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The Crew

The Ship

W. S. Ryder (Bill) of Peterborough, Ontario served on the St Thomas. Don Delong remembered him, after the War,
working at the Peterborough Water Filtration Plant.

Which person, in the photo of the crew, is Bill Ryder?
Anyone with more information about the crew, especially connections to Peterborough or the Nene, may contact Dan Delong.

HMCS St Thomas (Castle Class Corvette) was commissioned May 4, 1944 and was built in by Smith's Dock Co in
Middlesbrough, the same company that built the Nene. Also, like the Nene, it was turned over to Canada by the RN.

To download a picture, right click the mouse. Follow the "Save Picture As" or "Save Image As" instructions.

Roy Potter's son, John, recognized his father in this photo. (...more) and succeeded in making contact with Wally Powell,
a crewmate. The two vets met for the first time in sixty years.

K488 St Thomas Castle Class (photo c 1945 by W. HAIG PARRY, 1 Oxford Road, Middlesbrough) Crew below;

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Jeff Booth <jeffreyebooth@hotmail.com> Tue, Apr 27, 2010 at 4:52 PM To: dandelong@timetraces.com

I am a member of the Board of directors of the Elgin military museum in St. Thomas Ontario. I recently saw the St. Thomas crew picture and the emails the two of you were exchanging.

We have a copy of the picture in our files with several local sailors identified, about 8 I think. We have a large selection of other photos, mostly of the Christmas 1944 time. This is when the youngest man on board. A Mr. Vidler from the city of St. Thomas was made honourary Captain for the day.

We have the ships bell and a lift vest from the U-877 sub as well. We are having ship models of the 3 ships and the sub involved made and a special dedication this May 2nd. I know one St. Thomas veteran who lives now in London Ontario is expected that day.

As well the Marine Museum in Quebec City has a lot of St. Thomas information and items. One of their major benefactors was an officer on the St. Thomas.

The web site for the Elgin Militay Museum is elginmilitarymuseum.ca

Email to them for questions can be sent to curator@elginmilitaymuseum.ca or sent to me and I'll forward it. Best of luck, let me know if I can assist any of your HMCS St. Thomas research.

Jeffrey Booth

I have just discovered the photo you have on the internet of the crew of
the St. Thomas. I thought you may be interested to know that my father
was a signalman on the St. Thomas during WW2 and is in the photo. He is
at the far right of the sign, near the "S" in "Thomas". His name is Roy
Potter. If you know of any surviving crew members, I know my Dad would be
thrilled to talk to them. He currently lives in Wasaga Beach, Ontario.

Thank you and best regards

John Potter
jps2002@allstream.net or j_potter2005@sympatico.ca

Toronto

Hello Dan,

We wrote to each other last year.
I thought you might like to know that thanks to your website, a lady contacted me regarding her father who served on HMCS St. Thomas.
The man is Wally Powell, and he was a telegrapher. He knew my dad, Roy Potter very well, and Dad remembered him.
We just had a great visit with Wally, first time the two men had seen each other in over sixty years! It was an amazing reunion!
Best regards
John Potter
j_potter2005@sympatico.ca

In reference to the above note from John Potter (about his dad Roy Potter) - Wally Powell told a story about Roy's heroism in his contribution to The Memory Project: http://www.thememoryproject.com/Stories/Veteran-Profile.aspx?tab=profile&itemid=4155