It was during the Summer of 2020 that I was entrusted by my Uncle Colin with a small, precious canvas folder containing over one hundred photographic negatives taken by my late Uncle David McCarraher during the Second World War.
The folder was marked 'Kenya, Ceylon, Germany' but most intriguingly, David had catalogued the content of each individual negative, taken between 1941 and 1945.
I contacted David's youngest daughter, Jane who revealed that she held over two hundred letters written by David during this period which had been saved by his mother. Jane's older sister, Vera confirmed that she had further photographs and so with the kindness of David's family, the entire collection was re-united thus enabling David's war time story to be told in his own words and pictures.
These are about to be released consecutively by Padre Bear books as three volumes, with a Foreword by Nigel Pascoe Q.C:
'Letters From a Coder'.
'Letters From a Cypher Officer'.
'The Cambridge Years'.
As the title to the first volume alludes, David joined the Royal Navy as an ordinary rating. He trained at H.M.S. Royal Arthur near Skegness before being posted to Kenya, South Africa and Ceylon. He also spent time in India. During his time overseas, he received his commission as a Sub Lieutenant, passing his exams with the highest marks ever recorded for a Cypher Officer.
Towards the end of the war, David was posted back to England and was privileged enough to be in an advanced convoy as it headed into Nazi Germany just as the Third Reich collapsed. He saw first-hand the damage and hardship suffered by German civilians.
Being a forward-thinking individual, David took his camera with him. He also had the foresight to badger colleagues for copies of their own photographs.
This book contains images taken between April and October 1945 and tracks his journey by convoy from England, via Belgium and Holland to Verden in Germany and then on to Cuxhaven in the north where he was stationed at the newly named H.M.S. Royal Charlotte. They are all published here for the first time.

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