Commander F Poole RD RCNR

Ts memoir (276pp), written in 1971, and a brief ms diary (31pp) covering his service as a Midshipman RNR in the armed merchant cruiser HMS ALCANTARA, one of the ships in the 10th Cruiser Squadron responsible for enforcing the blockade of Germany, from November 1915 until she was sunk in action off the Norwegian coast with the German surface raider GRIEF in February 1916, in HMS KING ALFRED, the flagship of the of the 9th Cruiser Squadron, which was employed largely without incident on patrol and shipping examination duties in the South Atlantic (May 1916 - February 1917) and in HMS HARDY ad HMS SPITFIRE, both in the 4th Destroyer Flotilla based on Devonport, which were engaged on anti-submarine patrols and later convoy escort work in the English Channel and South West Approaches (March 1917 - July 1918), and as 1st Lieutenant of HMS TB3, which was attached to the Newhaven Escort Flotilla for cross Channel escort duties (August - December 1918), and then of HMS P39 with the 1st Anti-Submarine Flotilla based on Portland (January - June 1919); and of extracts from another ts memoir (95pp), written from 1969 - 1975, describing his service as a Commander RNR, in North Sea coastal convoys (1941), as Extended Defence Officer in Sydney, Nova Scotia after his transfer to the Royal Canadian Navy (early 1942 - March 1943), as a Commodore of Convoys running between Halifax, Nova Scotia and Boston in the United States (April 1943 - March 1944) and in command of the destroyer HMCS HAMILTON which was employed in Canadian waters as an officer candidate training ship (April 1944 - April 1945). Poole's memoirs offer interesting insights into the work of the 10th Cruiser Squadron on the Northern Patrol, living conditions and disciplinary problems in HMS KING ALFRED, the stresses of wartime service in small ships and threats from the enemy and navigational hazards faced by convoys during the Second World War.

RWAS

<p>See THE NAVAL REVIEW VOL 77 (1989), Nos 1 &amp; 2</p>

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