Personal information

Ernest John Andrews spent 15 years in the Royal Navy, joining as a boy and leaving at the end of the war with the rank of Sub-Lieutenant despite offered continuation of service, which was rare. According to his son he also wrote the Admiralty’s manual on victualing. He was annoyed that someone at the Admiralty changed the order of the chapters, for no reason other than to justify their existence as an interfering bureaucrat.

Luckily Ernest was on deck after HMS Eagle was torpedoed when he saw the commander jump overboard, having not heard the order to abandon ship. He followed the commander’s example, but many were too scared to jump and others were still below deck. In his opinion the U-boat commander did a very professional job!