I have been attempting to find out if the RN ashore establishment HMS Duke, at Malvern, Worcs, was used as a centre for advanced training for the Normandy landings. My father, who I was told was used at Normandy 'in some capacity', was drafted there from 11 May 1944 to 2 Jun 1944. He was an RN Signalman and the entry on his P & V ledger states 'Blake Division'.
Lo and behold & shiver me timbers a page in Wartime Worcestershire by Jeff Carpenter Brewin Books. I bought mine online for very little.
Duke was a new entry training base for stokers, but Dad was a signalman who had trained at HMS Royal Arthur, Ingoldmells three years earlier.
H.M.S. Duke was a new entry establishment The purpose of it being that you were disciplined, given a uniform, told how to put it on and how to wear it properly. Given a hammock. Told how to use that and also how to lash that when you had slept in it .It also made you into a very fit person with exercise, long runs and how to do everything at the double. Also you had to fire a rifle. That took place on the 6th July 1943. Put on paper officially as fired five rounds application .303 at 25, 100 & 200 yards. The new entry course at H.M.S. Duke lasted about four weeks. Leaving there and feeling fit and happy with the navy, so far our next camp where our stoker training was to begin was Stamshore Camp, Portsmouth HMS Duke appears to be a basic training establishment, from the above those deemed to be stokers were forwarded to Stamshore. I would assume during the initial training selections were made for various trades within the Navy, and then the 'trainees' would be sent to other camps to continue in their selected trades - your father doing signals HMS Duke (RN training establishment, Great Malvern, Worcestershire) also trained Officers as well as other ratings, so it wasnt purely for 'stokers' ML 207 - Coastal Forces Veterans In 1943, at the age of 17, my father volunteered for the Royal Navy. Initially he attended HMS Duke, in Malvern, were he trained as a Junior Motor Mechanic or Stoker to give it the correct title. After his training he Joined MGB 55 at HMS Attack in Portland and was involved in escorting and protecting the Atlantic Convoys as they headed in and out of the channel. In early 1944, he was transferred to ML 207 (part of the 1st ML Flotilla), which was then based at HMS Hornet, in Gosport. When my father first joined ML 207, she was also involved in escorting convoys but in the early spring of 1944, she was adapted for minesweeping in readiness for the Normandy landings. On D-Day itself, ML207 was attached to the 6th minesweeping flotilla and swept at the very front of the fleet sweepers leading the invasion force through channel 5 to Gold Beach. Telecommunications Research Establishment - Wikipedia In parallel with these technical developments, the Ministry of Home Security developed a plan, early in 1939, "to evacuate the critical functions of government out of London" if a threat of air raids developed. A site was purchased in Malvern for the Ministry itself. Although it was not developed, the location had become well known to defence officials.[2] The Air Ministry acquired jurisdiction, and used the site for a Signals Training Establishment, housed in prefabricated one storey buildings. In May 1942, the Radar Research and Development Establishment (RRDE) was set up on the site, to develop truck mounted early warning radars. At the end of the war TRE moved from Malvern College, to HMS Duke, a Royal Navy training school,[4] about a mile away in St. Andrews Road So Radar and signals training was going on from 1939
On another forum, an interesting angle. It appears that RN communicators were employed with army units at Normandy as 'spotters' for shore bombardment. In particular the Oxford and Bucks were mentioned. The squaddies nicknamed them 'parachute sailors'
My grandad was a RM bodyguard to the RN Captain who over saw the closing of HMS Duke and its hand over to TRE. Its when he meet and married my gran, the Captain also had a RM driver. They appear to have moved around the country closing several establishments down. He served in the RM from 1938-1953 spending most of WW2 in North Africa. Barbra Cartland the author lived near one of the gates to HMS Duke and the Captain would visit her, while there my grandad would be told to wait in the kitchen (possible with the driver or did he stay with the car?). It is a shame that the whole site has recently been demolished and no record of the value Malvern played in the war is recognised.
