A particularly well documented Submariner’s Second World War casualty group to Temporary Acting Sub-Lieutenant Peter Lambert Clayton, Royal Naval Reserve who having initially served with the Merchant Navy during the early stages of the Second World War including participating in three voyages to Calcutta, would return home to the UK and transfer to the Royal Naval Reserve where he would serve as a Temporary Acting Sub-Lieutenant being killed on 30th May 1943 whilst serving aboard the submarine HMS Untamed which was lost during a training accident in the Firth of Clyde
Group of 3: 1939-1945 Star; Atlantic Star; War Medal mounted in glazed frame along with loose handwritten casualty slip named to ‘Temporary Acting Sub-Lieutenant Peter Lambert Clayton, R.N.R.’
Condition: slip folded at some time, Good Very Fine
Aling with:
Officer’s bullion cap badge.
Tie Pin
10 x Letters from Clayton to his mother from the Royal Naval College at Greenwich dated 1942
4 other family letters all dated after Clayton’s death.
Certificate from Thos & Jno Brocklebank Ltd, Liverpool stating that he sailed aboard S.S. Martand from London to Calcutta on 3rd May 1940 and returning on 15th September 1940. He would then sail aboard S.S. Mahsud from Liverpool for Calcutta on 17th November 1940 returning on 2nd July 1941, and then again repeating the trip, leaving Liverpool on 23rd July 1941 and returning on 2nd January 1942.
Character certificate dated 17th April 1942 for his service as a Probationary Temporary Midshipman aboard HMS Gambia from 22nd March 1942 to the 13th April 1942.
Letter from the King to J.L. Clayton, Esq offering their sorrow for a life so nobly given, in envelope addressed to J.L. Clayton, Esq, 20 Belvedere Road, Ainsdale, Southport, Lancashire. Date stamped 9th July 1943.
Letter from the Captain, Officer’s and Ship’s Company of the Submarine Depot, Fort Blockhouse offering their sympathy in envelope addressed to J.L. Clayton, Esq, 20 Belvedere Road, Ainsdale, Southport, Lancashire.
Letter dated 5th June 1943 from the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty informing J.L. Clayton Esq of the death of his son on active service on 30th May 1943.
Newspaper article announcing Clayton’s death ‘Naval Officer Killed in Action’ stating he had been educated at Holmwood and Southport University School. He originally served with the Merchant Navy before serving with the Royal Naval Reserve.
Letter from the Chaplain of H.M.S. Forth dated 15th October 1943 promising to send on photographs of Clayton
Letter from the Chaplain of H.M.S. Forth dated January 1944 forwarding on photographs of Clayton
Studio portrait of Clayton in uniform.
Photograph of his school cricket team.
Photograph of Clayton and a friend in cricket whites as children/teenagers.
2 individual photographs of Clayton
1 family photograph of Clayton
4 series of 12 photographs of Clayton in uniform, 1 having been cut out from 1 of the batches of 12.
3 local newspaper articles.
Ainsley Parish Magazine dated July 1943 announcing the death of Peter Clayton at sea.
Memorial Service programme for Peter Clayton which took place on Thursday 8th July 1943.
13 photographs of the burial service.
7 photographs of various memorials.
Brighthelmston School, Birkdale, Examination Results 1943-1945.
Note from the Chaplain of HMS Dolphin, Gosport, Hampshire stating the Submarine Memorial Chapel can now be visited but will no be finally completed until the end of July 1945.
Programme of service for the dedication of the War Memorial Tablet at the School Hall, University School, Southport on 14th May 1955.
Peter Lambert Clayton attended the University School, Southport and having joined the Merchant Navy would sail three times to Calcutta and back, the first time aboard the SS Martand, and the last two times aboard the SS Mahsud. He would subsequently join the Royal Naval Reserve with whom he would serve as a Temporary Acting Sub-Lieutenant initially for a period of a month aboard HMS Gambia before he joined H.M. Submarine ‘Untamed’
Clayton died on 30th May 1943, aged 20 years whilst serving with Untamed and is now buried in Dunoon Cemetery, he is noted as the son of John Lambert Clayton and Louisa Annie Clayton of Southport, Lancashire.
Untamed was on a training exercise with the 8th Escort Group in the Firth of Clyde on 30 May 1943 acting as a target In the second exercise that day, Untamed was used as a target for anti-submarine mortar practice by the yacht HMS Shemara. When the submarine did not respond to attempts to contact her nor surface, assistance was summoned. Shemara located Untamed with sonar and heard the sounds of her engines being run and tanks being blown. HMS Thrasher arrived but no more was heard from Untamed after 17:45 – nearly three hours from the first indication of a problem. Weather prevented divers inspecting the submarine until 1 June. There was no outward sign of damage and it was not until after Untamed was salvaged on 5 July 1943 that it was found that she had been flooded through a sluice valve.
Untamed was salvaged, refitted and named Vitality, returning to service in July 1944. As Vitality, she had a short and uneventful career and was sold to be broken up for scrap on 13 February 1946. She was broken up at Troon.
The Sandbank War Memorial at Hunters Quay is in part dedicated to the crew of Untamed who were buried in Dunoon Cemetery
