A Tale of Two Families Linked by a Naval Sword

By Lookout Production on Nov 29, 2024 with Comments 0

Victoria Colonist report of Oct. 17, 1939 listing Midshipman Peter Piddington as missing. Photo: Paul Seguna

LCdr (Ret’d) Paul Seguna, CD,
CFB Esquimalt Naval & Military Museum

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The date of the Thanksgiving holiday this year held a special significance in linking the histories of two Vancouver Island families. On Oct. 14, 1939, just over a month after the outbreak of the Second World War, the battleship HMS Royal Oak suddenly sank while at anchor in Scapa Flow – a British fleet anchorage located in the Orkney Islands off the northern tip of Scotland. The ship was the victim of torpedoes fired by the German submarine U-47 in the early morning hours after having penetrated the protected anchorage defences. The battleship capsized within minutes with 835 of the Ship’s Company of 1,234 perishing.

Last year, the existence of artifacts from the sinking belonging to the family of James Atwood, a retired Royal Canadian Air Force officer living in Victoria, emerged during a dinner conversation. The items were a naval officer’s sword with scabbard and sword belt given to James’ grandfather in the U.K. after the war by a friend who had been a professional diver and had recovered the items from the ship’s wreckage field. James received the sword and associated items from his grandfather in the 1980s while visiting in England and brought them back to Canada as family heirlooms. After doing some research, James decided the Scapa Flow Museum in Lyness, Scotland should be engaged. The museum subsequently expressed an interest in accepting the artifacts as part of the HMS Royal Oak collection there. Hence, the sword and accoutrements were destined for return to the Orkney’s where they once were the personal possession of an unidentified officer serving in HMS Royal Oak.

During the research into the provenance of the sword, another local link arose – Peter Grosvenor Piddington, Midshipman RN, was listed as a casualty and the son of Arthur Grosvenor and Helen Mary Piddington from Esquimalt, BC. Peter had been a member of the local Rainbow Sea Cadet Corps before joining the Royal Navy in the late 1930s. Although no direct link exists with the sword as Midshipman would have carried a Dirk (short sword); Peter certainly knew of the sword’s owner as one of the Ship’s Officers. In this context, it was appropriate to exhibit the sword and accoutrements at the CFB Esquimalt Naval & Military Museum for a period to tell the story of the local connection to the loss of HMS Royal Oak until the repatriation of the sword to the U.K.

Aidan and Bailey Young, view the naval sword and accoutrements associated with HMS Royal Oak at the CFB Esquimalt Naval & Military Museum. Photo: Paul Seguna

Research into the Piddington family yielded further background information on the family history but no contact with local family members. That is, until this past August during an unrelated visit to the Cowichan Valley Museum in Duncan, BC. While chatting with a museum volunteer, Kim Vivian, she mentioned that her two grandsons were current members of the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) and that a relative perished in the sinking of HMS Royal Oak. To this, I immediately volunteered that his name was Peter Piddington – and it was! Yet another remarkable coincidence in this tale. Kim, with her two grandsons Bailey, and Aiden Young, both serving RCN members in the rank of Sailor 1st Class as a Naval Acoustics Operator and Boatswain respectively, recently toured the museum and had the opportunity to view the artifacts associated with their family history. Kim related that in memories from her youth, just the mention of Scapa Flow always carried a poignant sense with it at the memory of her great uncle Peter’s loss.

The concluding chapter of the sword’s story will be when the sword artifacts become part of the museum exhibit memorial for the tragic loss of life in HMS Royal Oak’s sinking. A loss that still resonates 85 years later.

As a postscript note: In reviewing the donated documents of the late Lieutenant Commander Ralph Wills, who served in the RNR (Royal Naval Reserve) during the war and RCNR (Royal Canadian Naval Reserve) post war; it is recorded that he was also a Midshipman in HMS Royal Oak concurrent with Peter Piddington from May to September 1939 – only being saved from the possible same fate by a posting off the ship just before its loss!