Commander Greig, DSO, HMS Kirriemoor, and the Vichy Internment Camp at Laghouat

[Nick Colley]

Hi, all,

The attached shows a postcard from a previously-retired Lt.Cmdr., RN who was posted to the boom-carrier HMS Kirriemoor in August 1941. He appears to have been the vessel's captain. He had been serving at HMS Lochinvar earlier in the war (parent ship at Port Edgar, South Queensferry). By February 1942, this card shows he was incarcerated by the Vichy French at Laghouat, ca.400 kms south of Algiers in the Sahara

I've been trying to find out how he might have got himself apprehended by the Vichy French, and, while I'm at it, how he acquired his DSO (presumably during WW1). Most annoyingly, all my usual web sources have failed me.  He is still listed for HMS Kirriemoor in the December 1941 NL (ie correct to 18/11/41), but in the February 1942 List (correct to 18/1/42), he has no ship listed against his name, and Kirriemoor has his previous subordinate as the captain.

The only source of Kirriemoor's movements I've found is in https://www.worldnavalships.com/forums/thread.php?threadid=164

The most useful entry is this (it's a copy-and-paste, so don't blame me for the spellings  :) ) - I use the adjective 'useful' in a very loose sense.....

[i]HMS KIRRIEMOOR update: In answer to the query about where HMS Kirriemoor was between January 1941 and May 1944:- Information provided by Alfred Maxwell Jones, B.E.M., Shipwright, who served on her between 1940 and 1943. He joined the ship on Convoy WN.40 which departed Clyde on 17th November 1940 to Methil, arrived 20th November, where the ship was commissioned to HMS Kirriemoor. �HMS Kirriemoor �disappears� from the convoy lists after 17th January 1941 when she arrived at Oban and does not reappear until 20th May 1944, when she departed from Gibraltar�:- She was commissioned to HMS Kerriemoor on 17th November 1940 and sailed from Oban on her own, due to being too slow for the rest of the convoy. She sailed for the Cape and the next port of call was Hifer/Highfer/Hipher in the Mediterranean. She left the Mediterranean for the Indian Ocean in 1941 for Columbo, Ceylon, and Trinca Malee, where she laid boom defences. Then she sailed for the Maldive Islands to lay boom defences. She returned to Mombassa after being driven out by Japan, with survivors of HMS Cornwall. Laid boom defences in Mombassa, then on Thursday 17th December 1942 she left Kilindini, Mombassa, for Diego Suarez, Madagascar. She arrived in Diego Suarez on 22nd December 1942. [/i]

As you can see, it's not clear that she was anywhere near any overtly aggressive Vichy territory in the period August-December 1941.

Any thoughts, folks?

Many thanks

Nick

[Alan Baker]

Not necessarily. Both Madagascar and Reunion were held by Vichy French after the fall of France. Both were seized/liberated by Allied forces, Madagascar in May 1942 and Reunion in November that year.

This does not link Commander Greig or Kirriemoor with either island though...

(Wiki is a marvellous thing)

[Nick Colley]

Those islands did drift across my mind, but I discounted them from the plot because they are so remote from Laghouat.

chrs
N

[Frank Schofield]

Nick

Bit more on A/Cdr K.M. Greig

His DSO awarded in command of HMS Sandown Paddle minesweeper, bombed off Dunkirk in 1940
MID for minesweeping on HMS Conidaw in 1941
DSC for bravery on Empire Defender on the way to Malta, attacked by a/c torpedo and sunk off the Isle of Galita, near Tunis, this is how he fell into Vichy hands

Frank Schofield

[Nick Colley]

Brilliant, Frank. Many thanks indeed!

;D

chrs
N

[Nick Colley]

I've found the entry for the Empire Defender in Wikipedia, now. Ironic it was an Italian torpedo that sank a ship originally built in Germany, that we'd seized from the Italians in June 1940.....

Thanks again

Nick