"You have to laugh..." Don Preece, Leading Stores Assistant
and
comic artist
LSA Donald
(Don) Albert Preece (1915-42) died when HMS Hecla sank on the night of
the 11 – 12 November 1942. He was a talented artist whose comic
cartoons of life at sea in the Royal Navy were much sought after by his
shipmates for sending home with their letters from Iceland and South
Africa. They are treasured by those alive today and by the families of
those who died when Hecla
sank. I was lent or sent scans of several
samples of his work and was curious to find out more about the man who
drew them - but had no idea where to start.
George
Male, a sick berth attendant on Hecla,
put me in touch with Don Preece's daughter, Christine Denovan-Smith.
Christine’s father died when she was still a child and she has
no
memory of him but discovered who he was by typing the letters he
sent home to his wife. Her mother remarried and his letters were only
re-discovered when both her mother and step father had died. She
published their letters for her family as A Wartime Romance, the letters of Donald and Dorothy Preece (neé Fish), 1940-42 as a handsome hardback edition of 400 pages in 2015. This brief
account of the life of this talented and popular man is based on his
letters and George Male's memories of his former shipmate.
Donald Preece’s father, Albert
(Bert) Preece, was an engineer in the dockyard at Gibraltar and Donald
was born there in 1915. Christine does not know how old he was when
Bert and Kassy (Kathleen) Preece returned to their home town of
Plymouth but his teenage school reports and sketchbooks show that his
talent as an artist was apparent from an early age. He was fond
of sport, played tennis and was a good swimmer and when he enlisted in
March 1940 he was working as the manager of a sports shop in Taunton.
His maternal grandfather
was a sea captain who died at sea and his father a dockyard engineer so
Don naturally wanted serve in the Royal Navy. He trained at HMS Arthur,
a former Butlins holiday camp in Skegness, and was posted to
Devonport as a Supplies Assistant (SA). He helped kit out French and
Belgium
soldiers evacuated from
Dunkirk with fresh
clothes and in a letter dated the 2 June 1940
wrote:
“It doesn’t seem possible that so many of us could be fairly
light hearted with so much tragedy and suffering around us, but I guess
it is because these men, who go by in their hundreds, are all smiling
cheerfully - some without shoes, hats, shirts and with several days
growth of beard, force their indomitable spirit out to us and make us
feel that we, with our comparatively trifling troubles, are 100% better
off than they. The men I refer to are part of the 1,200 French and
Belgian soldiers who are being kitted up and fed here. Some of them
have been fifteen days without sleep and when they were collected by
our transport ship, thought their troubles were over, only to be sunk
mid channel and receive another dose of discomfiture - poor devils.”
He married Christine’s mother,
Dorothy ("Dot") Fish, later that month and was posted to Hecla
at Greenock in November before it left in1941 to take up its role
as a destroyer depot ship at Havelfjord, Iceland. He was promoted to
Leading Supplies Assistant (LSA) and wrote home in a letter dated the
11 July:
“This morning Bert Beare and myself were rated while still at
sea - I think this very ironical and significant - it only shows
how the ' powers that be’ can wangle things to suit themselves, but
never to suit the men! Needless to say there is much leg pulling going
on and we are being greeted every moment with 'I guess that anchor
weighs heavy'.”
The Man Who Forgot ... Courtesy of Christine Denovan-Smith, daughter of Don Preece
His
cartoons were very
popular with the ship's company, especially the "Buzz" cartoons about
shipboard rumours which were
posted on the ship's notice board, but these were probably kept by the
ship's officers. His shipmates commissioned over a hundred in advance
of Christmas 1941.
He had some stock cartoons which could be personalised for a special
occasion like the birthday card he did for Jabe
Skelhorne's daughter, Rita.
Shipmates - 19 October 1941 Rear row from left: "Harry Lavender, me, Reg Hall"
Front row from left: "Perkins (Tavistock), Sturgess (Wales), Wood (Lancs)"
Leading Supply Assistant, Eric Wood (D/MX.65093) died when Hecla sank
Courtesy of Christine Denovan-Smith, daughter of Don Preece
He was rather opinionated and distrusted authority as illustrated by this extract from a letter he
wrote on the 14 July 1941:
“A
fellow here received three days No.11 for talking in church - draw your
conclusions as to my remarks! I told him the only answer to that sort
of totalitarianism was to stop attending church - needless to say he is
heeding this advice! Can you imagine the holy atmosphere? ' Worship thy
heavenly Father and keep silence you brats! Peace on earth - blah!
blah! blah! [sudden pipe on loudspeakers - Post defence watch
close up - uncover guns! ] - ' Lead us not into temptation, etc. -
'Tombola will be played at 1700!' and so on.
Who was "Old Pie Face"?
Courtesy of Christine Denovan-Smith, daughter of Don Preece
After his active life ashore he
initially found conditions on Hecla very restrictive but since he had a good
baritone voice and was an accomplished violinist he was able to play,
sing and act in stage productions aboard ship. George
Male was in a different mess but they were both in the ship's drama
society. George was not impressed by the ENSA production while Hecla was in Iceland (below left).
ENSA production, daydreaming of Dot while working and fooling around on deck with shipmates On right from left: "Perkins, Deller, Wood (astride Lavender), Plummer, Russ and me below", dated 2 November 1941 Leading Stores Assistant George D. Deller MX68964) and Supplies PO George Plummer (D/X.126(U) died when Hecla sank
Courtesy of Christine Denovan-Smith, daughter of Don Preece
For
Christmas 1941 the "Hecla Players" put on performances of Outward Bound by Sutton Vane, a huge success on Broadway in 1938-9 but a rather ominous choice for HMS Hecla:
"The play is about a group of seven
passengers who meet in the lounge of an ocean liner at sea and realize
that they have no idea why they are there, or where they are bound.
