Thursday, January 31, 2013

The escape of the West family from Calais aboard HMS Venomous on the 21 May 1940

Sidney West, a distant relative of Pierre Ratcliffe, also left Calais that day aboard a Royal Navy destroyer, possibly HMS Venomous. He and his elder brother, Robert, were born in Calais the sons of Frederick West, a staff Sergeant in the Royal Engineers, from Gillingham in Kent. In 1918 Frederick married Marguerite Louise Prudhomme, a bank clerk in Calais, and left the army to work as a maintenance engineer at Brampton Brothers. Sidney describes the family's escape to England and their mixed fortunes on arrival in England. They never returned to France.... Read... More on HMS Venomous

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