About Our Words: HMS Warwick
Peter Dawson of Cambridge identified with a article by Ken Holmes about the sinking of H.M.S. Warwick.
Peter writes:
My father, George William Dawson was a survivor of the sinking of HMS Warwick. I don't have very information about his experience but I know he managed to get ashore at Padstow some hours later.
I remember him talking about swimming away from the ship so as not to be sucked under went it went down. He was covered in thick oil and probably swallowed some of it. He died of cancer in 1965, and it was thought at the time that the cancer might have been caused by the oil.
I have a number of photographs of HMS Warwick as well as my father wilth other crew members. I also have a bronze (very heavy) ships badge although I don't know how he obtained it. He certainly didn't swim ashore with it.
I have read the biography of Denis Rayner, the captain at the time of the siinking.
http://www.openwriting.com/archives/2009/09/the_sinking_of_1.php
