This image was recently posted on a Wikipedia book review with the caption ‘Officers of the Harwich Minesweeping Flotilla, April 1942. The lieutenant on the left and sub lieutenant third from the left are regular Royal Navy officers; the sub lieutenant on the right is Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve (“wavy navy”); the other three are Royal Navy Reserve lieutenants.’ A number of things are immediately apparent. The officer at left is definitely a Lieutenant, Royal Navy. The officer at right is ostensibly a Sub-Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. Second from left and second from right are Lieutenants in the Royal Naval Reserve (R.N.R.). Third from right is a Commander in the R.N.R.
But what about third from left? He does have one stripe visible, but he looks a lot older than a Sub-Lieutenant should be (early 20s), and he has a ribbon on his chest, unlike everyone else bar the Commander R.N.R., suggesting longer service Was it possible to find out who this man was? Yes.
The Imperial War Museum photograph in question (A 10581) has the generic title ‘Minesweepers And Their Crews From The Harwich Minesweeping Flotilla, April 1942’ and the useless caption ‘A typical group of minesweeper officers.’ Using the lazy title, we can search for other photographs in the same series in the I.W.M. catalogue. Lo, and behold, we find a group photograph which shows a decorated Commander R.N.R. and a be-ribboned one striper.
The caption of this photo (A 10582) is ‘The ship’s company of HMM ROTHESAY,’ HMM being His Majesty’s Minesweeper. We now go to an April 1942 Navy List. Turning to page 1450 we find the Rothesay:
Our one striper R.N. is clearly Commissioned Engineer T. W. Fyson. Why the ribbon? Because Thomas William Fyson, born in Ely in 1901, joined the Royal Navy in 1917 as a Boy Artificer (service record ADM 188/1067/24947). He was therefore entitled to wear the British War Medal. He rose through the ranks to become a Commissioned Engineer, whose rank insignia was the same as a Sub-Lieutenant, but with a purple stripe beneath it. This becomes readily apparent in the photo below from the same series (A 10570) captioned, ‘The wardroom of HMM ROTHESAY.’ Fyson is sat at left.
Thanks to The Navy List we can also identify at least three other officers. At left in the original photo is Acting Lieutenant John Morgan, R.N. Third from right is the commanding officer, Commander Alister A. Martin, D.S.C., R.D., R.N.R. The one striper at right is actually Temporary Sub-Lieutenant Peter C. Sheffield, Royal New Zealand Naval Volunteer Reserve (R.N.Z.V.R.). One may wonder at the lack of a ‘New Zealand’ flash on his shoulders, but having looked through other I.W.M. photos, the flash does not appear to have been in universal use during the war, as demonstrated by the below 1943 photo of Lieutenant Kneel Harton, R.N.Z.V.R. (A 17104).
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