EADON, Stuart (#248)

Alan Pollock’s Rough Notes:

A work in progress – the fuller biographies will emerge in due course: please sign up to the Newsletter (bottom of the page) and we’ll let you know when we’ve done more justice in writing up our extraordinary signatories.

Lieutenant Stuart EADON RNVR helped organise the 50th ANNIVERSARY celebrations of the “FORGOTTEN FLEETS” with the excellent unqualified support of Col Stephens & the CITY of PORTSMOUTH (the “Flagship of Maritime England”) & wrote “SAKISHIMA” & “KAMIKAZE” to expand their written WITNESS HISTORY.

His inclusion encapsulates all 500 SHIPS and more than 500,000 ROYAL NAVY, ROYAL MARINES, COMMONWEALTH & ALLIED naval personnel ASHORE and AFLOAT who manned or supported the EAST INDIES and then BRITISH PACIFIC FLEETS, fighting on for the EXTRA 99 DAYS beyond VE-DAY to JAPAN’s SURRENDER.

His service (his father, a builder, served with COASTAL H.A.C.) was in RN SUPPLY BRANCH but his key memories were of action stations on the RUSSIAN CONVOY protection up out of SCAPA, West of ICELAND & through the DENMARK STRAIT into the GREENLAND SEA, serving in CRUISER HMS BERWICK (complement c.700) in NORTHERN WATERS from 30 Jun 1942 and then in the AIRCRAFT CARR.IERS ILLUSTRIOUS, FORMIDABLE, and INDEFATIGABLE; at his action GUN station, vividly recalls the last 5 seconds of the green headbanded KAMIKAZE PILOT’s arrival on “FORMI”, a few feet away & his cabin mate, young 2nd Engineer Lt Len TEFF, nearby, was one of 11 killed (including Doc Al Vaughan & 14 injured but testifies, as the American Fleet would realise, how much better the well designed BRITISH ARMOURED DECKS coped with these attacks; like others in the crew, sang high praise for Cdr WHITFIELD’s role on the ship, the 60 days at sea with TWO DAYS in the COMBAT AREA and TWO DAYS out, and the special  WELCOME & HOSPITALITY from the AUSTRALIAN PEOPLE.