2022-11-01

Charles sent me an email containing Emil Hvaal’s royal navy records:

Hi Ian,

How are you all?

When I was doing the website about Emil, I applied for his Royal Navy records and I received them in the post recently. I’ve attached a copy of them to this email. It says that he was based in HMS Racer for around 8 months, which was a Royal Navy shore establishment in Larne in Northern Ireland. I came across the following article about it which I though was quite interesting:

BBC - WW2 People’s War - Training to be a WRNS Wireless Telegraphist and My Posting in N. Ireland

Emil’s cousin’s daughter-in-law has said that she has postcards that were sent from South Georgia to Emil’s cousin in Svarstad. She’s sent me a copy of one of these that were sent in 1923, although it’s not clear who has sent it. As Svarstad was quite a small place and they seem like they were a close family, Emil may have also seen it. I’ve attached the postcard to this email.

Love Charles

The postcard images and translation are attached below:

Front:

Reverse:

Transation: