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NAVY NEWS, MARCH 2001 Options
Navy News aid sought to solve body mystery POLICE have asked Navy News to help in identifying this man whose body was found in Barnet over two years ago. A panther-like tattoo on the man's left forearm has led police to believe that he may have been a sailor at some time in his life. He was found on November 30,1998 in a small wooded area on St Kitts End Road and is thought to have
been dead for three days before he was found. Foul play is not suspected. Traces of prescribed drugs associated with psychiatric illness were found in his body, but he died of hypothermia, not an overdose.
Rescue crews mark 60 years of life-saving
All efforts by the police to identify the man have drawn a blank. He was white, 50-60
years old, 6ft tall, and of medium to heavy build. He
had blue-grey eyes, collarlength grey wavy hair, and the top of the middle finger of his right hand was missing. He had an old, irregular scar on his right shin. When found he was wearing a green, waxed, Barbourstyle jacket, a grey blazer, white jumper, white shirt, dark blue trousers and brown suede boots. Anyone who has information should contact PC Briony Richardson at Barnet Borough Division of the Metropolitan Police on 020
• The curious Panther-like tattoo which police think may link
8733 4592.
the dead man to seafaring.
TENS of thousands of people have reason to be grateful to the Royal Navy and RAF search and rescue service which celebrated its 60th anniversary in February. Co-ordinated from the Aeronautical Rescue Co-ordination Centre ar RAF Kinloss in Scotland, Sea King helicopters
have rescued more than 13,000 people in the past ten years alone. Last year the busiest rescue flight was that of 819 Naval Air Squadron based at HMS Gannet next to Prestwick Airport.
The flight's 274 call-outs last
WARSHIP MAKES A LASTING MARK IN WEST AFRICA
Type 23
frigate in Ghana exercise FOR WHAT is believed to be the first time, the navies of Britain, the USA and Ghana have exercised together.
IRON DUKE'S NAME GIVEN TO SCHOOL
A SIERRA Leone school for orphans built mainly by sailors from HMS Iron Duke has been named after the frigate.
Largest of the warships involved was Type 23 frigate HMS Iron Duke. She had been visiting the
Bestowing a rare honour, the country's leader, President Kabbah, decreed that the school be known as Iron Duke
Ghanaian port of Tema during a
logistics break as Atlantic guardship off Sierra Leone. The other ships were the 360-
Community School as a thank-
ton patrol craft USS Tempest, the 389-ton Ghanaian patrol vessel
you to the sailors who spent hundreds of man-hours constructing the building measuring 30 by 20 metres and containing six classrooms.
Aehimota and her sister-ship Yogaga. The two Ghanaian vessels
represent almost half of the country's tiny navy. The exercise took the form of manoeuvring and slation-kccping. Exchanges were also arranged
between the ships' companies. Among visitors to Iron Duke in Ghana was the country's former president, Fit Lt Jerry Rawlings,
who attended an official reception on board. He recently stood down as president in accordance with the country's constitution after democraticelections had voted in President Kuffuh. The reception was attended by British diplomats, high-ranking Ghanaian officials and representatives of Ghana's Navy
After the visit Iron Duke returned to her patrol off Sierra Leone where since the new year she has been supporting peacekeeping operations. She was due back in Portsmouth on February 23, having been relieved on patrol by HMS Glasgow.
• HMS Iron Duke takes the rearmost position in this picture by Lt Paddy McWilliams. USS Tempest is off the Royal Navy ship's starboard bow while the Ghanian patrol craft Aehimota leads with her sister-ship Yogaga taking up station to port.
Built on scrubland on the outskirts of Freetown, the school caters for 300 children aged from three to 13. The project was started by sailors from HMS Argyll and HMS Ocean in September and was continued in earnest by Iron Duke's ship's company. To complete the work the ship disembarked about 25 sailors each day for several weeks while she was on patrol. Project leader, CPOMEA Dave (Chippy) Milne, said: "I've built a couple of garden walls in my time but nothing on this scale. We have quite a lot of skill on board, and a few people had done some bricklaying before. "We gathered sand from the beach and let rainwater wash the salt from it before mixing it with cement provided by the British High Commission. You make a mould, then you go away."
year included a quick response to lift a 51-year-old yacht sailor from his vessel off the west coast of Scotland after he had broken his pelvis.
The man, Alan Turner, was receiving treatment at a specialist accident and emergency unit within 50 minutes. Last year there were 1,750 search and rescue incidents - a rise
of 5.5 per cent over 1999. Besides operating the 819 Squadron flight from Gannet, the Royal Navy have a 771 Squadron flight at RN air station Culdrose, while the RAF operate six flights and the Coastguard four. • 819 Squadron in action page 21.
Two sailors die after falls ashore TWO young sailors - OMs
David Taylor and Matthew Lewis - have died after separate night-time accidents while on runs ashore from their ships. OM(EW)2 Taylor
was
killed when he fell from a parapet in Gibraltar while his ship, HMS Lancaster, was alongside at Gibraltar on January 25. Another
sailor who also fell sustained a broken ankle. The second death came in the early hours of February 8 when 18-yearold OM(AW)2 Mathew Lewis apparently fell from the waterfront at Devonport as he was returning to his ship, HMS Sheffield. His body was recovered from the water. A police investigation took place,
but they do not suspect » foul play.
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Fancy seeing you here! HMS Montrose has completed annual noise-ranging in Loch Goil and Loch Fyne in Scotland. While
moored off Inverary, Mid Erin Simpson, who lives locally, was visited by her parents who spent the day on board and were treated to a tour of the Type 23 frigate by their daughter. Erin's father, Leonard, is a former CPOMEA who has previously served in HM ships Newcastle, Hermes and Invincible.
Streets of courage honour Enigma heroes NAVAL heroes of World War It's Enigma code-cracking campaign will now be remembered through street names in the home town of one of them. Grazier Avenue, Brown Avenue
and Fasson Close will be included in a 194-dwelling Mcleans Homes development at Kensington Gardens in Tamworth. AB Colin Grazier from Tamworth, and Lt Tony Fasson died while recovering Engima coding material from U-559 after it had been forced to surface in the Mediterranean by the destroyer HMS Petard. Naafi
Grazier's ship and the top-secret, Enigma-breaking HQ at Bletchley Park. With the support of Navy News
the Tamworth Herald launched a campaign two years ago to build a memorial for the three men. So far an appeal has raised over £13,000 to provide a town-centre memorial by international sculptor Walenty Pytel. Phil Shanahan, chairman of the
memorial committee and Deputy Editor of the Herald, said the the names of the three men were now indelibly engraved into the structure of Tamworth.
"Two years ago Colin Grazier was
canteen assistant Tommy Brown survived the boarding but was killed later in the war. Grazier and Fasson received the George Cross and Brown the George Medal, but the secret nature of their feat could not be recorded until well after the war.
barely known in Tamworth," he said. "If we have achieved one thing, it is that he is now getting some of the overdue glory he deserves." • Contributions to the Colin Grazier Memorial Fund are still being sought. Cheques should be
Two other streets in Kensington Gardens - Petard Close and
to The Tamworth Herald, Ventura Park Road, Bitterscote, Tamworth, Staffs., B78 3LZ.
Bletchley Drive are named after
FASSON CLOSE
made payable to the fund and sent • Tamworth street signs naming HMS Petard's Enigma heroes are held by (l-r) John Harper, Phil Shanahan and Rob Tanner.