Each of them eventually discovers that they are dead, and that they
have to face judgment from an Examiner, who will determine whether they
are to go to Heaven or Hell."
Out of a cast of
eight Eric Bond ("John") and Donald Preece ("Mr Lingley") plus Cyril
Boyle, the electrician, would not live to see another Christmas.
In Mrch 1942 USS Vulcan replaced Hecla as the destroyer depot ship at Havelfjord and Hecla returned
to the Clyde for a short refit. Some of the wives travelled to Greenock
to be with their husbands during this period and were disappointed when
Cpt. C.G.B.Coltart RN would not allow them to stay ashore
overnight. When Hecla left Greenock for South Africa on the 14 April Cpt E.F.B. Law RN was in command. HMS Hecla was part of Convoy WS.18 en-route to join the Far East
Fleet. When they crossed the Equator Don made a "Crossing the Line" certificates for presenting to crew members being welcomed by Neptunus to his kingdom for the first time.
In a letter dated the 19 May and posted from Simonstown he
described what happened to him when Hecla
hit a mine:
“Last Friday afternoon at 4pm the ship struck a mine, the
fumes that arose almost immediately were overpowering. Well, to cut a
long story short I recovered consciousness on the floor of the wardroom
ante-room wrapped in blankets and feeling rather bilious, headachy and
heavy in the chest, surrounded by other unfortunates, who were not in
the immediate vicinity of the actual explosion. That was 6.30 p.m.
Altogether we have lost 26 lives.”
"At home" in South Africa
Don
Preece was befriended by Dick and Marjorie Magnin and often visited
them at their small apartment in a large house at the foot of Table
Mountain
Dicky Magnin (centre) and family group on right with Don Preece second left and Marjorie Magnin standing on right
Courtesy of Christine Denovan-Smith, daughter of Don Preece
Don Preece making friends with the family pet (left) and "trouble at sea" with Dicky Magnin on left and Don standing on right
Courtesy of Christine Denovan-Smith, daughter of Don Preece
Cpt Law was more relaxed about his men staying ashore in South Africa than Cpt Coltart was at Greencok. The
South African were very hospitable and many of the ship's company made
good friends. Don Preece was a welcome guest in the home of Dick and
Marjorie Magnin who had a small apartment in a beautiful house at the
foot of Table Mountain. Majorie Magnin's letter to Don's wife is a wonderful tribute to Christine's father:
11a Longacres, San Souci Road, Newlands
2 July 1942
"We’ve not known him long
as time goes but feel as if we’ve known him all our lives. His lively,
eager nature will gain him friends wherever he goes and we consider
ourselves lucky to have met him before he got caught into some other
circle. He’s told us so much of you and your little one that I’m afraid
I can’t feel you’re a stranger. We celebrated
our third anniversary yesterday by giving a small cocktail party
and Don was able to get off for it. It was quite good fun and Don
caused a great deal of mirth by dressing up in my dressing gown and
putting on lipstick and a bandanna round his head. He posed as Mrs
Igginbottom and had us in fits with his repartee. He’s very versatile,
isn’t he? He’s looking
very fit and has got over his experience wonderfully well. He hopes to
go on leave soon and will probably stay on a farm to get away
from the Ship for a bit. It will do him good. We shall miss him though."
Many of Don's letters home to Dot were illustrated with humorous drawings:
Left: "Gone with the wind - on a big GPO RN one painted scarlet and the wheels seemed like tractor wheels"
Right: "I have just finished a game of snooker and played lousily as usual - but it was good fun"
Courtesy of Christine Denovan-Smith, daughter of Don Preece
In October HMS Hecla
left Simonstown for its fateful encounter with U-515 on the 11 November
1942 off the coast of north Africa where Don Preece died along
with 284 of his shipmates leaving his wife a young widow to raise his
baby daughter, Christine.
Dot remarried and Christine raised a family
of her own and discovered the father she never knew through reading
and publishing his letters as A Wartime Romance, the letters of Donald and Dorothy Preece (neé Fish), 1940-42. Christine Denovan-Smith diedon
26 June 2016 after a long battle with cancer leaving behind John, her
husband for 56 years, and three sons, David, Jonathan and Timothy, and
a grand daughter, Katherine.
Enquiries about A Wartime Romance and reproduction rights in the cartoons and drawings of Don Preece should be sent to John Denovan-Smith.
Return to the "Home Page" for HMS Hecla
to find out more about its history and the stories of other survivors
A Hard Fought Ship contains the most detailed account of the loss of HMS Hecla yet published Buy the new hardback edition online for £35 post free in the UK
Take a look at the Contents Page and List of Illustrations
Holywell House Publishing
88 Holywell Hill, St
Albans, Hertfordshire AL1 1DH, Britain
http://holywellhousepublishing.co.uk
Telephone: +44 1727 838595 contact online
LSA Donald
(Don) Albert Preece (1915-42) died when HMS Hecla sank on the night of
the 11 – 12 November 1942. He was a talented artist whose comic
cartoons of life at sea in the Royal Navy were much sought after by his
shipmates for sending home with their letters from Iceland and South
Africa. They are treasured by those alive today and by the families of
those who died when Hecla
sank. I was lent or sent scans of several
samples of his work and was curious to find out more about the man who
drew them - but had no idea where to start. 
