Wilfred Davidson was my uncle, although he never knew of me as he passed away decades before I was born. He served onboard the HMS Martin in 1942 and was one of the many casualties after it got torpedoed by a U-boat. Wilfred had only just turned 19 years old when he died. My father Robert Davidson spoke very little of the event to me as he had a bitter hatred for Germans over the death of his elder brother. He would only swear and bitterly lament about how he saw his brother drown. Robert himself was very underaged when he joined in the army, he falsified his age in order to join the battles. He must've been 13 or 14 years old when he signed up. According to one of my half-brothers he did service in the middle-East, so it is possible he witnessed the HMS Martin sink with his own eyes on a convoy. Robert passed away 8 years ago, I haven't seen or spoken to him since 15 years ago due to personal reasons. I learned much about my uncle Wilfred in the past 24 hours after searching for memorial records about him. Everything matched up - the name of his parents (although the war memorial website has accidentally named his mother as Arm Davidson instead of Ann Davidson), the time he was born, where he lived, the way he died, and an online photo bearing very close resemblance to my father and even with some resemblance to myself. It's been an emotional day as I've looked at photos of the ship he served on his last day on Earth and where his name now stands. One of my half-brothers, Christopher Mills, informed me that my mother once discovered a special document that he thinks was an Israeli Forces ID belonging to Wilfred and she was shocked when she found it. He mentioned of Wilfred once doing a very special move on him after an argument which immobilised him for 30 seconds, it was something that wasn't taught in standard military and most likely taught in special ops. I'm guessing Wilfred did more than just being a signalman while in the Navy. The discovery of my uncle Wilfred has fuelled a desire to find out who else of my family I never knew as my father spoke little of the rest of his family. I've recently been informed he had another brother called William Davidson and a sister called Agnes Davidson. William Davidson may have also served in the army. I'm unsure if Wilfred actually married during the war, he was too young to marry before being only 18 when he signed up.
Welcome to the forum, Wow what a story, you will find this a magic place with lots of friendly, helpfull and very knowledgable people. Enjoy, Cliff
Thank you Cliff for the welcome. I'm hoping someone can help shed some light on what happened to the rest of my family and whether they knew Wilfred, Robert JR, Robert SR, or Ann personally, or even William or Agnes. I'm not sure if William or Agnes were involved in the war though as I have no ages of them. I think they might've been too young. I'll have to shell out a subscription to ancestory.co.uk and see if it gives a year of birth for them since I spotted their names just a day before I cancelled my subscription and they all had the same mothers' maiden name, and today I just confirmed with my half-brother that they were brother and sister of Robert and Wilfred. I shouldn't have been so hasty to cancel as I still had 13 days of trial left.
If you cancel your trial with ancestry before it expires they will normally allow you to continue thru to the end of the trial date. Give it a try if that was recent - you never know your luck. I am in Oz and its the middle of the night in the UK - so where are you from? You will find others who have the knowledge will be along shortly. Regards, Cliff
If you cancel your trial with ancestry before it expires they will normally allow you to continue thru to the end of the trial date. Give it a try if that was recent - you never know your luck. I am in Oz and its the middle of the night in the UK - so where are you from? You will find others who have the knowledge will be along shortly. Regards, Cliff I gave it a try, but it says I already took advantage of the trial. I could give them a call and see if they will let me continue the trial so I can link up the family ties I've been given.
If you go to the following website you will find out all about HMS Martin WWW.HMSMARTIN-G44.co.uk This will help you, you may also need to look up the actual Uboat that sank HMS Martin
If you go to the following website you will find out all about HMS Martin WWW.HMSMARTIN-G44.co.uk This will help you, you may also need to look up the actual Uboat that sank HMS Martin Yeah, I found that site a few days ago. The people running the website have been in touch with me since and sharing hi-res photos of the ship and Chatham Memorial. There's also been someone else who spoke with him a long time back called Scott Davidson about the very same thing, quite possibly a family member. His email doesn't work anymore though which is frustrating.
