AMERICAN VOLUNTEERS, WHO WERE THEY?

The American Officers In the RNVR; A memorial with just names denies these people a life, here is a glimpse into who they were, some we know more about than others, if you know more, please tell me. apologies for the conflicting typescript, this file dates back to 2001.

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Gurdan Buck

?????????Gurdan Buck was commissioned as a Temporary

Lieutenant on 19th June 1941. Buck’s service with the

R.N.V.R was short lived and by September 1941 he had

Returned to the United States.

Alex Henry Cherry

?Alex Henry Cherry was commissioned as Lieutenant in Halifax, Nova Scotia on the 19th July 1941 and undertook training at the Royal Naval College at Greenwich.?Lieutenant Cherry RNVR then served on HMS Reading.?Service on two other warships followed in quick succession, HMS Caldwell and HMS Braithwaite.?During the Normandy Invasion period he served on the HMS Riou and HMS Wren of the famous Captain Walkers Second Fighting Force which held the record for sinking U-Boats in the Battle of the Atlantic.?When the Allied Fighting Forces entered Germany he was British Naval Liaison Officer, Bremen for the Allied Naval C-in-C Expeditionary Forces and Flag Officer Western Germany to U.S. Naval task Force 126 who were taking over the ports of Bremen and Bremerhaven.?In 1946 Lieutenant Commander Cherry RNVR was awarded the O.B.E. in the King’s Birthday Honours List.

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Oswald Birrell Deiter

?Dr Oswald Birrell Deiter a well known American Osteopath who practiced in the West End of London successfully in the 1930’s. He joined the American Home Guard, the ‘Red Eagles’, which Unit was inspected on Horse Guards Parade by Prime Minister Churchill in January 1941. The Unit was responsible for the area around the US Embassy.?He was commissioned as a Sub Lieutenant RNVR on 24th March 1941. Promoted Lieutenant he became the Commanding Officer of HM ML115 and took this vessel to Canvey Island in June 1943 where plaques were exchanged with the Canvey Island Council to commemorate Warship Week of January 1942. Members of his crew remember him affectionately and to whom he was known as the “mad skipper” because of the risks he took and his liking for an early morning swim in the Scottish Lochs.

?Edward Mortimer Ferris

?Edward Mortimer Ferris, an American yachtsman and businessman, was turned down by the US Navy on the grounds that he was too old.?In March 1941 he made enquiries how to join the RNVR and over a period of ten weeks he travelled from New York to Montreal and later to Ottawa at his own expense, as well as making two trips to Boston before eventually discovering that he should proceed to Halifax, Nova Scotia.?On the 19th May 1941 he was commissioned a Temporary Lieutenant RNVR by Rear Admiral Stewart Bonham-Carter and reported on HMS Sennen the next day.?On his arrival in Greenock Lieutenant Ferris made his way to London and on the 13th June 1941 reported for training at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich.?Whilst at the Royal Naval College Lieutenant Ferris met and married an English WRNS officer, Kathleen Parry.?His first appointment was as first Lieutenant in HMS Sennen, a former American coastguard cutter.?Edward Ferris rose to Lieutenant Commander and commanded HMS Byard.

?David Gibson

?David Gibson was commissioned as a temporary Sub Lieutenant RNVR on the 23rd August 1941 by Rear Admiral Stewart Bonham-Carter.?His mother was English and a good friend of the Admiral.?Sub Lieutenant Gibson was sent to the Royal Naval College at Greenwich for training and then to RN Barracks, Chatham for gunnery training.?On completing his training in December 1941 Sub-Lieutenant Gibson was sent to join HMS Burnham in St John’s, Newfoundland and served with her until December 1943.?Promoted to Lieutenant he served with HMS Tyler until January 1944 when he was ordered to Ostend in the capacity of Naval Liaison Officer with Q Movements.?In April 1946 Lieutenant Gibson became one of the officers to return the Lend/Lease ships to the United States to the ports of Boston and New York.?He was finally demobbed in September 1946.??David Gibson has said?“I look back on my time in the RNVR as a most happy time when I made a host of friends, particularly the shipmates, both officers and enlisted men, with whom it was my privilege to serve”.

??John/Jack? Edward Hampson.

?John Edward Hampson was commissioned as a Sub Lieutenant RNVR and in 1940 was serving as a pilot in the Fleet Air Arm at Eastleigh/Lee on Solent Naval Air Station. In April of that year whilst serving with 780 Squadron it is recorded that he collided with a Percival Proctor aircraft and crashed.

In December 1941 he was serving with 772 Squadron at HMS Landrail Naval Air Station, Machrihanish,Argyllshire where on 16th December 1941 he crashed in a Blackburn Skua aircraft which was a write off.

