The outstanding and extremely well documented Second World War Sir Winston Churchill’s Atlantic Conference August 1941 and Cairo Conference November 1944 related Royal Naval Auxiliary Sick Berth Reserve and Saint John Ambulance Brigade long service group awarded to Sick Berth Petty Officer J.W.N. Bromley, Royal Naval Auxiliary Sick Berth Reserve. From Sheerness of the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, and from a local family, he was the son of a man lost with the explosion of H.M.S Natal in December 1915. During the early 1920’s he became a Patrol Leader with the 1st Sheppey (Kent) Troop of Boy Scouts at Holy Trinity, Sheerness, before moving to South Australia and Monteith near to Adelaide to apprentice on a dairy farm. As of 1924 he had articled aboard a sailing vessel, and returned to England, where he got various jobs, and was quite possibly at sea in the whaling industry for a period. He was medically trained as a voluntary nurse, and for some 45 years was a member of the Saint John Ambulance Brigade, as of 1941 with the London District. He was also a long serving member of the Royal Naval Auxiliary Sick Berth Reserve, gaining his long service medal in August 1946. During the Second World War he spent time ashore and with hospital ships, but most significantly, spent time aboard the battleship Prince of Wales when she took the Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill across the Atlantic for the Atlantic Meeting with President Roosevelt in August 1941. He was also aboard the battlecruiser Renown when she conveyed Sir Winston Churchill to the Cairo Conference in November 1944. His magnificent photograph album stands testament to this, with many previously unseen images of Sir Winston Churchill having apparently been taken by Petty Officer Bromley.
Group of 7: 1939-1945 Star; Atlantic Star; Italy Star; Defence Medal; War Medal; Royal Naval Auxiliary Sick Berth Reserve Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, GVI 1st type bust; (7597 J.W.N. BROMLEY. S.B.P.O. R.N.A.S.B.R.); Service Medal of the Order of Saint John, silver with straight bar and swivel suspension, with six addition 5 Year Service Bars; (25222. PTE. J.W.N. BROMLEY. NO.1. DIST. S.J.A.B. 1941.), mounted swing style as worn.
Condition: Good Very Fine.
Together with the following quantity of original documentation and ephemera:
Recipient’s group of miniature medals, mounted swing style as worn, the last with only four long service bars.
Recipient’s tunic medal ribbon bar in two rows, this exactly matching his entitlement.
The recipient’s exceptional wartime photograph album with significant Sir Winston Churchill interest, comprising 128 (mostly original) photographs, many annotated, and all relating to Bromley’s experiences during the war. Most importantly, there are a number of images relating to Sir Winston Churchill and other Allied leaders including Roosevel, King George VI, and senior military officers, when taken aboard H.M.S. Prince of Wales, aboard which ship Bromley was serving. Some of these images, six specifically, are private and unpublished photographs taken by Bromley. The album opens with a fine image of the crew and vessel - H.M. Hospital Ship Amarapoora ‘the one and only’ as Bromley points out. This is followed by images of a Norwegian sloop, a Walrus flying boat from H.M.S. Sheffield, the Merchant Ship Postdam, an a Dutch cruiser. Then there is an image of President Roosevelt and Sir Winston Churchill sitting alongside each other with nearby senior officers milling around, as taken aboard H.M.S Prince of Wales. This is followed by images of H.M.S Ramillies (as taken from the deck of Prince of Wales) and then more as follows: an image of Sir Winston Churchill pacing the deck of Prince of Wales - the annotated ‘Winston paces the deck’. Following this is an image of H.M.S King George V, and an image on the deck in front of the forward main guns, detailing Lord and Lady Halifax on H.M.S King George V. Back to H.M.S Prince of Wales, there is a photograph of the Allied commanders posing together, with the next three images detailing the convoy that took Churchill to meet Roosevelt - one being of destroyers guarding a convoy, one of a patrol vessel having stopped them entering a minefield, and another of a convoy at sea. These is a distant image of H.M.S Duke of York on her first trip, with images of Bromley ‘on board’ and ‘on leave’ and one of Reykjavik in Iceland. There is an image ’on board a whaler’ and another of ‘whales’. and one when in a ‘swimming pool (at) Bergen (Norway)’. There is an image of H.M. Hospital Ship Isle of Jersey, one of Dunoon, the Mull of Kintyre and Helensburgh, with another showing ‘flensing whales’. Then there is a page detailing ‘Stonehouse Hospital’ with five images detailing it ‘from Trafalgar Block’, ‘From “A” Block’, ‘The Football pitch’, ‘From Staff Quarters’, and ‘A Few Probationers’. There follows some touristic photo cards of Liverpool, before moving on to an original of H.M.S Renown, and another showing ‘the Visit of H.M. King George VI’ in 1943. Moving back to Sir Winston Churchill, there is a superb photograph of Churchill, with naval cap and cigar in mouth, annotated: ‘Winston during a shoot on Renown’, the next being annotated ‘returning from Halifax’ and showing Churchill looking out over the sea, and possibly Lady Soames closer to the fore. Then the next page details Churchill, again with naval cap and cigar in mouth, taken side on and well profiled, when on the bridge, this annotated: ‘On his way to Cairo and Teheran’. An image taken from a different angle but at the same time, is annotated: ‘The Prime Minister on the Bridge of Renown, with Sir Andrew Cunningham and General Ismay’. This is then followed by images of recipient in uniform, Gibraltar, Malta, H.M. Hospital Ship Vita, H.M.S Renown, more of Malta and Valetta, water from a wave washing over the prow of Renown, the tanker Ohio at Malta, the Royal Naval Hospital at Bight in Malta, image of the same ‘after the Blitz’, and another of Valetta and Fort St Angelo. This is then followed by images of Algiers, an Italian troopship, and the island of Pantellaria. There is then images of the liners that had been converted into troopships, namely the Monarch of Bermuda and Franconia, an image of H.M.S London at Alexandria in November 1943, one of a French submarine and another of Cape Bon. More imaged taken at Alexandria in November 1943, namely a ‘tram car’, ‘a beer garden’ and ’sunbathing’ with one of Sir ‘Winston leaves’ (Alexandria). the next page has an image of Sir Winston Churchill addressed the crew - this annotated: ‘Winston says a few words to Renown at Alexandria’, this being followed by an image of the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Ranger. More images of Alexandria and touristic sites including the Mohamed Ali Mosque (some 36 images in all). This is then followed by some images of The Nile River, with a number of images following of Cairo and the Pyramids. This is where the album ends.
