PADDY GREENWOOD
1927-2022
Patrick John Greenwood [Paddy] was born in Thorpe St Andrew on 14th January 1927 to Robert and Lucy Greenwood. He was their second son, his brother Richard having been born a couple of years earlier.
LIFE AT CANTLEY
Robert Greenwood worked as a railwayman and by 1939 he had been appointed as Stationmaster at Cantley station. When war broke out the Greenwood family was living in the Stationmaster’s house there. Paddy had almost reached his 12th birthday and he was about to transfer from Thorpe St. Andrew Primary School to Great Yarmouth Grammar School. Paddy remembers little about how his parents reacted to the outbreak of war but does recall his father’s determination to keep the trains running smoothly
Cantley Station as it is today
PADDY 'S JOURNEY TO SCHOOL
Paddy travelled to Great Yarmouth Grammar School on the train every day, alighting at Vauxhall Station and walking to the school. Paddy enjoyed his time in Yarmouth but after attending the Grammar School for a year, Paddy and his family moved to Whittlesey in Cambridgeshire where his father had been appointed as Station Master
Great Yarmouth Vauxhall Station
Great Yarmouth Grammar School
THE NORWICH YARMOUTH RAILWAY LINE
The railway line through Cantley was a busy one and as stationmaster, Paddy’s father was responsible for the running of freight trains taking sugar beet to the Cantley factory, and also for the passenger trains which ran between Norwich and Yarmouth, and Norwich and Lowestoft.
SUGAR RATIONING
At the start of the Second World War the United Kingdom was importing about 70% of its sugar. Ships bringing food across the Atlantic were heavily bombarded by the Germans and very soon sugar was in short supply. By January 1940 rationing was introduced and sugar from UK beet factories was in demand. Plants such as the one at Cantley became targets for German bombing.
An old photograph of the crossing gates at Cantley
The sugar beet factory at Cantley
Whittlesey Station. The station buildings have now been demolished
Brickworks at Whittlesey
WHITTLESEY
Paddy’s father was responsible for the rail traffic to and from the Whittlesey brick yards and also for managing the passenger line which ran between Peterborough and Ely . This was an important route for freight and as such was a target for German bombing.
The raids were largely at night and Paddy remembers spending long uncomfortable nights in the Anderson shelter. His mother would leave the shelter and return to their house to make hot drinks to keep him and his brother warm. As a young woman Paddy’s mother had left Norfolk and gone to London to learn dressmaking. When WW1 broke out she worked in Woolwich Arsenal for two years and had seen the devastating effects of air raids on London. The bombing of Whittlesey was a terrible reminder of that time and made the situation all the more worrying for her.
Damage at Peterborough from German bombing of the railway [above and left]
RECREATION TIME
German air raids were mostly in the winter when the planes could fly under the cover of darkness. It was much safer in the summer and so it was possible for Paddy to catch a bus into Peterborough to enjoy a dip in the Lido. Opened in 1936, the Corporation Swimming Pool was a striking Art Deco building. Surrounded by gardens and adjacent to the embankment of the River Nene, the Lido was unlike any other open air facility of the time and was of a Mediterranean design.
Two images of Peterborough Lido which is still in use today.
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Whilst living at Whittlesey Paddy attended March Grammar School but was only there for a year before Paddy’s father was promoted again, this time to Scunthorpe station . Paddy's father was one of three Assistant Yardmasters and the family lived near the steelworks yard. Paddy changed schools again, this time attending Scunthorpe Grammar School.
Scunthorpe steel works in 1950
JOINING UP
On the day Britain declared war on Germany, 3rd September 1939, Parliament passed The National Service (Armed Forces) Act. This imposed conscription on all males aged between 18 and 41 who were obliged to register for service. Those medically unfit were exempted, as were others in key industries and jobs such as baking, farming, medicine, and engineering.
Whilst he was at school Paddy was fully aware that he would have to join up and at March Grammar School he was asked to state a preference for which branch of the armed services he would like to enlist in. He selected the Royal Navy and his brother Richard chose the Royal Air Force. To the relief of their father neither of his sons opted for the army. Robert Greenwood had fought in the Norfolk Regiment during World War 1 and having experienced trench warfare, first at Salonika and then in France, he did not want his sons to experience the same horrors.
PADDY'S SCHOLARSHIP
By 1944 Paddy and his family had returned to Norfolk and were living at Foxley. Paddy had secured a scholarship to Norwich School where he prepared for the Special Entry Examination for the Royal Navy. He won one of only 24 Executive Cadetships from a field of over 1000 applicants
LISTEN to Paddy talk about the navy here
PADDY 'S NAVAL TRAINING
The naval college at Dartmouth, where Paddy was due to train, had been evacuated because of bomb damage and moved to Eaton Hall near Chester, one of the ancestral homes belonging to the Duke of Westminster. Paddy began his training here as a Special Entry Cadet and eventually completed it with a seamanship course in the Firth of Forth.
