A Brush with Fate - How John Distin Nearly Volunteered for Death in 1943

John Distin

John Distin, My Dartmouth

A Brush with Fate - How John Distin Nearly Volunteered for Death in 1943

The first Sea Cadets were formed in Dartmouth in the early 1940s under the command of the local postmaster, a Mr Gray. He started the group in the Guildhall, and John was one of the very first to pull on the uniform in the town.

The group soon moved to the ‘Thatch’ out past South Town in a place called ‘The Wilderness’ which was taken over by the Wrens.  A little boathouse down by the river, the Thatch was used by the Sea Cadets for more than a year.

The boys had to walk through the Wren’s quarters to get to the boathouse. As many of the Cadets were getting to their late teens, they were only allowed to do so escorted by an officer.

 “We had to gang up outside and you can imagine how the boys had their heads turned. We thought we looked very good in our uniforms too, so it was interesting!” remembers John.

The group then moved out to a base in Warfleet owned by Lady Freke which was ‘a lovely place, like a good town hall.’

The moneyed aristocrat owned much land and property around the area at the time.  She generously allowed much of it to be used for the war effort or by community groups, and allowed the Sea Cadets to use this base near the river to help the boys get the best education.

It was while the Cadets were training at this base that John’s brush with fate occured.

Lt Gray lined up the boys in the boathouse and started to tell them about a new opportunity.Lt Gray said; “We’re very lucky; because I’m a postmaster, I’ve written to the Post Office and they’ve agreed that any replacements needed on their cable laying ships could be taken from the Dartmouth Sea Cadet Corps.”

The Cable Laying ships were run by the General Post Office and were responsible for all cable laid along the seabed for telecommunications and services such as electricity and gas. During the war these ships took on a huge significance as they kept communication and even fuel lines open.  The ships were officially part of the merchant navy, but required huge professionalism from their crews because of the importance they held in the war effort. This was important for the offer Lt Gray was about to give his young charges.

John said: “He said: “just to put you in the picture, what we’re talking about is you’d be in Navy uniform, under naval discipline, but on Merchant Seaman pay”. And you know, I must have been seventeen, I thought ‘That’s not bad’. Everyone else was coming back from service and was saying that they were only earning half a crown a day in the Army. But the merchant service was alright pay.”

It was then that John got away lightly, though it didn’t seem it at the time.

“They only wanted five from our group of about 30 boys and five had already stepped forward before they got to me. They jumped in ahead. I was very upset.”

The five boys were taken onto the HMTS Alert.  GR Peters  from Kinsgwear  and HF Hurford – called the ‘Mush’ by his friends, and apparently a real ladies’ man - were both taken on as Cable Hands, and Kenneth Kitt, Ronald ‘Tolfer’ Blamey from Southford Road and FH ‘Gobbo’ Williams were all taken on as Assistant Stewards.  

The ship they joined took part in the famous ‘Pluto’ operation, which lay a line from the Isle of Wight over to mainland Europe following the D-Day landings to supply fuel.  

Thinking they had got the lucky break, the young John Distin kept looking for an opportunity to earn a living. He got it a few months later when the water boat Vick 37 – a 90-foot-long ‘Puffer’ - carrying 100 tons of water to supply boats – visited Dartmouth. He was taken on as ‘mate’.

John travelled with the ship all over the South Coast of England and seems to have done extremely well, impressing his superiors. He was soon made Skipper of the boat even though he was not out of his teens.  

He even helped refill the HMTS Alert when it was in Portland, but the Dartmouth boys he had known were on leave and he didn’t meet up with them.

The Alert sailed on, doing its essential work, as did John.

Then, on February 25 1945, whilst repairing the Dumpton Gap-La Penne cable, the ship was destroyed by a mine off Dover.

All 59 men on board were lost – including all five Dartmouth Boys. John said he is still shocked by the loss of life and the impact on Dartmouth. Taking the recent example of a proud Dartmouth man lost to a war, it is easy to imagine how the loss of five brave young men must have rocked the town, even in times when loss was part of everyday life.

And it is not lost on John how close HE came to dying on that ship.

“It’s unbelievable how a ship that size lost everyone,” he said. “The times it’s gone through my head during my life how lucky I was. All it would have taken was one of those boys not stepping forward and I would have been on that ship. I’m amazingly lucky I suppose. We were only a Sea Cadet Corps of about 35 young people, so five was a big part of our group.

“To lose five from one town, from just one corps, is so terrible and unlikely – and very tragic.”

First Published February 2011 By The Dart