I am very grateful to Len Ackroyd, Bob Cadman, and Ted Longshaw for not only coming to our little re-union in January 2008 – and giving me the honour of finally meeting men who served with my father in HMS Wager – but in giving us priceless assistance in naming names, confirming places, incidents and so forth. Len’s well-kept journal has been a major help to us, and Ted has kindly loaned some unique, and spectacular photographs from his album for the gallery.
This site is for, and because of, you, gentlemen. Thank you.
I am indebted to Lieutenant-Commander Lester May Royal Navy for help, advice and background information.
Lester has been an invaluable help in ship and officer identification and has invested much time in researching and writing the sections on The British Destroyer, HMS Wager – W class Destroyer, The Ship’s Organisation, The British Pacific Fleet & The 27th Destroyer Flotilla, and the compilation of the ship’s likely Scheme of Complement and the details of the ship’s company.
Many of the photograph captions have been expanded with his help, and now offer far more information to the casual viewer than I would have been able to provide. His background and naval knowledge have made this a much more informative site than it otherwise would have been.
I hope that the site goes at least some way in doing justice to his painstaking efforts. Lester’s father, Walter May, served for nearly three years in HMS Wager, joining the ship in 1944 as a three-badge Able Seaman (Leading Torpedo Operator). He died in 1982, age 76.
Lt Cdr Lester May RN – 31 May 1989 Son of AB (LTO) Walter May of HMS Wager
Thanks to Gordon Smith of Naval-History.Net who has made available a detailed account of HMS Wager, written by Lieutenant-Commander Geoffrey B Mason Royal Navy.
Although we have permission to reproduce it here, we felt it simpler to just provide a link to the Naval-History site.
