[Patrick de Chêne]

Hello all !

I am a newcomer to shipsnostalgia.

I saw Bridie and kauvaka sailed with ASN in the 1960's. mikeharrisson mentioned "meetings of ex ASN personnel held in and around Felixstowe".

Has any of you got memories to share relating to Capt. Wilfred Norman Johnson ?

He was my grand-father, but as my mother went to live abroad, I never had the opportunity to meet him. I am trying to get an idea of his life, from being a maritime customs officer in Hong Kong in the 1930's to serving in the Royal Navy Reserve during WW2 (acting as temp. Lt commander on HMS Invicta during the Dieppe raid and Overlord Juno beach landings). I guess commanding LST 3511 in 1945-1946 helped him get a job at ASN when they turned them into roll on-roll off ferries, but all I found so far about that period is that he was listed as marine superintendent for the ASN Tilbury lines, on the Sunderland Forge listing of ship owners and fleets for 1960 (thanks to fellow member of shipsnostalgia Roger Bentley).

Any information or anecdote about him would be much welcome.

Yours faithfully,
Patrick

P.S.: Being new to the forum, the robot does not allow me to directly contact the members I mentioned in this post.

 

[Patrick de Chêne]

Trader here Patrick, sorry I never sailed with ASN. I don't know where you got that information from. I remember them sailing out of Preston years ago.Hope you find info. of your grandfather. I never look on this site nowadays but they sent me an email with your post on it.

Sorry Trader, it is my first time on SN ... and on any forum as well. I spent so much time fighting off the robots keeping watch over the discussions that I got distracted, had to rewrite five times my first message while not been able to track back what I remembered reading. I totally misquoted you, please accept my apologies, I have now made a correction to my post.
Thank you for your understanding and kind message.