A single large format loose photograph of the German pocket battleship Graf Spee on fire after being scuttled during the Battle of the River Plate.
Boy Scouts ephemera: including Boy Scout’s Enrolment Card issued to J. Bromley when a member of 1st Sheppey (Kent) Troop at Holy Trinity, Sheerness, dating from 23 April 1920, when aged 14, he becoming a 2nd Class Scout on 30 July 1920; another card inviting him to a Boy Scout Association Social Gathering in February 1924, and a photograph of Bromley and others when at Boy Scouts camp with the 1st Sheppey Troop. A further letter of introduction issued when he moved, he having been a Patrol Leader with the 1st Sheppey (Kent) Troop of Boy Scouts, issued when he moved to Morgan near to Adelaide, South Australia, dated 23 May 1923. Also a Boy Scout Association publication cutting giving some information of Bromley’s move to South Australia.
Adelaide Glee Club Gentleman’s Smoke Concert Programme for the event held at the South Australia Hotel in Adelaide on 11 December 1923.
South Australia Apprenticeship Aggreement issued in the name of John William Bromley, to work on the dairy farm of John Daniel Mitchell at Monteith, dated 18 December 1922.
A Liverpool Immigration Card dating from August 1924, issued to Bromley after his time spent aboard the merchant vessel ‘Port Stanley’. He having signed on to sail aboard her from Adelaide on 15 March 1924.
Correspondence concerning civil employment.
6 x postcards relating to the recipient. Also further correspondence in letter form.
John William Noel Bromley was born on 22 December 1905 in Sheerness, Kent, from an Isle of Sheppey family, he being the son of a Royal Navy man, namely Ship’s Corporal John Richard Bromley, who was killed during the Great War when H.M.S Natal blew up on 30 December 1915.
Bromley was aged 14 when he joined the Boy Scouts as a member of the 1st Sheppey (Kent) Troop of Boy Scouts at Holy Trinity, Sheerness, on 23 April 1920, and he was appointed a 2nd Class Scout on 30 July 1920, before ultimately attaining the position of Patrol Leader. He then left for a new life at Adelaide in South Australia, where he apprenticed on a dairy farm at Monteith from December 1922, but having boarded a merchant vessel, the ‘Port Stanley’, which was a four masted barque, by signing on as one of her articled crew in March 1924, he sailed for England and passed immigration at Liverpool in August 1924. He then appears to have found work in a Sheet Glass Works in Purley, south London, and also to have worked at sea aboard a whaling vessel during the 1930’s.
Further to this, circa 1926, he had joined the Saint John Ambulance Brigade as a Private (No.25222) with No.1 London District, and he would receive his Service Medal of the Order of Saint John after 15 years service in 1941, before gaining six addition five year service bars, therefore spanning through to circa 1976. He was medically qualified as an assistant nurse, and he also enrolled in the Royal Naval Auxiliary Sick Berth Reserve, and would go on to see service throughout the Second World War in both the Atlantic and Mediterranean, and in addition to his service aboard various hospital ships, he was aboard the battleship Prince of Wales when she took the Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill across the Atlantic for the Atlantic Meeting with President Roosevelt in August 1941. He also appears to have been aboard the battlecruiser Renown when she conveyed Sir Winston Churchill to the Cairo Conference in November 1944. During this period he got some unique photographs of Churchill, and these appear to remain unpublished.
Bromley was serving as a Petty Officer (No.7597) when he was awarded the Royal Naval Auxiliary Sick Berth Reserve Long Service and Good Conduct Medal on 14 August 1946, and a 1944 Nursing Register records his home address being at that time, 63 Whitehall Road, Grays, Essex. Bromley later returned to the Isle of Sheppey, where he settled in Queenborough, and died there on 9 March 1973, being buried in Sheppey Cemetery.
