Alan Peter Quatremain

This is going to be a very short history, as there was sadly very little to find out. Alan was born in 1924 to Stanley and Gladys Quatremain, and lived in Loughton. The exact address and date of birth I have not been able to find. At the outbreak of war he joined the Royal Navy, Service No: C/JX357345 and was assigned as Ordinary Signalman and was posted to the converted trawler H.M.S. Corncrake (M82) for minelaying duties. Its former name was Mackerel.

The Fish class of Admiralty trawlers were a small class of naval trawlers built for the British Royal Navy during the Second World War. The vessels were intended for use as minesweepers and for anti-submarine warfare, and the design was based on a commercial type, the 1929 Gulfoss by Cochrane & Sons, of Selby. The purpose of the order was to make use of specialist mercantile shipyards to provide vessels for war use by adapting commercial designs to Admiralty specifications. In 1940 the Royal Navy ordered ten such vessels from Cochrane. All saw active service, and two were lost in incidents.

Two vessels, Mackerel and Turbot, were converted for use as controlled minelayers while still under construction. Upon completion they were renamed Corncrake and Redshank, respectively.

HMS Corncrake foundered in the North Atlantic in heavy weather on 25th January 1943. His name is remembered on the Loughton war memorial and Chatham Naval Memorial.

Commands listed for HMS Corncrake (M 82)

Please note that we’re still working on this section
and that we only list Commanding Officers for the duration of the Second World War.

Commander	From	To
1 T/A/Lt.Cdr. Lewis Russell Renfrew, RNR	late 1942	25 Jan 1943 (+)

A fish class trawler converted to minelaying duties.