Harkness – MacGillivray Stories

This post will discuss the rest of my father’s career certificates from the RNVR from 1942 to 1946: SIDG⁴⁴ Glasgow, Young John, Royal Athlelstan, Department Plymouth, and Orlando and Revlis.

SIDG Glasgow

‘Wiping and De-perming Officer’: The terminology can be confusing here: “Deperming is the removal of the permanent magnetic field of the floating vessel, whereas degaussing is the removal of the induced magnetic field.”⁴⁵ The testimonial states: “Under my command from 5 July 1941 to 11 October 1942.” It is reasonable to assume that my father had completed his ‘degaussing training’ – but the testimonial is short on details.

“Young John”

As always, these military documents do their best to confuse by being written in illegible writing, and using various undecipherable acronyms. The testimonial is signed by the Captain S.I.D.G. Glasgow, which simply means ‘Super Intending Inspector of Degaussing’.⁴⁶ 

The ‘Young John’ testimonial above finally gives us more ‘meat on the bone’. More relevant here is the time frame from 10 Oct 1942 to 20 Jan 1944. It takes us back to my parents’ married life. You can read more about it here.

Another important thing to note here is the fact that my father, although working with ‘Girl Ethel’ and ‘Young John’ at Sandbank, Holy Loch, is still under the command of HMS Spartiate in Glasgow, as shown on the testimonial.

Royal Athelstan 30 March 1945 – 1 July 1945

After doing some superficial research on the Internet, I think the testimonial regarding “Royal Athelstan” refers to my father’s time in Antwerp. Although the following information from the Internet is difficult to interpret, it seems that Royal Athelstan docked in Antwerp:⁵⁸ 

My father was undoubtedly a man who liked to embroider a story. I recall that he frequently used exaggerations in his daily expressions. In other words, he would multiply everything by a factor of 2 or 3. 

My younger brother Gavin once told me that when our father was shipped to Antwerp, Belgium, for naval business, the Germans were showering the city with ‘drones,’ better known as V1 and V2 bombs.⁵⁹ Even though the Germans ‘lost’ the war, they were in many ways more technologically advanced.

But to reach a hasty conclusion, I might guess that this ‘Royal Athelstan’ testimonial (above) relates to my father’s time in Antwerp. In other words, he arrived in Antwerp on March 30, 1945, two days after the last V bomb was dropped on the city.⁶⁰ Of course, my father had no idea that this was the ‘last’ V-bomb, so the danger from his point of view was more than real. 

Department Plymouth 7

The testimonial states that my father was still working in the ‘DG Department’ (at Plymouth) from 12 Dec. 1945 – 3 Feb. 1946. So although the war had ended, the oceans were perhaps still full of mines. My father travelled to Burma by ship in 1945, most probably on a degaussing job. I will discuss more about his time in Burma in a separate section.

“Orlando” and “Revlis” 20 March 1946

My father worked as a “Temporary Electrical Lieutenant in H.M.S” in “Orlando” and “Revlis”. The H.M.S here is especially confusing acronym to interpret because it can refer to both ships and onshore facilities. However, the key word here is the preposition ‘in’ rather than ‘on’ (that is, on a boat or ship). In other words, H.M.S. “Orlando” and “Revlis” were both land-based facilities.⁶¹

Another thing to note is that his work at various establishments was for short periods. So one can imagine that he was assigned a specific task, such as degaussing a boat or ship or performing other kinds of electrical work, and that once the job was finished, he moved on to the next job. 

After a brief search on the Internet I could not find anything directly related to my father, but the following appeared on my computer screen:⁶² 

This is included here because Commander Babb’s naval career parallels that of my father. He is also based at “Revlis” in Helensburgh. This is of interest because it is not too far from the Holy Loch and Dunoon, where my father stayed with my mother during the war. It also refers to “Orlando” (as stated in my father’s testimonial). Also, “HMS Spartiate” (RN base, Glasgow) is mentioned.

The Demob Certificate

The ‘demob’ certificate dated 25 November 1948 more or less speaks for itself. It shows my father served in the RNVR from 12 June 1940 to 12 July 1946. 

⁴⁴ Super Intending Inspector of Degaussing.
⁴⁵ https://www.google.com/search?q=deperming+vs+degaussing&rlz=1C1GCEV_noNO866NO866&oq=De-perming+&aqs=chrome.2.69i57j0i19l4j0i10i19j0i13i19i30l4.4017j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 Read: 14 August 2022.
⁴⁶ https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/Pages/military-abbreviations.aspx Read 13 August 2022.
⁵⁷ http://www.patriotfiles.com/archive/navalhistory/xDKWW2-4201-40RNShips3WApproaches.htm Read: 13 August 2022.
⁵⁸ https://www.naval-history.net/xBW-RNNavalParties.htm
⁵⁹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-1_flying_bomb
⁶⁰ https://www.antwerpcommemorates.be/timeline Read 13 August 2022.
⁶¹ https://www.worldnavalships.com/forums/thread.php?threadid=988
⁶² https://www.unithistories.com/officers/RN_officersB.html Read: 14 August 2022.