In April 1942 Sub Lieutenant Hampson was serving at the Royal Naval Air Station HMS Goshawk in Trinidad. It is believed that he later transferred to the United States Armed forces.?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

?Francis Mason Hayes

?Francis Mason Hayes, only son of Francis Anderson Hayes and Effie Huntington, was born on 14th September 1912 at Pelham Manor, New York.

An American citizen living in England, he transferred to Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge to complete his medical studies and received his practical medical training at Guy’s Hospital in London. During the first part of the blitz he served as Deputy Resident surgeon at a hospital where he was on full time emergency duty and was then appointed Resident Surgeon at the Miller General Hospital in Greenwich during the Blitz.

In October 1941 he was one of a first handful of Americans who volunteered to join the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve before Pearl Harbour. As a doctor, he was much in demand since warships required a medical presence and doctors were in short supply.

After initial naval training he joined the Modified ‘W’ Class destroyer HMS Veteran which at that time was employed on Atlantic convoy escort duties.

?On??26th September 1942, whilst escorting Convoy RB.1 the ship was torpedoed in (position 55’00 North -23’00 West).

The 78 survivors she had rescued from sunken merchant ships, together with 8 officers and 151 ratings –the entire ship’s company – were posted missing and presumed dead.

?George Hoague

?George Hoague may have sailed to England from Halifax, Nova Scotia in May 1941 aboard HMS Sennen with Edward Mortimor Ferris.?A former member of the Sennen’s crew recalled “ we sailed…with two passengers, a Mr Ferris and Mr Hogue (sic) both of whom were US citizens volunteering for service in the R.N.”?A Naval architect by profession George Hoague was commissioned as a Lieutenant RNVR some months later on the 23rd August 1941.?After training at the Royal naval College, Greenwich Lieutenant Hoague RNVR served on HMS Ausonia before transferring to the United States Navy in October 1942.??He remained in England as liaison officer, being assigned to Chief of Staff, Supreme Allied Command.?In 1945 Lieutenant Commander George Hoague, USNR was awarded the Legion of Merit.?The citation reads in part “for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished service in planning, preparing for, and executing the creation of two artificial harbors of refuge for small craft off the assault beaches during the invasion of France, June 1944…on schedule in spite of enemy action and without loss.”

?William Perkins Homans

?Upon graduating from Harvard College in June 1941 William P Homans was determined to join the war effort.??He also wanted to fly Spitfires and therefore tried to join the Royal Air Force in Canada but at 6 foot 4 inches he was too tall.?Instead on the 21st October 1941 he was commissioned a Sub Lieutenant in the RNVR in Halifax, Nova Scotia where Admiral Stewart Bonham-Carter put him on HMS Ausonia for passage to England.?On board he met Edwin Fairman Russell who was also on his way to England to join the Royal Navy.?Lieutenant Homans undertook his training at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich and then served in corvettes and anti submarine trawlers in the North Atlantic.?On the 7th March 1943 Lieutenant Homans RNVR joined the United States Navy with the rank of ensign.?After the war he went to Harvard Law School and graduated in 1948.?A well known civil rights lawyer and opponent of the death penalty William Homans’ worked to have capital punishment abolished in Massachusetts.?In 1971 he went to Vietnam to negotiate with the Armed Forces on ways of providing civilian counsel for members of the Armed Forces charged with offences within the services, not against the Vietnamese.?During 1986 he was in Belfast observing the trials and appeals systems.

?Draper Laurence Kauffman

?Draper Laurence Kauffman graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1933.?Poor eyesight denied him a commission in the regular Navy.?His travels in Europe alerted him to the dangers of Nazi Germany.?In February 1940 he joined the American Volunteer Ambulance Corp in France.?In June 1940 he was captured by the Germans and held prisoner for two months.?On his release he made his way to Lisbon and there joined a British merchant ship bound for Scotland.?On arrival in England he was commissioned a sub-lieutenant in the RNVR on the 27th September 1940 and was sent to HMS King Alfred at Hove for training, where he responded to a call for volunteers for bomb disposal.?Promoted to Temporary Probationary Acting Lieutenant?-?“cautious people, the British” wrote his father - his performance earned him a commendation for “brave conduct and devotion to duty in connection with an unexploded parachute mine” (London Gazette 6th June 1941).?In November 1941 Lieutenant Kauffman secured a commission in the US Navy and established the US Navy’s Bomb Disposal School.?Of his time in the RNVR he recalled?“ It was a fascinating 13 or 14 months.?I saw the British people at their best and that was magnificent.”???Admiral Draper Kauffman retired from the US Navy on the 1st June 1973.

