Description
A WW2 Royal Naval Reserve Trawler Section Casualty Group of 3 awarded to Leading Seaman Thomas Henry Weaver of His Majesty’s Trawler Roche Bonne comprising; 1939-45 Star, Atlantic Star, 1939/45 War Medal In box of issue with condolence slip for Thomas Henry Weaver.
LT/JX 192295 Leading Seaman Thomas Henry Weaver (Son of Thomas Henry and Emily Weaver; husband of Kate Weaver, of Hull.) of H.M. Trawler Roche Bonne of the Royal Naval Patrol Service killed in action aged 27 on 7th April 1941 and is remembered with honour on the Lowestoft Naval Memorial.
The Depot for the Royal Naval Patrol Service, developed from the pre-war Royal Naval Reserve Trawler Section was at Lowestoft during the 1939-1945 War. At the outset of the war the men of this service were mainly the fishermen of the requisitioned trawlers and drifters used on patrol work, but later it included men from all walks of life and various types of small craft. In the spring of 1944 the Royal Naval Patrol Service reached its maximum strength of some 57,000. Between 1942 and 1946 new construction ships and craft manned by the Service totalled 1,637, among them minesweepers of various kinds, corvettes, fuel carriers, motor launches and naval seaplane tenders. Their objective was to maintain wartime patrols and safeguard the coasts of Britain. Lowestoft was chosen as the site for the Memorial to those men of the Royal Naval Patrol Service who have no other grave than the sea.
Minesweeping trawler Roche Bonne (258grt, Chief Skipper W. R. Settlefield RNR) was sunk by German bombing eight miles south, southeast of the Lizard. Settlefield and nine ratings were lost. One rating died of wounds.
