Raymond Eric JONES [1905-1957]

Leading Seaman R.E. Jones served aboard the submarine HMS Oswald prewar.  A contemporary newspaper article places the submarine in Singapore and says it was heading on to Hong Kong.  I am particularly interested in determining the dates for this voyage since, alas, the newspaper article is a clipping with no date!  If anyone has more information about the Oswald and her service in Asiatic waters, I'd be most grateful if you would be willing to share.

Hi ssuni86

This is just to help you. The submarine existed from 1928-1940 before being sunk. I'll leave it to you to scour the Singapore newspapers for the depth of detail you require but as a starting point, for example, on this link she arrived in Singapore in early October 1935. More precisely, the 11th October 1935. 

But this clip is probably what you are looking for stating HMS Oswald arrived in Singapore on 24th September 1936 and staying for a day before sailing on to to Hong Kong. 

Suggest to search for the parent ship H.M.S. Medway in the Singapore and Hong Kong newspapers as Medway accompanied the O-class submarines to Hong Kong. Medway and submarines, Osiris, Otus, Oswald and Odin were in Singapore between 30 July and 3 August 1930 and arrived in Hong Kong on 9 August.

Thanks to you both!

I believe that R.E. Jones joined the Royal Navy in 1921 and served 14 years, so he would have left the service around 1934 or 35.  I do not have the exact date.  We do know that he started working as a warden at Stanley Prison in March 1935, so my guess is that he would have visited Hong Kong aboard the Oswald during the 1930 port call.  He would already have been working in Hong Kong when the Oswald arrived in 1935 and 1936.  One wonders what his thoughts were when he saw the familiar lines of his old ship in Victoria Harbor!

Hello.
I've just received an e-mail from Rae Shaw, (Raymond Jones' daughter who was with her mother in Australia throughout the war), and she has confirmed that to the best of her knowledge her father joined the then Prisons Dept. in HK in 1935.

According to Admiral Harcourt's subsequent ROP, he was impressed by R E Jones' actions.

The Union Flag had been produced by an ex-Naval rating who had hidden it in his bedding when Hong Kong was captured and had managed to hide it for the whole period so as to be ready for this occasion. The morale at Stanley Camp, as at all other Camps that I visited afterwards, was extremely high despite the obvious effects of malnutrition which could be seen on every face. The enthusiasm and the cheering really had to be seen and heard to be believed, it was so obviously spontaneous and seemed to express the pent-up feelings of all these years. I shall never forget it.

_{Source : "The British Pacific Fleet: The Royal Navy's Most Powerful Strike Force," and the author is David Hobbs.}