[Mark W. Tonner]

Hi Dianne;

Originally posted by Dianne
I am a little confused about the ship my dad sailed on to UK from Halifax. By the way, I live just outside of Halifax.

Anyhow, I wrote to the archives a second time. When dad's records arrived and seemed to have little info that I could understand, I wrote a second time requesting the names of the ships he sailed to and from the UK. According to the archives he sailed to UK on the SS Athlone Castle on Sept 30, 1942 and returned on the SS Acquitania embarking UK for Halifax on 20 June 1945 to arrive on 26 and 27 JUne 1945.
So my question is who is correct, the archives or the service records? I always went by the service records as far as the dates were concerned and the names of the ships are not listed on the service records. And now you said that the FMR sailed on the SS Pasteur!!!! The mystery deepens!!! - if the archives have him on the SS Athlone Castle, that would be the one I'd go with because their information that they sent you probably came from the list of names of personnel carried - not all of the FMR reinforcements may have been carried on the S.S. Pasteur, there may have been other FMR 'drafts' spread throughout the convoy, also, the ships of the convoy may have left their respective piers on 29 Sep 42, but then the convoy would have 'formed up' before starting their actual crossing on 30 Sep.

The following is info on his service records from when he left Halifax until he arrived in the UK:

2.cd irv embarked sos Cdn A[C] Hlfx 29-9-42 PTE DO-242 Oct 11-42 - this says: that on 29 Sep 42 he was stricken off the strength of the Canadian Army (Canada) - the 2.cd irv is the parent unit of the draft he was on leaving Canada - 2nd Canadian Divisional Infantry Reinforcement Unit (the FMR being in the 6th Infantry Brigade of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division), his rank at this time was Private

2.cd irv TOS C.A. 0/5 Hlfx 30-9-42 Pte Do242 Oct 11/42 - this says: that he was taken on strength of the Canadian Army (Overseas) on 30 Sep 42, this being the 'norm', a soldier leaving Canada was normally stricken off strength of the Canadian Army (here at home) on the day he 'embarked' and 'one day' out of Halifax, he was taken on strength of the Canadian Army (Overseas) - his unit being at this time 2nd Canadian Divisional Infantry Reinforcement Unit

2.cd irv disembarked UK UK 7-10-42 PTE " " "

" " reported for duty " 8-10-42 " Do-242 11-10-42 these both deal with his arrival in the UK - the docking of the ship and when he came off

SOS 2.cd.iru Sos to FMR F.UC DEm # 8481 UK 19Oct42 Pte 250 20Oct42 this says: that on 19 Oct 42, he was stricken off strength of 2nd Canadian Divisional Infantry Reinforcement Unit and taken on strength of Les Fusiliers Mont-Royal, in the UK

Anyhow, it is hard reading all this stuff and I hope you can make some sense of it!

I hope this is a help and I haven't confused the issue even more.

My main hope is I would like to know his exact location in East Sussex where he trained from Sept 42 until July 8th44 and where he was in Scotland. you mentioned earlier about the FMR being in the LEWES area, where did you get that information from?

My husband and I would like to go over there next year and I would like to visit the places where he stayed. I'll dig out the locations for the Canadian units that I have mentioned in my replies and post them

Anyhow, once again I look forward to hearing from you and I thank you for any info you can send me.

Cheers