ONE OF the few remaining survivors of the sinking of HMS Prince of Wales in 1941, out of a ship’s complement of more than 1,500, saw her carrier namesake recently christened at Rosyth. His attendance at that event gives us an opportunity to reflect on the experiences of a veteran who once served on board the new ship’s earlier namesake, writes Allan George.
Chris Peacey, aged 93 and living in Gosport, was a boy seaman when the battleship was overcome and sunk by Japanese aircraft. He was recently invited as a special guest to the naming ceremony of the new Prince of Wales when she was christened by the Duchess of Cornwall, with Prince Charles, Prince of Wales.
He said: “The trip to the naming of the new Prince of Wales was a bit of nostalgia. I thought the battleship Prince of Wales was big, but the carrier is bigger. Twice the tonnage to start with. As you can imagine I was treated wonderfully well, just as you would expect of the Navy.”
Following his rescue from the Prince of Wales Chris was repatriated to Singapore, only to escape its surrender to the Japanese by days, and inevitable imprisonment which would have ensued.
Subsequently, he spent the rest of the war in a cruiser, but in the early 1950s…