?Edmund Webster Kittredge

Edmund Kittredge was born in Brookneal, Virginia in 1910.?Whilst at Yale he participated in the Naval Reserve Officer’s Training Corp. ?He was commissioned as a Lieutenant RNVR in Halifax on the 14th August 1941.?On arrival in the UK he was trained at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich and then served on the cruiser HMS Diomede.?Lieutenant Kittredge RNVR was part of the Combined Operations beach command and?was present at the landings and invasions of North Africa, Sicily (where he was wounded), and later acted as Beach Master of R.N.B.C S3, NAN White Beach, Juno Area, Normandy.??He then went to the Far East and was in Singapore.?Whilst serving in the R.N.V.R. he married an American, Virginia Champlin, serving with the OSS in London.

Carl Konow

?Carl Konow was commissioned Sub Lieutenant RNVR on the 23rd August 1941 and trained at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. He later served on the Armed Merchant Cruiser HMS Ausonia before further service at HMS Asbury in New Jersey. On 1st January 1942 he was appointed to the Tank Landing Ship HM LST 50 and later that year to HM LST 198. He served for the rest of the Second World War on this ship rising through the ranks to eventual Lieutenant Commander in Command.

?Derek Armitage Lee

?Derek Armitage Lee, a resident of New York City, was commissioned on the 10th April 1941 and was the only officer commissioned to have come up through the ranks. ??In 1945 the United States awarded Lieutenant Commander Lee RNVR the Legion of Merit for distinguished service in clandestine operations behind Japanese lines and the citation states that “by deliberately and coolly seeking out for himself the most hazardous job on each operation, won as an officer in the Royal Navy, the loyalty and complete support of the American officers and men serving under him.?His leadership, courage and initiative reflect great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of the Allied Nations”.

John Matthew Leggat

?John Matthew Leggat was commissioned as a Lieutenant on the 14th June 1941 and was sent to HMS King Alfred for training.?He served at HMS Drake, the Devonport Royal Naval Barracks and was later appointed to HMS Richmond, one of the 50 ex American ‘Four Stacker’ destroyers negotiated between President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill in September 1940.?He was released from the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve to join the United States Armed Forces in 1944.

?Peter Greene Morison

?Peter Greene Morison was commissioned as a Sub Lieutenant RNVR on the 10th November 1941.?His sister recalls that “turned down by the US Navy in WWII, it was perfectly natural for Peter to offer his services to ‘our friend in need’, England”. ??He served with 782 Squadron Fleet Air Arm at HMS Sparrowhawk in the Orkney Islands as an Air Transport Officer.?He was the son of the celebrated US Navy historian, Samuel Eliot Morison.

A colleague who survives remembers Peter Morison as a jovial, friendly fellow who seemed to treat everyone alike regardless of rank or status. He has remained in this person’s memory over the years as an efficient and effective service officer and a good friend.

?Charles Burnham Porter

?Charles Burnham Porter tried to join the US Navy when the war in Europe broke out but in his own words “bum eyes kept me out”.?After several months running back and forth between Halifax and Washington he was commissioned a Lieutenant RNVR at Halifax, Nova Scotia on the 19th June 1941 and sailed to Greenock on HMS Repulse where he arrived on the 27th June 1941.?He undertook his training at the Royal Naval College at Greenwich and in July 1941 was assigned assistant operations officer on the staff of the Commander-in-Chief of the Nore at Chatham. ?In January 1943 Lieutenant Porter RNVR transferred the US Naval Reserve and rose to Lieutenant Commander.

?John Stanley Parker

?“The first American Volunteer, commissioned as a British Naval Officer, to be killed in action in all the Royal Navy’s long history”?- Yankee RN by Alex H Cherry.

John Stanley Parker had served as an Ensign with the Unites States Navy in WWI.?In 1941 determined to join the Royal Navy (having been turned down by the United States and Canadian Navies) he knocked ten years off his true age of 51 years and was commissioned as a Lieutenant RNVR on the 7th June 1941 by Admiral Stewart Bonham-Carter in Halifax, Nova Scotia.?Lieutenant Parker attended the Royal Naval College at Greenwich and then HMS Pembroke before serving on HMS Broadwater.?This ship, previously the USS Mason and one of fifty ex American “Four Stacker” First World War destroyers negotiated between Prime Minister Churchill and President Roosevelt.?Lieutenant John Parker RNVR was amongst the forty-five members of the ship’s company who were lost when the ship was torpedoed on the 18th October 1941.?In a personal tribute to Lieutenant Parker published in The Times on the 29th October 1941 T.S.H. wrote “I had many talks with him about his reasons for coming over to fight for us, and his motives were founded on the belief that England was a place worth fighting for, and that the only hope for the world lay in Anglo-American cooperation…His action in coming over here, and, as an American, being killed in action as a British naval officer, is an inspiring example of Anglo-American comradeship.”

