My father was a british royal marine, stationed on the cruiser AJAX, in the battle of the River Plate, in 1940, where they, plus the NZ ship Achilles, and the 8inch cruiser Exeter, cornered and engaged the German pocket battleship, Graff Spey, armed with 11 inch guns.The Exeter got heavily damaged, with 85 killed, and the Ajax and Achilles were left to fight. My father said an 11inch shell went thru the turret he was in, taking his mates head off, and didn,t explode.The Graf Spee retreated to Montevideo, with 75 hits on the superstucture. After a few days it scuttled in the mouth of the River Plate,the first British victory of the second WW.Anyway, I found that a town in Canada was named after the Ajax, And a street was named after my father, Wicks Drive! My sisters were gratified to hear about this, and I am making long range plans to go to Ontario, to see it.See what you can find with a little detective work on the internet . Bill
-- Edited by bill12 on Thursday 25th of April 2013 05:53:31 PM
bronnie said
06:38 PM Apr 25, 2013
What wonderful news Bill and a great reason to go to Ontario. You must be proud. Just googled Ajax and found it, they also have a Veteran's Point Garden,very interesting Bill...
cheers Bronnie
-- Edited by bronnie on Thursday 25th of April 2013 06:42:52 PM
bill12 said
07:42 PM Apr 25, 2013
SORRY,doubled up
-- Edited by bill12 on Thursday 25th of April 2013 07:46:04 PM
GaryKelly said
01:13 AM Apr 26, 2013
What a great bit of news, Bill. You must be feeling quite chuffed. There's a whole suburb named after me in Sydney. Kellyville. No it's not... but I tell people it is. :) BTW, I'm expecting my mate to help me mount the camper this week, so it won't be long before I do the pics and a vid.
bill12 said
01:32 AM Apr 26, 2013
Looking forward to seeing the pics. Bill
vk6tnc said
01:49 AM Apr 26, 2013
take a look on Google maps...you can see the houses too.
bill12 said
02:45 AM Apr 26, 2013
Apparently, Wicks Drive is a high end rich part of town , too, There was quite a kerfuffle, when they decided to add the name of the German ships captain to a street in town, A bloke named Landsdorf. A few of the Canadians gave the "seig hiel" salute in disgust......I dunno, he committed suicide when they scuttled the ship. Sad ,really. Bill
Duh said
08:06 AM Apr 26, 2013
Congratulations Bill, you must be chuffed, hope you get to see it and post a few pic's here soon!...
Gerty Dancer said
04:29 PM Apr 26, 2013
Lotsa places have my name, even a cemetery, but none of them were named after me.
Thats an honour Bill, good on you!
neilnruth said
12:24 AM Apr 27, 2013
The closest we can come to that is seeing old lampposts saved in the village in Devon where my husbands forebears come from. Our surname plus the village name on them - made by his g.g.grandfather who was the blacksmith.
My father was a british royal marine, stationed on the cruiser AJAX, in the battle of the River Plate, in 1940, where they, plus the NZ ship Achilles, and the 8inch cruiser Exeter, cornered and engaged the German pocket battleship, Graff Spey, armed with 11 inch guns.The Exeter got heavily damaged, with 85 killed, and the Ajax and Achilles were left to fight. My father said an 11inch shell went thru the turret he was in, taking his mates head off, and didn,t explode.The Graf Spee retreated to Montevideo, with 75 hits on the superstucture. After a few days it scuttled in the mouth of the River Plate,the first British victory of the second WW.Anyway, I found that a town in Canada was named after the Ajax, And a street was named after my father, Wicks Drive! My sisters were gratified to hear about this, and I am making long range plans to go to Ontario, to see it.See what you can find with a little detective work on the internet . Bill
-- Edited by bill12 on Thursday 25th of April 2013 05:53:31 PM
What wonderful news Bill and a great reason to go to Ontario. You must be proud. Just googled Ajax and found it, they also have a Veteran's Point Garden,very interesting Bill...
cheers Bronnie
-- Edited by bronnie on Thursday 25th of April 2013 06:42:52 PM
SORRY,doubled up
-- Edited by bill12 on Thursday 25th of April 2013 07:46:04 PM
Congratulations Bill, you must be chuffed, hope you get to see it and post a few pic's here soon!...
Thats an honour Bill, good on you!