Commander Walker's postings (again)


[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ Previous # Next ] [ Start New Thread ] [ TarBoard ]

Posted by Richard L on December 19, 2011 at 12:18:45 user RichardL.

There's been a few queries about Ted Walker's postings over the autumn so I thought I'd try to sort them out for you.

In the early books, Ted Walker is first mentioned as living on a destroyer, being at Malta and under orders for Hong Kong. This was not unusual for the period - at this time several new cruiser and destroyer classes were entering RN service, and it was usual to have a short commission (usually to the Med) to work the new ship up followed by a long commission, either to the Far East (see HMS Devonshire as an example) or to another station.

As a Commander, Ted Walker would either command his own ship (a destroyer), or he would be XO (Executive Officer, second in command) of a destroyer flottilla leader (the flotilla leader was and is always commanded by a captain). He might also be on a cruiser or battleship, in which case he would be either one of the department heads or XO. We aren't told whether or not he changed ship in the first few books but as Ted Walker is described as being in Hong Kong it is likely he was on a destroyer or cruiser, as the battleships on the Far East station were not usually based there for any length of time and as Ted Walker was too senior to command any smaller vessel.

The Shotley posting is interesting. Ted Walker would have been posted to HMS Ganges (RNTE Shotley) as there was no other RN establishment in the area, and he was almost certainly the head of one of the divisions at HMS Ganges (there were 8 at this time).
With that said, Harwich was one of the sub-commands of Commander-in-Chief The Nore, and this meant the the Captain of HMS Ganges was what they call double-hatted as Senior Naval Officer Harwich. This gave him an operational role in peacetime. Ted Walker might therefore have been going up to the Admiralty to get operational orders for a secondary (double-hatted) role within the the Nore command. Such a role would not be in the intelligence branch (these posts were at Chatham with the rest of the staff supporting C-in-C The Nore), but might have been linked to the minor vessels (minesweepers and the like) which were usually based in Harwich. It might also have been linked to the destroyers and submarines which used the floating dock below HMS Ganges as a detached/forward operating base.

(For those of you who don't know, the Nore is a sandbank in the Thames Estuary north of Sheerness and it is generally accepted as the point where the Thames ends and the North Sea begins. These days it's marked by a big navigation buoy (Sea Reach No 1), but in the 1920s and 1930s it was marked by a lightship - which is shown on the map in We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea. C-in-C The Nore was responsible for the defence of the sea approaches to the London and the southern half of the East Coast, and as such it was a major and very prestigious RN command, always held by an Admiral or Vice-Admiral.)



Follow Ups:



Post a Followup

Name:
Eel-Mail:

Existing subject (please edit appropriately) :

or is it time to start a New Thread?

Comments:

Optional Link URL:
Link Title:
Optional Image URL:

post direct to TarBoard test post first

Before posting it is necessary to be a registered user.


[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ TarBoard ]