HMS Wilton Set Mystery?

[3battalion]

Hello,

Here's a group that's completely outside my area of collecting and I would appreciate any information / ideas about the group. As the photos show the frame has a sailor with 'reserve' on his cap tally, a HMS Wilton cap tally and, what I believe are, nursing service tabs in bullion. The set has been in the frame for many years and was secured by many old rusty nails. The tabs are very well made with beautiful bullion work.

Thanks

Paul

[badgecollector]

hi paul
everything you say is correct.
pre 1953 QARNNS patches. there may be no link but most likely the nurse was attached post war as below.
In 1945 and 1946 Wilton underwent a refit at Simonstown in South Africa, returning to Devonport on 10 February 1946 for transfer to the Reserve Fleet. In December 1949 she recommissioned for service with the 4th Training Flotilla at Rosyth. In 1952 she was again reduced to reserve. She was placed on the disposal list in 1959 and sold for scrapping. She arrived at the breakers yard at Faslane on 30 November 1959.[4]

heres a link to them today
https://www.qarnns.co.uk/
bc

[3battalion]

Thanks BC for the link and information.

Paul

[Phil2M]

HMS Wilton today, the HQ of the Essex Yacht Club: https://www.flickr.com/photos/barryslemmings/197036644

[Guzzman]

The HMS Wilton shown in the picture was built in the early 1970s and she was a really innovative ship. She was the first warship in non-Communist navies with a hull built of Glass Reinforced Plastic (GRP). The contract for her construction was signed with Vosper Thornycroft on 11 February 1970 and she was subsequently fitted with the reconditioned main engines and equipment of the scrapped 'Ton' class minesweeper HMS Derriton. She paid off 27th July 1994. She was sold to the yacht club in August 2001. I last saw her at about the time she paid off. It's good to know that she's still around!

As already stated, the HMS Wilton tally in the frame relates to an earlier Wilton. She was a 'Hunt' class Type II destroyer built at Yarrow in 1941. The tally has a 'dot' after the name which dates it to prior to 1948. The QARNNS badges are for members of the QARNNS Reserve and are for the rank of Sister. All members of the QARNNS and QARNNS Reserve were officers at this date

Pete

[3battalion]

Thanks Phil and Pete for the links and information.

Paul

[Guzzman]

I should perhaps have added that all members of the Queen Alexandras Royal Naval Nursing Service (Reserve or regular) at this time were women. Men weren't allowed to join until the 1980s. Therefore the QARNNS Reserve badges couldn't have had anything directly to do with the rating shown in the picture. Members of the QARNNS Reserve were qualified civilian nurses who were called up for war service. When they joined the Reserve they never undertook any kind of training - they were presumed to get all the training they needed in their civilian employment. Perhaps the badges belonged to the ratings wife and the picture was intended to commemorate their joint naval service during the war?

Pete

[fougasse1940]

If that were the case then I find it odd there isn't a picture of her included in the frame.

Rgds, Thomas.

[3battalion]

Thanks for the replies and the set certainly a mystery.

I guess we'll never know how or why the tabs ended up in the frame with the photo and cap tally.

I intend to move these on but there is little information about the tabs value does anyone have an idea?

Paul

[Guzzman]

My suggestion about why such a disparate group of items should have been framed together was only a total stab in the dark! I have no idea why they are all together. Perhaps they have no actual link to each other at all - perhaps they were just a few naval items collected by a schoolboy at the end of the war and which he stuck together in a frame? We will simply never know now. It will remain one of lifes little mysteries!

Pete

[3battalion]

Indeed Pete.

Thanks

Paul

[GTB]

Hi
I was a bit startled to see a thread with 'HMS Wilton' in the caption. My dad served throughout the war on this his only ship, joining her in 1941 before she was commissioned and leaving her in 1945. I have taken it upon myself to research both his and Wilton's wartime service.
HMS Wilton (L128) was a Hunt Class escort destroyer and so was deployed mainly on convoy escort duty. Dad was on her during several convoys to Russia including the infamous PQ17, Operation Pedestal to Malta, North Africa and Italy. His medals attest to this service.
Wilton was awarded the following Battle Honours:
Arctic 1942
Malta Convoys 1942
North Africa 1942-3
Sicily 1943
Aegean 1943-4
Adriatic 1944
Mediterranean 1944
North Sea 1945

I wouldn't know if there is any connection between the photo of the sailor, the nursing reserve tabs and the cut tally. Have you had a look at the back of the photo for any markings?

Thanks for posting. This serves as a reminder to me to put his awards in order.


GTB

[3battalion]

Great info GTB.

The photo doesn't have any writing on the back.

Paul