The Loss of the Valdora

HMT Trawler Valdora was lost off Cromer, Norfolk on 12 January 1940, believed sunk by enemy aircraft (German X Air Corps).  Her crew of ten all went down with the vessel, their bodies never recovered. They are all remembered on the Liverpool Naval Memorial.The men lost with the Valdora were:

Albert Potterton (52), Skipper, of 18 Knight Street, Grimsby

Ben Harris (66), First Engineman, of 220 Burgess Street, Grimsby

John Thomas Lea (46), Fireman and Trimmer, of 3 Second Terrace, Trinity Street, Grimsby

Arthur Holland McCall (43), Third Hand, of 3 Garibaldi Yard, Garibaldi Street, Grimsby

Douglas Pickett (19), Deckhand, of 32 Heneage Road, Grimsby

Dick Rumbelow (38), Second Hand, of 54 Fairmont Road, Grimsby

Osborne Smith (48), Second Engineman, of 1 John Street, Grimsby

Thomas Swaby (25), Deckhand, of 10 Sydney Street, Cleethorpes

Tom Weldon (56), Cook, of 27 Byron Grove, Grimsby

Roland Potterton (20), Fireman and Trimmer, of 18 Knight Street, Grimsby

There were a number of newspaper articles written about the Valdora and its crew. The Daily Mirror on 24th January 1940 reported the tragic tale of the Grimsby woman who lost both husband and son.

FATHER, SON LOST AT SEA

A day after Mrs Albert Potterton, of Knight Street, Grimsby, received a telegram saying her husband and son were coming home on leave, she had a message saying they were both missing, feared drowned.

Father and son were both in the Grimsby trawler Valdora, which was on Admiralty work, and is long overdue. Albert Potterton was skipper, his twenty-year old son Roland one of the crew.

First Voyage

A sister of Mrs Potterton said Roland was having his first sea journey.

“His father,” she added, “had always been against having boys on any vessel under his command. When Roland wanted to go to sea on the outbreak of war his dad felt bound to go with him.”

Roland was one of a family of nine children, the youngest being seven and the oldest twenty-nine. Two other sons, aged eighteen and twenty-nine, are on mine-sweeping.”

Another article, which featured in a number of national newspapers including the Derby Daily Telegraph, talks of the widespread support for the brave men who crewed minesweepers:

GAVE HER WEDDING RING

HELP FOR DEPENDENTS OF MINESWEEPERS

Least spectacular but not least dangerous job of the war at sea is that which falls to the trawlermen – to sweep for mines and destroy them.

Hundreds of men who a few weeks ago were just simple fishermen are engaged in these dangerous tasks. Many of the ships go out and do not return – as witness the Valdora, a trawler of Grimsby, given up by the Admiralty on Tuesday to return to her normal work and lost with her crew of ten on her last naval voyage. Six widows and 17 children are left by the crew.

Throughout the country there is a widespread desire to help these victims of the war.

A woman in Bedford sent her wedding ring to the Mayor of Grimsby to sell for the benefit of minesweepers’ dependents. British residents in Bolivia sent £60 for the same purpose, and promised to send the Major a like amount each month the war lasts. Relatives of a shipbuilder who died last week asked friends not to send flowers to the funeral, but to devote the money to the fund for minesweepers’ dependents.

A fund has been formed at Grimsby to consolidate all these efforts for the benefit of the dependents of minesweepers and fishermen lost in the war. It is known as the Grimsby Fishermen’s Dependents Auxiliary War Fund. Its offices are situated in Fish Dock-road, Grimsby and it will be glad to acknowledge gifts.”

The following year, the Derby Daily Telegraph, printed another article relating to the Valdora:

THRICE BLOWN UP

Rather a long time has elapsed since it was announced officially that H.M. Trawler Valdora was lost with all hands. I call it to mind now because of the knowledge that a Derby family developed a particular interest in one of the crew of ten Grimsby men.

Early in the war women of Dairy House-road Church sent a parcel of comforts to the Valdora and among these comforts was a scarf from Miss Marjorie Clarricoats of 10 Dexter-street. In due course, Miss Clarricoats received a letter of acknowledgement from the third hand, Arthur Holland McCall who, though she did not then know it, had been described as a man with a charmed life.

He had been so called because in the last war he was blown up three times while engaged on the risky business of mine-sweeping.