About
During World War II, cities, towns and villages across the UK raised money for the war effort by holding ‘Warship Weeks’ and using the money raised to ‘adopt’ battleships, aircraft carriers, cruisers and destroyers. Once a certain amount of money was raised the community would adopt a ship and support her crew. Bridgend and District held its Warship Week between 15th and 22nd of November 1941 and raised £300,000 (that’s around £10 million in today’s money!). This enabled the town to adopt H.M.S. Urge, H.M.S. Terror and His Majesty’s Motor Torpedo Boat 47.
The three boats played various roles during the war. H.M.S. Terror for example, was an Erebus class vessel which served in the Mediterranean, forming part of the defence of Malta from Italian air raids and taking part in Operation Compass, the British assault against the Italian Army in North Africa. She sank in February 1941 off the coast of Libya. His Majesty’s Motor Torpedo Boat 47 was sunk by gunfire in the English Channel on 17th January 1942, with all crew taken as prisoners of war. The submarine H.M.S. Urge took part in twenty war patrols over the course of the war. She torpedoed and sank the Italian tanker Franco Martelli and was involved in various other attacks of merchant vessels as part of her role with the 1st submarine flotilla. During her fifth war patrol, she carried a raiding party to be landed if possible on Sicily and carry out a train wrecking mission; this took place successfully in June 1941. H.M.S. Urge was later sunk – it was suspected she hit a mine off the coast of Malta on the 27th of April 1942 – and was lost with all hands (33 crew and personnel). In October 2019 the wreck was discovered by Mr Francis Dickinson, the grandson of the ship’s commanding officer, Lt Cdr Tomkinson. The Ministry of Defence officially recognised the site as the last resting place of H.M.S. Urge. Remembrance services have taken place in Bridgend for the crew of H.M.S. Urge, including most recently in 2022. The stencil was commissioned by Bridgend Town Council and installed in the summer of 2019 by Nick Morgan (Nick the Signpainter).
