Grangetown Local History Society has started meeting again monthly at Glamorgan Archives, Clos Parc Morgannwg, Leckwith, Cardiff, CF11 8AW, with the next scheduled for Friday 2nd June 2022 (2pm-4pm) . Contact secretary Ray Noyes [email protected]. Follow our Twitter feed @GLHS1 for updates.
Harold, a long-time member of Grangetown History Society, signed on for the Merchant Navy in Cardiff in 1944, aged 18. On 18 April 1945, then 19, he was on board aircraft carrier HMS Premier when she joined the escort JW 66 in what proved to be the final Arctic Convoy to the Soviet Union. The convoy encountered some drama on its return voyage from Murmansk, when one ship was attacked and Harold's own ship suffered an accident when a plane crash landed trying to land.
Harold, whose ship arrived back in Scotland in time for VE Day, went back to sea briefly before a career as an industrial chemist. He received his medal by post because of the Covid pandemic. Fellow veteran, Alan Higgins, from Bridgend, died in July 2021, aged 97. A widower and father of five, he had recently celebrated his 97th birthday and was pleased to receive a visit from the society with a present. He remained very modest but nevertheless proud of his war service. After the end of the Cold War, he vis