What can I tell you about my father in law, John McKie, who died in 1986?
I have yet to write about his life and times, and then that will be mostly based upon his birth and marriage records and the memories of his daughters. I knew him for only four years and the times I spent in his company were good and fun. He knew his first grandchild for only two years.
I know that John trained as an apprentice Ship Engineer before the Second World War and then for the entire length of the war he worked as such in what became the Merchant Navy.
After he died, my wife’s cousin who knew him well said that he had never spoken about his experience during the war and no one in the wider family really knew what he had done and what he had seen.
The Merchant Navy was entirely made up of commercial and trading ships and their crews were entirely civilian. The Merchant Navy had a higher death toll during the war than in the armed forces. Their ships were not armed and were not designed to withstand enemy attacks by air or by submarine. When a ship went down it was unlikely that there would be any survivors.
The UK was totally dependant on the Merchant Navy for food supplies from Canada and the US and other parts of the world. Supplies for the military and transport for armed personnel was also an essential service provided by the Merchant Navy.
The most hostile ocean was the Atlantic which for four years until 1943 became a hunting ground for the German submarines. John McKie would have been travelling to and from the US as part of a large convoy with Royal Navy escorts.
It was not only the Atlantic that John sailed across.
During my initial research ten years ago, I discovered a collection of medals in a box of some of his things inherited by my wife after her mother died. Every member of the Merchant Navy who served and sailed during 1939 – 1945 received a medal for each part of their service. This included a War Medal and a medal for each campaign or part of the war theatre in which they had to serve. John received the following:
- 1939 – 1945 Star
- Atlantic Star
- Italy Star
- Burma Star
- War Medal
- Naval General Service Medal with Clasp: Palestine 1945 – 1948
John did not join the Merchant Navy. He was already working for a shipping line. In 1939 he was conscripted for the Tank Regiment but when it was discovered that he was now a Ship’s Engineer, he was allowed to continue because the Government had requisitioned all commercial and trading vessels for the war effort. Consequently all ships and crew became part of the Merchant Navy. He lived and worked in Ardrossan, on the Ayrshire coast. From there he would have sailed across the world during his years of action.
John was born in 1921. He was 18 years old when he became part of the Merchant Navy. He was 27 when he finished his service.
Since discovering his war service, I have made an annual visit to the Remembrance Garden in George Square, Glasgow, to purchase a wooden cross from the British Legion, mark it in his name and place it in the Merchant Navy section.
This short post is to remember John’s service in the Merchant Navy. I’m certain that as I research more about his history I will be able to piece together his story before he met his wife in 1953.
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