www.tinyurl.com/hmsfiji                    www.tinyurl.com/hmsfijiassociation
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                 \\\\\___H.M.S. FIJI ASSOCIATION___\"-._
                 /////~~~ we will remember them ~~~/.-'
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             HMS Fiji Survivor Leading Stoker Walter Arnold
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                        Stoker's Amazing Adventure

Leading Stoker Walter Arnold, who was one of the few who made their 
escape from the submarine Thetis, has experienced another amazing 
adventure. He was in the Fiji when that Cruiser was lost off Crete 
and after being afloat on a temporary raft for some hours was picked 
up by a destroyer. 

His wife and mother were relieved to hear by cables a few days ago 
that he is alive and well in Cape Town. Stoker Arnold bears a charmed 
life. When he was three years old his cot and furnishings were burnt 
to ashes in a bedroom fire. He was snatched away from the flames by a 
neighbour. Since then he has had a succession of escapes. At eight years 
of age he was rescued from drowning by an older playmate. 

Another time his own coolness as a youth in hanging on to a bush after 
falling over a cliff edge saved him from certain death. Twice he has 
been knocked down by a bus, suffering no more than slight abrasions. 
His mother, now evacuated from Portsmouth, cannot remember all the 
dangerous incidents of her son's life - from which he has emerged 
- "Always on top, always smiling." She says.

Arnold's most noticeable escape was from the sunmarine Thetis, which 
went down early in June 1939 in its trials off Birckenhead. His wife, 
a Birckenhead woman is now living with Arnold's mother at Winterton 
[Lincolnshire]. They had been married About a year when he 
[the only rating] escaped from that ill-fated submarine. 

After a fortnight in the Spearfish, Stoker Arnold joined another 
branch of the Navy. Then, after being torpedoed in a destrpyer 
he went back to the Cruiser Fiji, which was lost in the operation 
off Crete. His family worried more than anything else about the 
Thetis tally band which he was wearing on his cap, and which was 
lost while struggling in the water off Crete. 

Stoker Arnold's relatives in this country have also suffered the 
rigours of war. His mother's house was wrecked in a bombing raid, 
and she went to live with her sister at Winterton, near Scunthorpe, 
where she has now set up a home. Her son's wife lost her home in 
an air-raid on the Merseyside and she too, has gone to live with her 
mother-in-law. Mrs. Arnold was more fortunate than her own relatives 
who are still in hospital as a result of injuries in that raid. 

Stoker Arrnold has a three year old son, Mackie, who is thriving 
happliy in the Lincolnshire countryside. His mother's only grief 
is the loss of a younger son, another sailor, who was lost at sea 
in the early part of the war.

(Submitted by the family of HMS Fiji Survivor, John Wilson Moore)
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Note: Contact may be made with Arnold's son, through David Roberts
c/o Avid Publications, Bebbington, Wirral, Merseyside CH63 5LS UK
He write the book: "Secrets and Scandals"