A bereaved family may not be able to complete their war hero father’s memoirs after thieves stole his diary and medals.
Hilary Anderson and her brother Robert Oates spoke out this week after burglars raided Mrs Anderson’s home in Orchard Close in Upper Gravenhurst.
Hilary said: “My parents have both died fairly recently and being the eldest I was the holder of all the different bits and pieces. We didn’t know who would have what yet.
“It’s really unfortunate timing.”
Their father, John Oates, served on the HMS Hurricane and survived after the Hurricane was torpedoed by German U-boats.
Hilary added: “It’s the diary that I would really like to have back because they are the notes that my father wrote all through the last year of the war.
“I hadn’t come to terms with reading all of them because it was still too poignant.”
Hilary and Robert were hoping to finish their father’s memoirs following his recent death.
But now they may not be able to complete the work following the devastating burglary between Tuesday, April 2 and Wednesday, April 3.
Their father, John Oates, was born in 1919 in Croft-an-Vounder in Cornwall.
Robert said: “The location is a croft on the cliff overlooking the Atlantic – no running water or electricity – so his childhood inspiration was the sea.
“He joined the navy in 1939 as an officer cadet to serve on destroyers on Atlantic convoy, Russian convoy and in the Far East, undertaking the surrender of occupied outlying Japanese islands.”
During this time his ship, HMS Hurricane, was torpedoed in the mid Atlantic by a U-boat and sunk on Christmas Eve in 1943.
He went on to serve on the HMS Caprice.
HMS Hurricane was the first ship on the scene to rescue some of the children who were on board the SS City of Benares in 1940.
The ship was carrying 90 young evacuees.
John received a medal from Russia to thank him for his bravery in transporting food to the country during the Second World War.
Hilary said: “His last diary entry was: ‘thank goodness this bloody war is over and I am on my way home to see my darling.’
“Just before he died he had started writing his memoirs and we were hoping we could finish it off for him.
“The diary would have been an ideal source of information.”
She added: “It’s just so thoughtless.”
The burglary was the second in Gravenhurst that week. Overnight between Monday, April 1 and Tuesday, April 2 burglars targeted a house in Barton Road while the homeowners were away.
Anyone with information about either theft can contact Det Con Christopher Avery on 01234 845332.