Harry Waddingham - Royal Navy

The club’s guest speaker on 20th March was centenarian Harry Waddingham, 103 this coming October, who was joined by his young wife Colette, a mere 86 years old. Harry regaled us with his talk about his service in the Royal Navy which he joined as a boy sailor at the age of 16 in 1932. Having served his training at HMS Ganges, Harry’s first deployment was in the Mediterranean as an aft gunner on a destroyer keeping watch over the Spanish Civil War and the possible consequences of an attempted seizure of Gibraltar. Shore leave at Gibraltar saw much competition and rivalry between the ships in the flotilla with football and boxing matches and other sports. After two and a half years in the Mediterranean Harry moved to fresh waters, but times were changing with the introduction of aircraft into the service. Although the aircraft could take off from the ships, they couldn’t land on them. Instead they ditched in the sea and the ship had to recover them; sadly a number of pilots died after they entered the water and the parachute smothered them as they came to the surface. A new technique of landing was devised and Harry became a ditching instructor. During the second world war Harry’s ship was assigned to a number of different roles which included the Dunkirk evacuation, Atlantic convoys and the Arctic convoys. Whilst based in Scapa Flow, Harry’s ship was sunk but he survived as he did through a number of other sinkings. As an aft gunner Harry was based on deck which made his chances of survival much more than those who served below deck. Much to his dislike he was moved from destroyers on one occasion and assigned to an experimental mine sweeper. The intention was that the large electric coil in the depths of the ship should emit magnetic waves to detonate mines nearby; On its first sortie as the ship slowly worked its way through a minefield the magnetic field detonated a mine 500 yards away, then a mine 100 yards away and then one only 50 yards away. It was realised that at slow speeds the coil could not recharge and emit a magnetic field and the experiment folded. 

Harry also spoke about strict Naval discipline when offences could incur strokes from a cane and being two minutes late would be deemed as an unauthorised absence. The penalty was not light!

Following his talk Harry was given a donation which he will give to the Friends of St Peter’s Church, a fund which is used for the upkeep and renovation of the church’s fabric.

Rotarian Jimmy Carroll who had introduced Harry and Colette praised Harry for his talk and the insight into his naval career, “A wonderful talk by a wonderful man”.