?Henry Fremont Ripley

?Henry Ripley was commissioned as a Naval Officer upon graduation from the United States Naval Academy and served with the US Navy between 1926 and June 1941.?Henry Ripley was commissioned as a Temporary Lieutenant RNVR on the 8th September 1941and undertook training at the Royal Naval College at Greenwich and at the RN Gunnery School, Chatham.?Lieutenant Ripley RNVR served with HMS Nasturtium a flower class corvette.?He resigned his commission on the 19th September 1942 to return to the US Navy.?He died on the 2nd December 1960.

?Edwin Fairman Russell

?Edwin Fairman Russell was commissioned as a Sub Lieutenant RNVR on the 1st October 1941 by Admiral Stewart Bonham-Carter in Halifax, Nova Scotia.?Following a period of training at the Royal Naval College at Greenwich Lieutenant Russell served on the cruiser HMS Norfolk.?In April 1943 he transferred to the United States Navy and was assigned to Admiral Stark’s staff, COMNAVEU and then to ANCXP for the planning of the Normandy invasion and eventually to General William Hogue, who commanded the engineering brigade that hit Omaha Beach on D Day.?In October 1944 Lieutenant Russell USN was awarded the Bronze Star Medal “For meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding service during the planning and operational phases of an assault on Normandy, France…Lieutenant Russell’s energy and initiative in furthering the cooperation between the United States and British beach organisations to the end that the plan might work to it’s maximum efficiency were in keeping with the best traditions of the United States naval service”.??Lieutenant Russell USN spent the final year of the war as Assistant Gunnery Officer of USS Oklahoma City from which he wrote congratulating Prime Minister Churchill on the 9th May 1945 following his pronouncement of victory in Europe “I look back on my time in the RNVR with the greatest satisfaction and pride.?Satisfied that events justified my enlisting in a ‘foreign’ service and proud to have been allowed to have served such a gallant people.?Prior to the war I had spent a total of forty eight hours in England…but I was so inspired by her fighting heart and by her great leader that I slipped over the border to Canada and ‘joined up’.?My action was described as ill-advised, foolhardy, bravado and more.?It may have been all of those at the time, but it turned out to be the most gratifying experience of my life.”

John Albert Stilwell

?John Albert Stilwell was a Naval Airman with the Royal Navy.

David Arnold Van Epps

?David Arnold Van Epps was commissioned Lieutenant RNVR on 6th May 1941.

He qualified as a pilot in the Fleet Air Arm and it is recorded that in July 1941 whilst serving with 809 Squadron and flying from the aircraft carrier HMS Victorious he crashed a Fairey Fulmar aircraft.

Promoted Lieutenant Commander (A) he formed 894 Squadron Fleet Air Arm at Stretton and with the squadron transferred to Norfolk, Virginia, United States of America for intensive flying training. It is recorded that on 30th July 1942 he crashed in a Grumman Wildcat aircraft. Lieutenant Commander David A Van Epps RNVR transferred to the 8th United States Army Air Force in 1943 and was part of the 4th Fighter Group, 364 Squadron flying missions from England as a fighter pilot escorting bombers over Occupied Europe. He was reported missing in action at Easter 1944 but 13 months later was liberated from Oberursel German Luftwaffe POW camp.

?William Gibson Erwin Taylor

?William Erwin Gibson Taylor was commissioned into the RNVR as a Sub Lieutenant (A) on 14th September 1939 he having come to England to volunteer during the first week of that month. He thus occupies the position of being the very first American volunteer. Promoted Lieutenant RNVR on 22nd December 1939 and because of his previous flying experience in the United States he was dispatched by the Admiralty to the United States in an attempt to recruit American volunteers for the Fleet Air Arm. Returning to England Lieutenant Taylor flew as a fighter pilot from the aircraft carriers HMS Argus, HMS Furious and HMS Glorious and took part in the Norwegian battles in 1940. Because of his flying experience, in October 1940, he was transferred to 242 Squadron RAF under the famed Squadron Leader Douglas Bader to be groomed to take command of 71 (Eagle) Squadron RAF, this being the first all American fighter squadron then being formed.?Promoted Squadron Leader, William E.G.Taylor was Squadron Commander and led the squadron into battle until relieved in July 1941 when, after a short term at the US Embassy, he returned to the United States. In December 1941 he was at Pearl Harbor and later gave evidence at the Hart enquiry into the Japanese attack on the US Pacific Fleet.