Eighty years ago today, on the 6th May 1942, Paymaster Midshipman G. A. Stoke DSC RN received his "Crossing the Line" certificate from Neptune, returning back to England via South Africa, as Captain's Secretary to Captain D. M. L. Neame DSO RN, on the anti-aircraft cruiser, HMS Carlisle. This was the first time he returned home in an unbelievable two year years without any leave, during which time he had survived being torpedoed twice on HMS Glasgow, incessantly bombed in the Western Desert and the Siege of Tobruk and survived the savage Luftwaffe assaults during four of the most difficult Malta convoys.
Jeremy Stoke
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