Ships

• John Willingale

• Clement Willingale Fursdon

• Sidney George Willingale

In 1964, Ajax deployed to the Far East, becoming leader of the 24th Escort Group. It was a long deployment, and Ajax did not return to the UK until 1968. In 1970, Ajax became the Gibraltar guard ship, a required deployment at that time due to the tense fears of invasion by General Franco. Later that year, Ajax began modernisation that lasted to 1973, having her 4.5 inch turret replaced by an Ikara anti-submarine missile system. GWS22 SeaCat (2 x 4) was fitted aft and 40 mm guns were mounted amidships.

In 1974, Ajax assisted in the evacuation of British citizens after the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. In 1976, while on a visit to Canada, Ajax visited the town of Ajax, Ontario, which had been named in honour of her predecessor which had been a Leander class cruiser, which had seen service at the Battle of the River Plate during the Second World War. The 'new' Ajax was granted the freedom of the city of Ajax.

In 1977, Ajax underwent a refit at Devonport Dockyard. In 1979, Ajax deployed to the Mediterranean. In 1980, she underwent a refit at Gibraltar which was completed in 1981. That year, Ajax became leader of the 1st Frigate Squadron. She did not take part in the 1982 Falklands War, but was deployed as Persian Gulf guard ship. She participated in further deployments that culminated in the highlight of her final year in 1985, when she escorted the HMY Britannia, which had a number of the Royal Family on a tour of Italy. She was decommissioned 31 May, then replaced HMS Salisbury as a static training ship at Devonport. On 3 August 1988, Ajax arrived at Millom, Cumbria to be broken up.

• Keith Willingale

• Living

• Living

• Thomas Edward Sicely

• Samuel Frederick Naylor Willingale

• Sidney George Willingale

She was initially laid down in 1942 at Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast as one of four ships of the Audacious-class aircraft carrier. These were laid down during World War II as part of the British naval buildup during that conflict. However, two were cancelled at the end of hostilities, and the remaining two were suspended. Originally designated Audacious, she was finally launched as Eagle (the fifteenth Royal Navy ship to receive this name) in March 1946, after the Audacious class carrier Eagle was cancelled.

A number of changes were incorporated into the design, although Eagle was launched too early to see an angled flight deck installed, and the ship was commissioned in October 1951. A year later she took part in the first large NATO naval exercise, Exercise Mainbrace.

Her first wartime service came in 1956, when she took part in the Suez Crisis. The ship's aircraft of that period included Westland Wyverns, Douglas Skyraiders, Armstrong Whitworth Sea Hawks and de Havilland Sea Venoms. An angled flight deck was fitted in 1956-1957 with a mirror landing sight.

The admiralty had originally planned to give the Eagle a complete rebuild on the lines of HMS Victorious, but due to high costs this was abandoned. Eagle was instead given a more austere, but still extensive modernization. The changes included major improvements to the accommodation, including the installation of air conditioning. The island was completely rebuilt and the new 3D Type 984 radar was to be installed. The flight deck was modified and included a new 2½ inch armoured deck with a full 8.5 degree angle, two new steam catapults were fitted as well as new arrester gear and mirror sights. As well, an overhaul of the DC electrical systems, AC generators was fitted to give additional power. It was decided that Eagle would have her anti-aircraft guns removed and replaced by the Sea Cat missile system. All of Eagle’s original machinery and equipment was fully overhauled. This refit was budgeted to cost around £11 million and although expensive was still three times cheaper than building a new ship, it was expected that this refit would allow the Eagle to operate until the early 1980’s.[citation needed]

In 1959 Eagle entered Devonport Dockyard to begin this extensive refit. By 1964 the refit was complete although at a significantly increased cost which had seen the original plan to install a new armoured deck abandoned.[citation needed] Standard displacement had increased to around 44,000 tons and Eagle was now the largest most capable aircraft carrier in the Royal Navy. Eagle now operated Blackburn Buccaneer, de Havilland Sea Vixen, Supermarine Scimitar and Fairey Gannet aircraft.