An image from the Navy Lists Quarterly showing that Patrick John Greenwood entered the Navy as a Special Entry Cadet on September 1st 1944
FIRST APPOINTMENT
Paddy's first appointment was to HMS Nelson as Midshipman, and on joining the ship in Portsmouth he sailed in her to join the Far East Fleet and was there for the final three months of the war. In late August 1945, the Nelson was sent to Penang to take the Japanese surrender. On 2nd September 1945 the Nelson docked in George Town Penang and the surrender of the Japanese was signed on board her. Ten days later, the ship was present when the Japanese forces in all of South-east Asia surrendered in Singapore.Paddy recalls that he paraded on the Padang in front of the City Hall in Singapore, along with others from the Royal Navy and sailors from the Australian and Dutch navies. The Japanese High Command was marched through them and into City Hall where the surrender of South East Asia was signed. The Japanese were then taken away to Prisoner of War Camp.
Whilst in Singapore, Paddy witnessed the shocking, emaciated state of the released British prisoners whilst they were waiting for the arrival of troop ships to take them home
Eaton Hall near Chester where Paddy did his training. The house was pulled down in the early 1960s.
Signing of the Japanese surrender at Singapore
Japanese surrender party boarding HMS Nelson
British POWs following their release in Singapore
HMS Nelson
HMS Nelson was the name ship of her class of two battleships built for the Royal Navy in the 1920s. Entering service in 1927, the ship spent her peacetime career with the Atlantic and Home Fleets, usually as the fleet flagship. During the early stages of World War II, she searched for German commerce raiders, missed participating in the Norwegian Campaign after she was badly damaged by a mine in late 1939, and escorted convoys in the Atlantic Ocean.
In mid-1941 Nelson escorted several convoys to Malta before being torpedoed in September. After repairs she resumed doing so before supporting the British invasion of French Algeria during Operation Torch in late 1942. The ship covered the invasions of Sicily and Italy in mid-1943. During the Normandy landings in June 1944, Nelson provided naval gunfire support before she struck a mine and spent the rest of the year under repair. The ship was transferred to the Eastern Fleet in mid-1945 and returned home a few months after the Japanese surrender in September to serve as the flagship of the Home Fleet. She became a training ship in early 1946 and was reduced to reserve in late 1947. Nelson was scrapped two years later after being used as a target for bomb tests.
EXTRACT FROM NAVAL-HISTORY .NET
August
27th August 1945 - At 0900 hours the NELSON, CEYLON, ATTACKER, HUNTER, TARTAR, PETARD, VOLAGE, PRINCESS BEATRIX and QUEEN EMMA departed Great Nicobar Island for Penang.
(27/8/45 the Local Surrender Agreement was made by the Supreme Commander, Japanese Expeditionary Forces, Southern Regions, with the Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia at Rangoon)
28th - At 1200 hours the NELSON, CEYLON, ATTACKER, HUNTER, TARTAR, PETARD, VOLAGE, PRINCESS BEATRIX and QUEEN EMMA arrived off George Town, Penang Island.
At 1600 hours the first emissaries of the Japanese forces came on board the NELSON and were made to board the flagship by rope ladder. On board Admiral Walker accepted the surrender of the local Japanese commanders who also signed an undertaking that no attack would be made on the Fleet.
Further meetings were held on board the NELSON on 29th, 30th, and 31st August. The Japanese proved cooperative and provided the necessary information relative to their minefields, including those at Singapore and other areas.
September
1st - At 0730 hours the CinC Eastern Fleet Admiral Sir Arthur Power arrived on board NELSON from CLEOPATRA. On board, Admiral Power had meetings with Japanese envoys
2nd - NELSON was at George Town for the official surrender of Japanese forces. The Japanese commander Rear Admiral Uozomi was met by Captain Caslon and Vice Admiral Walker's Chief of staff, Captain Abbott, and lead below to the Vice Admiral Walker's cabin were the articles of surrender where signed.
8th - At 0500 hours, NELSON, light cruisers CEYLON and NIGERIA, escorted by destroyers NUBIAN, PALADIN and RELENTLESS sailed from George Town for Singapore, calling at Port Swettenham en route.
10th - At 0830 hours, NELSON arrived off Singapore.
12th - NELSON was at Singapore when the Japanese Forces in South East Asia officially surrendered.
(At 1141 hours the formal surrender document surrendering all Japanese forces in the region was signed by General Seishiro Itagaki and Admiral Mountbatten, Supreme Allied Commander South East Command at a surrender ceremony held at the Municipal Building of Singapore)
30th - NELSON sailed from Singapore for Trincomalee.
P o s t W a r N o t e s
HMS NELSON returned to Trincomalee and sailed from Colombo on 11th October 1945 to return to UK . After calls at Kilindini, Malta and Gibraltar she arrived at Portsmouth on 17th November.
AFTER THE WAR
Paddy had a very distinguished Naval career . He lived in Kettlestone for the final years of his retirement and here he made many friends, participating in social events and enjoying a chat when he was out for a stroll.
Above - Paddy at the Peace Tea in the village hall July 2019, an event to commemorate one hundred years since a similar occasion held in 1919.
Left - Paddy at the Air Ambulance tea in Gill Baguley's garden
Below left - Paddy with George Manuel in the village hall
Below right - Paddy taking part in Kettlestone's Desert Island Discs
