(from E-Mail message by Roger Williams to Ben Oostdam, October, 2004:)
QUOTE:
Hi Ben.
Many thanks for this good
news. It's a great relief to know that Sammy reached you OK and that
you've enjoyed what I've written about him.
And a very big thank you for the picture you
so kindly sent me. I've already copied it, to put with my war memoirs (don't ask
me which war; I've forgotten!)
I happened to call the picture onto the screen
first, before opening your text message.
I took one look at it and said to Betty, my
wife: "Good heavens! This looks exactly like my first Captain during the
war - Lieutenant Bert Cook".
Then, on reading your separate message,
your mention of Bert's name leapt out at me.
What a wonderful surprise!
Early in 1944, whcn I joined the SA Naval
Forces after leaving Jeppe High School for Boys in Johannesburg, and after a
spell of naval training at the Cape, I was drafted to a tiny Norwegian
whalecatcher from the Terje fleet which had been converted for
mine-sweeping.
Its name was HMSAS Brakpan (formerly HMSAS
Terje) and its commanding officer happened to be Bert Cook. I served under
Bert throughout a particularly rough winter at the Cape, and came to like and
respect him very much. A lovely man!
In 1993 we held a `Brakpan' reunion in the
wardroom of SAS Wingfield, Goodwood, and it was so good to see Bert
again. We were all delighted that he could make it.
As you probably know, Bert died just about a
year ago. Just one small death notice appeared in the local papers, under
the heading Cook, Herbert (Bert) and this started:
"Sailed away, 7 November 2003
..." This was followed by the names of surviving members of
his family.
UNQUOTE
One more coincidence popped up when I noted that Roger's book was printed in Goodwood, S.A., which was the village where my wife Mercia lived and where we got married in August, 1964:
an occasion commemorated by the U.S. Postal Service forty years later.
(I sent the above part of the story to Roger yesterday and
he added the following in his inimitable near-simultanous response:) next page