Final Air Wing 1971

* 800 sqn. 14 Buccaneer S2
* 899 sqn. 16 Sea Vixen FAW2
* 849 sqn. D flt. 4 Gannet AEW3, 1 Gannet COD4
* 826 sqn. 5 Sea King HAS1
* Ships Flight 1 Wessex HAS1 (SAR)

In early 1966 she was refitted at Devonport once more to give her more powerful catapults. She recommissioned in 1967. Eagle was originally intended to receive a further refit that would have enabled her to comfortably operate ("Eagle" had already successfully operated them in trials) the McDonnell Douglas Phantom, however after damaging a propeller blade this was cancelled even though it would have only cost around £2 million compared to the £32 million spent on Ark Royal which was considered to be in significantly worse material state than Eagle.[citation needed]

The 1966 decision to run-down the RN fixed wing carrier fleet (Centaur, and Victorious had already been laid up and scrapped) meant Eagle's days were numbered. Despite being the RNs most modern carrier, in excellent material condition,[citation needed] and capable of another 10 years of service,[citation needed] Eagle was paid off (many in the RN believed she should have been retained, and Ark Royal or Hermes decommissioned instead) in January 1972 at Portsmouth, and was stripped of reusable equipment (radars and missile systems primarily), after which she was towed to Devonport where she was placed in reserve and moored in a stretch of the river Tamar known as the Hamoaze. In 1974, she was released from her moorings, towed up river, and secured in number 10 Dock, Devonport Dockyard, where she was further stripped of essential spares for Ark Royal, before being towed back out to her mooring position. Up until 1976 she was officially still in reserve, but having been exhausted as a source of spares for Ark Royal, Eagle was then sold for scrap and towed from Devonport in October 1978 to Cairnryan near Stranraer in Scotland to be broken up, clearing her mooring space for her sister. Eagle was completely broken up by the time her sister arrived at Cairnryan in November 1980. One of her anchors (along with one of Ark Royal's) stands guard at the entrance to the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Yeovilton.

• Keith Willingale

• Living

• Living

During the Siege of Toulon, Captain Poulain, her commanding officer, joined the British. She fled Toulon when the city fell to the French Republicans and sailed to Britain.

She was commissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Pompee. Under Captain Charles Stirling, she fought at the Battle of Algeciras Bay. In 1807 the ship, under the command of Captain Richard Dacres served in the Mediterranean squadron under Rear-Admiral Sir Sydney Smith,[1] as part of the Vice-Admiral Duckworth's Dardanelles Operation and later the Alexandria expedition of 1807.

In late 1808 the Pompée was in the Caribbean, and took part in the attack on Martinique in January 1809

She later captured her sister-ship Hautpoul and the brig Pylade on 5 November 1813.

She was eventually used as a prison hulk in Portsmouth.

The acquisition of Pompée allowed the British to design a copy of the Téméraire class, the Pompée class.

• William Willingale

The keel was laid on 23 July 1759 in the Old Single Dock (since renamed No. 2 Dock and now Victory Dock), and the name was finally chosen in October 1760. It was to commemorate the Annus Mirabilis or Year of Victories, of 1759. In that year of the Seven Years' War, land victories had been won at Quebec, Minden and naval battles had been won at Lagos and Quiberon Bay. There were some doubts whether this was a suitable name since the previous first-rate Victory had been lost with all on board in 1744.

Once the frame had been constructed, it was normal to cover the ship up and leave it for several months to season. However, the end of the Seven Years' War meant that she remained in this condition for nearly three years, which helped her subsequent longevity. Work restarted in autumn 1763 and she was finally launched on 7 May 1765, having cost £63,176 and 3 shillings (present day £6,819,455.39) and used around 6000 trees, 90% of which were oak and the remainder elm, pine and fir.

Because there was no immediate use for her, she was placed in ordinary—in reserve, roofed over, dismasted and placed under general maintenance—moored in the River Medway for 13 years until France joined the American War of Independence.

