Nostalgic Moments - My Parents In 1950s London And A Potted History of 'SS Carthage'
P&O passenger ship, ‘Carthage’
More photos of my parents in London in the late 1950s where my father was studying as part of his training with British Railways.
My father had already been in London for 6 months when my mum joined him.
She’d never travelled out of Malaysia before, so this was her first time abroad, and she travelled on her own, on a P&O ship called, the SS Carthage; the voyage took about a month.
For the longest time, I only thought of the ship as the passenger ship my mum travelled on.
I had no idea the Carthage had served in the Second World War.
For that reason, I can’t resist including a brief history of the ship.
RMS Carthage was built in 1931 in Glasgow along with her sister ship, RMS Corfu (RMS stood for Royal Mail Service).
Known as the ‘Far East Sisters’, they served the company’s India and Far East Mail Service.
In 1939, the ship was requisitioned by the Admiralty, converted to an armed merchant cruiser and emerged as HMS Carthage, mainly engaged on convoy escort duties in the Indian Ocean around Mogadishu and Aden.
In April 1941, she escorted the damaged aircraft carrier, HMS Illustrious, as far as East London, South Africa where the escort was taken over by the heavy cruiser, HMS Dorsetshire, to Cape Town.
In Operation Bellringer in late 1941, HMS Carthage, alongside the heavy cruiser HMS Devonshire, the light cruiser HMS Colombo and another armed merchant cruiser HMS Carnarvon Castle, intercepted a Vichy French Convoy of 5 ships and 1 escort, the FR D’Iberville, southwest of Madagascar.
Despite the added presence of 5 South African minesweeping whalers, the D’Iberville refused to divert the convoy.
The following morning, the ships were boarded, and the D’Iberville, unable to hold off the British ships, retreated, leaving the convoy behind.
The crew of one of the merchant ships, the Bangkok, set fire to the ship then abandoned it, and were picked up by HMS Colombo and one of the minesweeping whalers.
The crew of the Cap Padaran sabotaged the ship’s engines before boarding parties could secure the ship.
HMS Carthage then towed the Cap Padaran to Port Elizabeth with another of the minesweeping whalers.
HMS Carthage continued serving, mainly with the Eastern Fleet, until November 1943, after which she was disarmed and recommissioned as a troopship operating from Calcutta.
On the 27th of February 1947, HMS Carthage finally returned to Glasgow for her refit.
Her funnel was lengthened, and her hull painted white as per the company’s new livery.
Able to carry about 180 first class, and about 200 tourist passengers, the renamed SS Carthage resumed her Far East mail service on the 6th of July 1948 and came to the end of her career in 1961 when she was scrapped in Japan.
The Lounge and Music Room on the ‘Carthage’ - being a music room, I wonder if my mum spent much time here.
Back to my parents…
This photograph was taken in the garden of the lodging house in Shepherd’s Bush (West London) where my parents stayed.
My father is standing on the left, and the guy with him was another lodger – either from Singapore or Malaysia, I can’t remember where exactly – and my parents got on well with him.
It must have been a lovely, warm day for the snooker table to be out in the garden.
I’ve shared a photo of my mum in Kew Gardens before and this is another, taken the same day.
And this one shows my father standing in front of the Japanese Shrine at Kew Gardens.
I know I’m biased as he’s my father, but I have to say, he sure is stylish.