WW2 Book of Remembrance - Supplement

Ernest John Penfold was born on 27 April 1911 at Gibraltar, Ewell to Mr E J S Penfold and Mrs Annie Penfold daughter of John E Stevens of Epsom, who was originally from Bentworth, Hampshire. Ernest (aka Bimmy) had three younger brothers, Harry (aka Dinks), George (aka Pud) and Stanley (aka Toby) and one older sister Winifred (aka Dolly). The family lived in Rosebery Road, Langley Vale

Ernest's father, also called Ernest John, was working as a labourer on the construction of the 1927 Epsom Grand Stand when he died falling down a lift shaft as a result of an accident on the site. From 1936 the three youngest boys lived with their mother in Grosvenor Road, Langley Vale.

In 1936 Ernest (the younger) married Alice Bland from Staindrop, Co. Durham. They also lived in Langley Vale and had two children Elizabeth (Anne), and Kathleen (Kate), both born in Epsom.

Ernest joined the Royal Artillery Embodied Territorial Army as a Gunner on 20 February 1941. Initially he was posted to 288th Anti Aircraft Driving Training Regiment and was then posted to No.2 Maritime Anti-Aircraft Battery. By 6 May 1941 the force was called the Maritime Anti-Aircraft RA but in 1942 it was called the Maritime Royal Artillery. On the 1 March 1944 Ernest's unit was re-designated the No. 2 Maritime Regiment.

The job of this regiment was to protect merchant ships and the 1939-1945 conflict saw the first soldiers from the Regiment on board ships. As few as two 'Gunners' would be attached initially to coasters but as the need to protect ships of all sizes grew so did the regiment.

Ernest was allocated as a 'Gunner' on various ships, his last being the SS BRITISH CHIVALRY, a freighter. This ship was attacked by a Japanese submarine in the Indian Ocean on 22 February 1944. The submarine then surfaced and having first taken the Master, Capt. W. Hill, prisoner, it circled the survivors raking their life boats with machine gun fire for two hours. It was during this attack Gunner Penfold lost his life. Surprisingly after 37 days in an open boat, 38 survivors were rescued by the M.V. Delane.

The commander of the submarine (Lt-Cdr Hajime Nakagawa) had already carried out war crimes including the sinking of the hospital ship Centaur (14 May 1943) where 268 people died. One account suggests that after the war Nakagawa was arrested and tried for war crimes, spending four years in Sugamo prison for atrocities committed in the Indian Ocean. Another suggested he did pay the ultimate price. The Centaur was declared a historic wreck in 1990.

The No. 2 Maritime Regiment was stood down in 1946; an Association has been formed for the MRAA aiming to represent 'The Forgotten Regiment'. In 1989, for the first time the Regiment was given a place at the annual Remembrance Day parade.

Following WWII Ernest's widow Alice and their children continued to live in Langley Vale (see Langley Vale Remembered). Alice died in 1991. George/Pud (1913-1997) was a self employed builder, well known in the Epsom area. Toby was the last to marry (Agnes McSherry 1908-1991). They had one daughter, Rosemary, who died in 1997. Toby died in 2007 at Epsom.

Ernest's brother Harry also died at sea as a result of the war and both deaths are recorded in the Epsom and Ewell World War Two Book of Remembrance.

Harry Penfold was born on 19 Jun 1915 at Rosebery Road, Langley Vale, to Mr E J S Penfold and Mrs Annie Penfold daughter of John E Stevens of Epsom, who was originally from Bentworth, Hampshire. Harry (aka Dinks) had two younger brothers, George (aka Pud) and Stanley (aka Toby), an older sister Winifred (aka Dolly) and an older brother Ernest (aka Bimmy). As there was no school in the village at the time, the four older children had to walk, with some cousins and other local children, to St. Giles school in Ashtead. Toby was lucky in that he missed that walk when the Langley Vale school opened.

Harry's father, Ernest, was working as a labourer on the construction of the 1927 Epsom Grand Stand when he died falling down a lift shaft as a result of an accident on the site. From 1936 the three youngest boys lived with their mother in Grosvenor Road, Langley Vale.

Harry, who was unmarried, enlisted on 14 November 1940. Initially he was posted to 16th Field Training Regiment but later was posted to 72nd Regiment and from there to 68th Medium Regiment Serving in the Middle East from 23 April 1941. He was taken as a Prisoner of War by the Italians from 20 June 1942 and was last known to be in Campo 154 in Benghazi prior to embarkation on the SS Scillin. This Italian cargo/passenger ship was en route from Tripoli to Sicily with 814 Commonwealth prisoners of war on board, a naval gun crew and 30 Italian guards when on 14 November 1942 it was torpedoed by the British submarine HMS Sahib (Captain Lt. John Bromage) 10 miles north of Cape Milazzo in the Tyrrhenian Sea.

The Sahib rescued 27 POWs from the water (26 British and one South African) plus the Scillin's captain and 45 Italian crew members. Only then, when the commander heard the survivors speaking English, did he realize that he had sunk a ship carrying British prisoners of war as well as some Italian soldiers and had drowned 783 men. At a subsequent inquiry into this 'friendly fire' tragedy, Lt. Bromage was cleared of any wrongdoing as the ship was unmarked and at the time he firmly believed that the ship was carrying Italian troops.

The Ministry of Defence kept this incident a closely guarded secret for fifty-four years, telling relatives a pack of lies, maintaining that they had died while prisoners of war in Italian camps or simply 'lost at sea'. It was not until 1996, after repeated requests for information from the families of the drowned men, that the truth came out. The SS SCILLIN was always the intended target of the Sahib. At that time it seems the war was not going well, losses were high and the one good thing which had happened could not be told: 'the Enigma code' had been broken. To prove the code had not broken the SS SCILLIN was to be used as a diversion, it would reinforce the belief English would not attack its own. The SAHIB was given the time the SS SCILLIN would be leaving the port, even to being advised when its departure was going to be three hours later.

Following the sinking, the Sahib was itself attacked by bombs from escort German Ju-88s and depth charges from the Italian corvette Gabbiano in the counter attack immediately after the sinking. Badly damaged, the Sahib was later abandoned and scuttled

Immediately following WWII Harry's brother George/Pud (1913-1997) was a self employed builder, well known in the Epsom area. Toby was the last to marry (Agnes McSherry 1908-1991). They had one daughter, Rosemary, who died in 1997. Toby died in 2007 at Epsom.

Harry's brother Ernest also died at sea as a result of the war and both deaths are recorded in the Epsom and Ewell World War Two Book of Remembrance.

Addendum
We are very grateful to Mr Brian Sims for pointing out that the image of the S.S. Scillin was taken in 1937 when the ship was named the Nicole De Borgne and originated from his personal collection. Mr Sims's research, some of which is included in the above text, shows that there were only 30 Italian Soldiers aboard the ship plus a Naval Gun Crew and 36 Italians were picked up by the P212 and taken back to Malta where they were interrogated. He also mentions that there is a memorial to those lost on the Scillin and 5 other ships at The National Memorial Arboretum.