The Ship Model Forum

I am interested in the WW2 hospital ships which were former railway cross channel steamers with a view to building one. In particular the Isle of Guernsey and Isle of Thanet. I believe they were numbered and this number appeared on their bow and stern. However, there appears to be some confusion in pictures as one website about the Port of Dover and IWM photo O774 show Isle of Thanet as no. 22, whereas a lovely photo from the Life collection of no. 30 is also captioned as Isle of Thanet. If Isle of Thanet was no.22, which was no.30?

I have not yet found any photos of Isle of Guernsey (although plenty of sister ship Isle of Jersey). Does anyone know which number she carried, and any sources of photos.

Lastly, a book has been published called Railway ships at war – for the Kings Service by A J Mullay. Does anyone know if this has much about the two ships above?

Thanks in advance

Don

finnfan,
Whilst researching another Dunkirk ship 'Royal Daffodil' I came across the book 'The ships that saved an army' by Russell Plummer in my local library. I've since bought a secondhand copy on Amazon.

This has 3 pictures of Isle of Thanet showing No 22 quite clearly. There is also a picture of the Isle of Guernsey displaying No 26 as well as in her pre-war service.

For the record - there are photos of other hospital ships:- Dinard (28), Paris (22?), St Andrew (27*), St Julien (29), Worthing (30)

*Note in the John de S Winser book BEF ships, the photo of St Andrrew is captioned St David (27)??

Hope this helps. Good luck with your project.

Jim S

Thanks for the help Jim.
My local library has come up trumps with Hospital Ships and Ambulance Trains by J H Plumridge which has a number of useful photos and a listing of hospital ships with their identification numbers, but amazingly does not even mention Isle of Thanet in the listing. They also got me British Cross Channel Railway Passenger Ships by J de Winser which has good pictures Isle of Jersey as hospital carrier as well as an intriguing shot of Isle of Guernsey in camouflage, but carrying out commercial cross channel crossings four months before the end of the war. St David is shown as a hospital carrier and both books agree that her number was 27. Unfortunately there is nothing on Isle of Thanet (although I have the BEF Ships book now), so I am grateful for your tip on pictures of Isle of Guernsey - it looks like the libaray is going to get another request from me.

Best wishes

Don

Interesting stuff here chaps, I'm sure you both know what I'm thinking...

Would be good to have a chat with you both about it at Telford, not sure if you both know each other so hopefully I will have the pleasure of introducing you.

That de Winser chap certainly produces some interesting work

Mike

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Starling Models

http://www.starling-models.co.uk

Mike,
Just ahead of you I think. Scratchbuilt 'Royal Daffodil' will be with me at Telford. Looking forward to meeting Don and the rest of the guys. I'll probably load the Dunkirk books into the car when I come up - give us something to talk about - not that conversation will be lacking!!.

All the best

Jim S

I am interested too for the same reason as Mike.

Cheers,

Rob

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IPMS Fine Waterline Special Interest Group

We will talk about it at Telford this weekend. In the meantime I have made a start on the hull of Isle of Thanet and plan to visit the IWM photo archive soon to see what I can turn up there.

See you there

Don

How did the research go?

Cheers,

Rob

_________________
IPMS Fine Waterline Special Interest Group

For some photo's of hospital ships try this site. All ships are list the first letter in the name of the ship.

http://www.photoship.co.uk/

Good Luck.

Regards
Dave

I am looking up info o the Isle of Guernsey as my grandfather was Chief Engineer when it was a hospital ship during the second world war. HE was awarded the D.S.C. for his services in connection with the Dunkirk evacuation. We have a postcard of the ship that clearly shows the no. 26.

If you want to find more information on the ship, the World Ship Society publication "Short Sea: Long War" by John de S Winser has a section on the Isle of Guernsey. There are several photos in the book, but they are all of her later service as a Landing Ship Infantry (Hand hoisting). However, photographs of her sister ship Isle of Jersey also appear in her gueise as a hospital carrier, and I found a number of pictures Isle of Jersey in the Imperial War Museum photo archive.

I made a model of Isle of Guernsey as a hospital carrier at Dunkirk for the Finewaterline display at the 2010 Telford show and subsequently a resin kit. Pictures are on the Finewaterline website in the Gallery section on dioramas at http://www.finewaterline.com/pages/gall ... /dmIOG.htm.

Hope this helps - these ships did a great job often under attack despite their Red Cross markings, so you have a grandfather to be very proud of.

Best wishes

Don