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In memory of those who have Crossed the Bar
COGHILL, John Robert (Jack) - RCN WWII Veteran, Pipe Major of the Cameron Highlanders Pipe Band Peacefully in his 90th year on Sunday, April 26th, 2015 at the Perley and Rideau Veterans' Health Centre. Jack was the beloved husband of the late Irene Bradley, his "Peanut" for almost 68 years, whose death seven weeks ago left him heartbroken. He was the treasured father of Allison Jamieson (John), Sheila Manhire (Robert), Jack (Donna), Laird (Janice) and Kirsty Hayward (the Rev. Daniel). Memories of their Granddad will also be cherished by his eleven grandchildren: Brad (Amanda), Graeme (Ashley) and Meredith Nichols; Patrick, Ian (Sheila) and Arthur Manhire; Ainslie (Tom) and Jackson Coghill; and, Erin, Gregory and Lindsay Coghill as well as his precious wee great-granddaughter Edie Frances Manhire. He will also be remembered with love by in-laws Rosalie Coghill, Lois Andree (Len), David Bradley (Jean), Maurice Bradley (Cheryl) and many nieces, nephews and countless friends. He was predeceased by his parents John and Annie (Skidmore) Coghill, step-mother Marjorie Coghill, his son-in-law George Nichols, his brothers and sisters William Muir (Nell), Alexina Downham (Allan), Jean Jardine (Jim), George Coghill and Jim Coghill and sister-in-law Ruth Fox. Masonic Service on Tuesday, May 5th at 6:00 p.m. at the Central Chapel of Hulse Playfair and McGarry, 315 McLeod Street. Friends are invited to visitation at the Central Chapel of Hulse Playfair and McGarry, on Tuesday, May 5th, 2015 from 2:00-4:00 p.m. and 7:00-9:00 p.m. Friends are also invited to share in the Celebration of the Life of our beloved father, grandfather and great- grandfather on Thursday, May 7th, 2015 at 1:00 p.m. in the Lupton Hall at the Perley and Rideau Veterans' Health Centre, 1750 Russell Road, Ottawa. His family wishes to express our gratitude to Drs. Stewart and Hamilton and the wonderful staff and volunteers of the Perley and Rideau Veterans' Health Centre who treated our father with such care and compassion. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Perley and Rideau Veterans' Health Centre, the Heart Institute or a charity of your choice would be very much appreciated by his family.
Jack's entry in "The Canadian Encyclopedia"
The ship itself that I was on was HMCS PETERBOROUGH. A corvette [convoy escort vessel] such as the PETERBOROUGH, our maximum speed with all the eggbeaters [propellers] out and so on, we could do 15 knots, 16, but that was about it, depending on the conditions of the sea at the time. On the basis of that, we did our escorting, but the convoy itself was moving in a zig-zag form to make certain that the [German] submarine wolf packs [mass attack tactic] were not able to get into the big block of maybe 50 to 70 or 80 ships in a convoy. And they were loaded down, as you can imagine, going in an easterly direction. They were always loaded down and they couldn’t go very fast themselves. But they could certainly make progress, but it used to take us about three to three and a half weeks maybe from the time we left St. John’s, Newfoundland until we arrived at Derry [Northern Ireland]. We did our escort, our zig-zag course on the fringe of the convoy, on the port side. There was another corvette on the other side of the convoy itself. If you can picture, 70 to 80 ships steaming in formation, one behind the other, maybe there’d be five or six ships deep. And there might be anywhere from five miles to maybe even a little bit more than that, from one side of the convoy to the other. I would say that the best weapon we had was to try and fool the enemy and not letting them know exactly which way we’re going, in constantly zig-zagging. We were constantly in touch with either Halifax signal station or Greenock [Scotland], depending on our transfer from one side of the ocean to the other. I mean, specifically, from Newfoundland to Londonderry, Ireland. But there’s a mid-zone in the North Atlantic when in fact, the signals that we were copying all the time, and you might visualize that 90 percent of them were, in fact, coded messages. We never knew which ones were for us on the regular transmission of all of this information that was constantly on the signal, at least on the radio. I had to copy every message that we had, complete, and I would hand it to a coder who was sitting beside me in the wireless cabin. He would decipher the header or the heading of who was the message for, what ship or ships are supposed to take action on this particular message. And on the basis of that, if it wasn’t for us, that is our escort group, which by the way was numbered C6, that was our escort group. And if it wasn’t for C6, then the coder would put it in the wastebasket and at the end of the watch, I would have to dispose of those signals that were not passed up to the bridge. I was very proud to, and I think I opened up our conversation by saying that I gave the [Royal Canadian] Sea Cadets [Corps] full credit for moving me into their line of fire rather than one of the other services. And I think that it was a character-builder and we certainly, as I mentioned earlier, we worked hard and we played hard.
Ships served in: HMCS PETERBOROUGH - Served in PETERBOROUGH 1944 - 1945 as a Telegraphist
(JRC001) Map of the route taken by the last eastbound (slow) convoy escorted from St. John's, Newfoundland to Londonderry, Northern Ireland by HMCS PETERBOROUGH, May 1945. On the return trip, PETERBOROUGH took the more direct route of the C6 Escort Group. (JRC002) In December 1944, Telegraphist Jack Coghill of HMCS PETERBOROUGH wrote to Santa Claus (care of the Fleet Mail Office, St. John's, Newfoundland) asking for "125 pounds of the nicest female alive." The Royal Canadian Navy seized on the letter - which arrived before Coghill's convoy reached St. John's - and when Coghill arrived in port in early January 1945, the Navy delivered Wren Beth Prindiville. In the photo, Coghill is "at the top of the gang plank, receiving my mailbag full of cheer". (JRC003) Bermuda 5 shilling banknote. Jack Coghill obtained this bill when HMCS PETERBOROUGH visited the island in 1944 (JRC004) Ship's company photo HMCS PETERBOROUGH Source: The Canadian Encyclopedia
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