In March 1778, John Lindsay was appointed her first captain, but he was transferred to captain HMS Prince George in May 1778 when Admiral the Honorable Augustus Keppel decided to raise his flag in Victory. She was commissioned in May 1778 under the command of Rear Admiral John Campbell (1st Captain) and Captain Jonathan Faulknor (2nd Captain), with the flag of Admiral Keppel. She was armed with smooth bore, cast iron cannon - thirty 32- and 42-pounders (15 and 19 kg), thirty 24-pounders (11 kg), and forty 12-pounders (5 kg). Later, she also carried two carronade guns, firing 68-lb (31 kg) round shot.

In February 1798 Victory was stationed at Chatham under the command of Lieutenant J. Rickman. On 8 December, unfit for service as a warship, she was ordered to be converted to a hospital ship to hold wounded French and Spanish prisoners of war. In 1799, Rickman was relieved by Lieutenant J. Busbridge.

However, on 8 October 1799 HMS Impregnable was lost off Chichester, having run aground on her way back to Portsmouth after escorting a convoy to Lisbon. She could not be refloated and so was stripped and dismantled. Now short of a first rate, the Admiralty decided to recondition Victory. Work started in 1800 but as it proceeded an increasing number of defects were found and the repairs developed into a very extensive reconstruction. The original estimate was £23,500 but the final cost was £70,933.

Extra gun ports were added, taking her from 100 guns to 104, and her magazine lined with copper. Her figurehead was replaced along with her masts and the paint scheme changed from red to the black and yellow seen today. Her gun ports were originally yellow to match the hull but later repainted black, giving a pattern later called the "Nelson chequer", which was adopted by all Royal Navy ships after the Battle of Trafalgar. The work was completed on 11 April 1803 and the ship left for Portsmouth on 14 May under her new captain, Samuel Sutton.

Vice-Admiral Nelson hoisted his flag in Victory on 16 May 1803 with Samuel Sutton as his flag captain and sailed to assume command in the Mediterranean on 20 May. Nelson transferred to the faster frigate Amphion on 23 May.

On 28 May Captain Sutton captured the French Embuscade of 32 guns, bound for Rochefort from San Domingo. Victory rejoined Lord Nelson off Toulon on 30 May when Captain Sutton exchanged commands with the captain of Amphion, Thomas Masterman Hardy.

Victory was passing the island of Toro on 4 April 1805, when HMS Phoebe brought the news that the French fleet under Pierre-Charles Villeneuve had escaped from Toulon. While Nelson made for Sicily to see if the French were heading for Egypt, Villeneuve was entering Cádiz to link up with the Spanish fleet. On 7 May Nelson reached Gibraltar and received his first definite news. The British fleet completed their stores in Lagos Bay, Portugal on 10 May, and two days later sailed westward with ten ships and three frigates in pursuit of the combined Franco-Spanish fleet of 17 ships. They arrived in the West Indies to find that the enemy was sailing back to Europe where Napoleon Bonaparte was waiting for them with his invasion forces at Boulogne.

The Franco-Spanish fleet was involved in the indecisive Battle of Cape Finisterre in fog off Ferrol with Admiral Sir Robert Calder's squadron on 22 July before taking refuge in Vigo and Ferrol to land wounded and abandon three damaged ships. Calder on 14 August and Nelson on 15 August joined Admiral Cornwallis's Channel Fleet off Ushant. Nelson continued to England in Victory leaving his Mediterranean fleet with Cornwallis who detached twenty of his thirty-three ships of the line and sent them under Calder to find the combined fleet at Ferrol. On 19 August came the worrying news that the enemy had sailed from there, followed by relief when they arrived in Cádiz two days later. On the evening of Saturday, 28 September, Lord Nelson joined Lord Collingwood's fleet off Cádiz, quietly, so that his presence would not be known.
Nelson's famous signal, "England expects that every man will do his duty", flying from Victory on the bicentenary of the Battle of Trafalgar.

