both opposite Prince Andrew but I don't think the said much, sadly. Horse to water and all that.

nice to relive these memories

[ivorthediver]

Ah Tim ......ref :- horse to water ...on the only occasion I was presented to him ,[ I am usually good at summing people up] and my lasting impression of him was that of bland ignorance .....not through lack of education... but desire .....nothing like his Grandad who as you have said before would have come out with some anecdote of mirth.

In my own humble path through life I have been introduced on separate occasions to six members of the Royal family and with the exception of his nibs all were both courteous , charming and knowledgable of the occasion to which they attended [all of which I met at Duxford]........but by far the best was the Dear Old Queen mother , whom I met whilst refuelling Aircraft and she was such a character , and her helicopter pilot informed me that she would sit with a resume
of the flight plan and correct him whilst on route and in fact deviate at her request .......such a Character and of the old school in every way.... bless her .

I only ever met Chalky via the WNSF and email , but thought him a great personality and didn't even know he had a daughter till he crossed the Bar , , and I'm sure you now know she is certainly likened to him.... bless them .

Might I comment on how dapper you look above ......as they used to say ...".Scrub's Up Well Don't He."....
little perturbed to note... no prodigious amounts of White Burgundy though