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THE V & W DESTROYER ASSOCIATION

The V & W Destroyer Association was established in 1993 to enable shipmates who served on V & W Class destroyers in World War II to keep in touch with each other. The Association has HRH The Duke of Edinburgh as its Patron, publishes a magazine, Hard Lying, and meets at least once a year. If you have a family menbers who once served on a V & W destroyers you are eligible to join as a Associate Member. If you would like to meet men who served with your father or grandfather on a V & W Class destroyer why not join the V & W Association? Members receive the magazine, Hard Lying, plus a Newsletter and can attend the annual reunion. The annual subscription is £6. 

Applications to join the  V & W Destroyer Association should be sent  to:

Vic Green, Secretary
45 Burton Road, Streethay, Litchfield, Staffs WS13 8LK
E-mail:
Telephone: 01543-251446

Clifford Fairweather, Chairman of the Association and and Editor of Hard Lying served on HMS Westcott and can be contacted by e-mail.

The web site of the V & W Destroyer Association

The decision to develop a web site for the Association was taken at this year's AGM at Eastbourne (see below). The aim is to see that the wartime service of the men who served on the V & Ws will "not be forgotten" when they are no longer here. It will be built around their own stories published over the last twenty years in the Association's magazine, Hard Lying, and in the book of the same name edited and published by Clifford Fairweather in 2005 which is now out of print. The ships on which members, past and present, served will sail though time and spaces on the waves of the world wide web long after we have all crossed the bar.

The web site will be arranged by the names of the ships and men and women in the furthest corners of the world will be able to read about the ships on which a long dead member of their family once served and contribute their own memories, stories and photographs. It is hoped that it will be possible to launch the web site in March 2015 at the annual reunion in Harrogate.

The first step is to create an alphabetical list of the 69 V & W Class destroyers which will link to a page about that destroyer. You can see an example of what a typical page might look like below -

A draft page about HMS Woolston - one of 69 V & W Class destroyers

Bill Forster, an Associate member of the V & W Association recorded interviews with six veteran members of the Association describing their wartime service. These interviews will soon be available online so that the children and grand children of shipmates long since dead can listen to them describe what it was like to serve on a V & W in World War II. The Imperial War Museum have requested copies  of these interviews for adding to their Documents and Sound Collection.

The Annual Reunions of the V & W Destroyer Association

This year's annual reunion was held at Eastbourne in the York House Hotel on the promenade overlooking the sea on a beautiful sunny weekend. The hotel was comfortable, the staff helpful and the food excellent. Everybody enjoyed the surroundings but more especially meeting old shipmates and talking over shared experiences. There were nine veterans who had served on V & W Class destroyers during the war and another twenty five associate members whose fathers or grandfathers had served on a V & W destroyer. Two of the veterans present were in their nineties, both alert and active and enjoying life to the full.

There was a heated discussion at the  AGM on the Saturday about a proposal to set up a web site to tell the stories of members, past and present, who had served on the 69 V & W Class destroyers built at the end of the First World War and scrapped at the end of World War Two. The Committee decided to back the proposal and set aside the money raised at the raffle that evening to fund the development. The stories told by the members in the Association's magazine, Hard Lying, over the last twenty years and published by the Chairman, Stormy Fairweather, in his book of the same name, would be at the heart of the web site. The aim would be to see that their wartime service will "not be forgotten" when they are no longer here. And men and women in the furthest corners of the world will be able to contribute their own stories and photographs of the ships on which members of their families served. The newsletter will continue to be the means of keeping in touch with members of the Association and the annual reunion the most important event of the year.

Many of the veterans attending the dinner that evening had a new medal sitting alongside those worn in previous years, the Arctic Medal, announced last year seventy years after the war was won. It is still possible for family members to apply for the Arctic medal on behalf of a long dead family member who served on an escort or merchant ship on one or more of the Arctic Convoys to Northern Russia. The raffle raised £160.

The following day the annual coach excursion took members on a tour of the South Downs including a visit to a garden centre for lunch and a visit to the picturesque town of Lewes with its castle and old buildings.

The meetings are also attended by Associate Members with a family member who served on V & W Class destroyers in World War II. Why not join us at Harrogate in April 2015 and find out first hand what it was like to live and fight in the cramped quarters of one of the most famous and successful classes of destroyers ever built?

Next year's Reunion of the V & W Destroyer Association at Harrogate, Friday 20 - Monday 23 March 2015