When Admiral Villeneuve learned that he was to be removed from command he took his ships to sea on the morning of 19 October, first sailing south towards the Mediterranean but then turning north towards the British fleet, beginning the Battle of Trafalgar. Nelson had already made his plans: to break the enemy line some two or three ships ahead of their Commander in Chief in the centre and achieve victory before the van could come to their aid. In the event fitful winds made it a slow business. For five hours after Nelson's last manoeuvring signal the two columns of British ships slowly approached the French line before Royal Sovereign, leading the lee column, was able to open fire on Fougueux. Twenty five minutes later Victory broke the line between Bucentaure and Redoutable firing a treble shotted broadside into the stern of the former from a range of a few yards. At 25 minutes past one Nelson was shot, the fatal musket ball entering his left shoulder and lodging in his spine. He died at half past four. Such killing had taken place on Victory's quarter deck that Redoutable attempted to board her, but they were thwarted by the arrival of Eliab Harvey in the 98-gun HMS Temeraire, whose broadside devastated the French ship.[2] Nelson's last order was for the fleet to anchor, but this was countermanded by Vice Admiral Collingwood. Victory lost 57 killed and 102 wounded.

ictory took Nelson's body to England where, after lying in state at Greenwich, he was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral on 6 January 1806.

Victory bore many Admirals' flags after Trafalgar, and sailed on numerous expeditions, including two Baltic campaigns under Admiral Sir James Saumarez. Finally her active career ended on 7 November 1812, when she was moored in Portsmouth Harbour off Gosport and used as a depot ship.

It is said that when Thomas Hardy was First Sea Lord he told his wife, on returning home, that he had just signed an order for Victory to be broken up. She burst into tears and sent him straight back to his office to rescind the order. Though this story may be apocryphal, the page of the duty log containing the orders for that day has been torn out.

In 1889, Victory was fitted up as a Naval School of Telegraphy. She soon became a proper Signal School, and signal ratings from ships paying off were sent to Victory, instead of the barracks, for a two-month training course. The School remained on Victory until 1904, when training was transferred temporarily to HMS Hercules, and in 1906 the whole School was moved to a permanent establishment at the Chatham Royal Naval Barracks.

As the years passed by Victory slowly deteriorated at her moorings. By 1921 she was in very poor condition, and a campaign to save her was started with the Save the Victory Fund under the aegis of the Society for Nautical Research. The outcome of the campaign was that the British Government agreed to restore and preserve her to commemorate Nelson, the Battle of Trafalgar and the Royal Navy's supremacy before, during, and after the Napoleonic period.

On 12 January 1922 she was moved into No. 2 dock at Portsmouth, the oldest drydock in the world, for restoration. In 1928 King George V was able to unveil a tablet celebrating the completion of the work, although restoration and maintenance still continued under the supervision of the Society for Nautical Research. In 1941, Victory sustained some damage from a bomb dropped by the Luftwaffe into her dry dock, causing damage to the hull. On one occasion German radio propaganda claimed that the ship had been destroyed by a bomb, and the Admiralty had to issue a denial.

Listed as part of the National Historic Fleet, Core Collection, in the early 21st century the ship underwent another very extensive restoration for the bicentenary of the battle in October 2005 to bring her appearance as close as possible to that which she had at Trafalgar. Replicas of items including mess bowls, beakers and tankards in the 'Marines' Mess', and a toothbrush, shaving brush and wash bowl in 'Hardy's Cabin' are on display.

• William Willingale

• Elizabeth Johnson
• Emily Goddard La Hogue Willingale
• Sarah Elizabeth Willingale

• George Tunmer Willingale

• Living

• Living
• Living

• Dorothy Eveline Willingale

• Denise Sinclair MacKellar
• Alan Geoffrey Yates
• Living

• Mabel Lilian Willingale

• Clement Willingale Fursdon
• Vivian Maude Norman

• Jane Fulford

• Phyllis Edith Willingale

• Arthur Edward Willingale

• Margaret Haslam
• Living
• Living
• Living
• Leslie Albert Willingale

• Dorothy Eveline Willingale

• Doris Ethel Webb
• Ellen Marjorie Webb
• Freda May Webb
• Frederick Charles Webb
• Muriel Frances Webb
• Sybil Grace Webb