Sir Edward Archdale, 3rd Baronet
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Sir Edward Archdale, Bt | |
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Second World War
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| Awards | Mentioned in Despatches |
| Other work | Politics |
Early life
Edward Folmer Archdale was born on 8 September 1921 to Royal Navy officer and later Vice Admiral Sir Nicholas Archdale, 2nd Baronet,
Nicknamed "Teddy", he joined the
War service
He served aboard HMS Vindictive and HMS Edinburgh. By May 1940, he was serving aboard HMS Sabre under Lieutenant Commander Brian Dean.
Operation Dynamo
HMS Sabre was conspicuous in the evacuation of British and French soldiers from the beaches of beaches at Malo-Les-Bains and the harbour mole during the Dunkirk evacuation. During nine days and nights of the evacuation, despite being damaged in an air attack, Sabre made ten round trips to Dunkirk. An example of her activity at this time:
In the early hours of 28 May, three ships boats from HMS Sabre picked up 100 men in two hours, from the beaches at Malo-Les-Bains to the east of the harbour mole. Then it was full speed to Dover with a turnaround of only 58 minutes, and the ship was back again at the Dunkirk harbour mole at 11.00am, where they loaded a further 800 men. Departing at 12.30pm, by now the ships weight had increased considerably, lowering her propeller draft. This meant because of the falling tide and a defective echo sounder, Lieutenant-Commander Dean had to slowly edge her passage through the shallows. She arrived back in Dover at 6.20pm. Refuelled, she was back to the Dunkirk mole at 10.30pm, the third trip of the day. This time, the ship stayed for only 35 minutes picking up another 500 troops.[1]
Finally on Tuesday 4 June just after two in the afternoon the Admiralty announced the end of
HMS Sabre had made more round trips than most and brought back to Dover a total of 5,765 soldiers – amongst the highest number for any individual ship. Lieutenant Commander Dean was awarded a
Operation Aerial
After
Rescuing children from SS Volendam
In September 1940 Archdale was with HMS Sabre, detailed to meet the first slow Atlantic convoy, as it approached the United Kingdom from Canada. A Finnish merchant ship, Elle 3,868 tons was torpedoed at 04.25hrs on the 28th and Sabre joined the hunt for the German U-boat (U-101) without success. Then two days later, during the evening of 30 August off Malin Head Sabre helped rescue the survivors of a torpedoed (by German submarine U-60) Dutch ship the 15,000 tons Holland America line, SS Volendam. She was in an outward bound convoy OB-205 for Canada, carrying 600 passengers, including 321 children under the Children's Overseas Reception Board scheme some as young as five, together with a crew of 250. They were taken to various west coast ports in Scotland.[2] In January 1941 Dean was badly injured in heavy seas and Sabre put into Larne, Northern Ireland. Lieutenant Peter Gretton took command from 11 January 1941.
Archdale completed his training in
Post-war service
After submarine service, he taught at the stone frigate HMS Excellent as a gunnery instructor. He was the gunnery officer of HMS Daring, served at the Royal Naval Tactical School from 1959 to 1962, He attended the Joint Service Defence College at Latimer, and the Canadian National Defence College at Kingston, Ontario. He retired from the Royal Navy and worked in defence sales after retirement.
Political career
After he retired from the
Arms
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References
The Miracle of Dunkirk, (1998), Walter Lord, Wordsworth military Library,
The Gourock Times of 6 September 1940: Newspaper Article about the torpedoing of SS Volendam,
- ^ Lord, p116
- ^ Gourock Times 6 September 1940
- ^ "Captain Sir Edward Archdale, Bt".
- ^ "Grants and Confirmations of Arms Volume M". National Library of Ireland. p. 239. Retrieved 24 August 2022.
External links
"HMS Unbroken (P 42)". [1]