Page 726 - Reading Mercury

H.M.S. GARTH APPEAL FUND (WT)
It has been suggested that a Fund should be opened at Barclays Bank, Wokingham
on behalf of the crew of OUR ADOPTED SHIP H.M.S. GARTH.
The Officer Commanding has been consulted and states that often a little financial
assistance which can be given to an officer or man is a real help.
If a fund can be built up, the Officer Commanding would be able to draw on same at
his own discretion without reference to anyone else.
The Bank Manager would then advise the Mayor of Wokingham when the balance
was reduced to £50 so that a further appeal could be made.
It is felt that this Fund would enable our residents to keep in touch with the crew,
even after the war, as long as the Garth is in commission.
We feel sure there are many residents in the district who would like to contribute
and any contributions sent to either of the undersigned or to the Manager Barclays
Bank, Wokingham, would be gratefully acknowledged.
It has been suggested that many organisations both in the Borough and Rural
District may like to run Whist Drives, Dances, Garden Parties, etc., in aid of the Fund.
The Mayor has already received some subscriptions amounting to £63 and the
Officer Commanding has been authorised to start drawing on the Fund as and which
the occasion may arise, but it is hoped that further subscriptions will be forthcoming
at an early date, in order that the Fund can be well established.

ERNEST W. REEVES
Mayor of Wokingham
C. D. BURNELL (Lt. Col)
Chairman of Wokingham Rural District Council

th
Fri 24 Sept
WOKINGHAM
H.M.S. Garth’s Gifts to the County Girls’ School
Following the “Ocean Library” which was sent by the pupils of the County Girls’
School to the crew of H.M.S. Garth, a beautiful model of the ship, made by one of the
ship’s company, has been presented to the school.
This delightful gift is now the school’s most treasures possession, and a splendid
reminder of the link between the school and Wokingham’s adopted warship.

rd
Sat 23 Oct
A WOKINGHAM VETERAN
Aged 58 And Back In The Service
At the age of 58, Commissioned-Boatswain J.W. Potter, R.N., of Wokingham,
eldest and the only one of six sailor and soldier brothers to emerge from the last war,
unscathed, is back again in the service. He is the only one of the family to carry on
their service tradition in this war, and he has just completed his quarter century as a
naval warrant officer. He is no longer at sea, but is serving at a base on the East Coast.
He joined the Navy in 1902 at the age of fifteen, and after seeing war service in the
battleship H.M.S. Jupiter, and later in the destroyer, H.M.S. Retriever, of the famous
Harwich Force, he retired with a pension in 1922. He exchanged his naval uniform for
that of a postman. Then he got a glimpse of life in the Army as a civilian clerk in a
cavalry remount depot. When he was recalled to the Navy in December, 1939, he was
running a dairy business with one of his brothers.

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