The Mystery of AB William Dearl Trickett, Stoker (1st Class)
Little did I know when I visited the local Legion in my home village of Kelwood, MB, that I would end up on a quest to uncover some military family history that would have soon passed into oblivion.
While sipping on my Club beer (it’s still horrible stuff), I was perusing the military memorabilia on the walls when to my great surprise, I saw the crest of my old Athabe (HMCS Athabaskan DDG 282) up on the wall with the date of the original HMCS Athabaskan G07’s sinking on it. A relative happened to be there who said it was from my old Great Uncle Willie. Unbeknownst to me, Able Seaman (AB) William Dearl Trickett, RCNVR, Stoker (1st Class), V38773 had served onboard HMCS Athabaskan G07! Due to the obvious Navy ties, I started my first inquiries with my parents. Mom said, oh yes, he was a Japanese POW and complained that his stomach was never the same after being interned. Well, they were about half a world off and the wrong Axis power, so I started hunting for actual documentation. He was onboard G07 when she went out for her final patrol April 28, 1944 and fortunately he didn’t perish with the other 128 men of his ship that night. Unfortunately, he ended up being part of the 83 men captured by the Germans and he spent the rest of the war in a POW camp, Marlag und Milag Nord. Of course, like most WWII vets, Willie never spoke of his experiences and might have easily taken them to the grave.
Of course, complicating matters as I continued to dig, his surviving son out in Victoria had financial issues and is estranged from the family. He must have liquidated his father’s possessions because I turned up an old Ebay ad for his Wartime Log (POW No. 1295 of Marlag und Milag Nord, Germany) and an original photo of G07. Command Post, a military memorabilia shop in Victoria, had sold the items on Dec 08, 2011 for $1165 and $24.49. Enquiries with the shop were a dead end. I started to track down organizations, outfits, and forums who would have some idea of who might have been interested in such items. My intention was to ask the present owner if they would be willing to part with the items especially the logbook. The log is an invaluable part of both my family and RCN history that IMHO shouldn’t be hidden away by some private collector.
I have slowly chipped away the layers of mystery surrounding the wartime record of my Uncle. It was a little difficult as the family had never received a Death Notice or Obituary on either he or my blood aunt who had resided in Saanich, BC. All I could find was a mention of the date of his passing in the Legion’s Last Post archives. I have the BC Genealogical Society helping me track down his final whereabouts plus I’ve sent a request to Ottawa for his Service Records. If any of you know Dr. André Levesque, he was kindly helping me also.
My ultimate intention with all of this sleuthing is to put together a proper narrative and memorial for presentation to Willie’s home Legion back in Kelwood especially in light of the upcoming 75th anniversary of the sinking next year. Every Remembrance Day people say the words ‘We will remember’ but they ring hollow if stories like my Uncles are lost. I’m glad I was part of the Athabaskan 282 Remembrance ceremonies for G07 when we were near the site of the wreck in 2015. I find it amazing that two related prairie boys from the same little hamlet ended up in the same spot with the same namesake ships.
So the hunt for the Wartime Log ended up being successful. An American collector had bought the Log from the Victoria shop and saw my Ebay ad and thankfully contacted me. He had sold it to another collector in Burbank, California and long story short, the fellow there sold the Log back to me for his purchase cost.
Now that I have the Log, I will be making scans of the material it contains available here on my blogs and on the For Posterity’s Sake webpage. Below is the start of the Log which I will post in its entirety with a description of each page.
Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.