Happy 100th Birthday to ‘P’ Party Diver Don Lomer
Don Lomer as a wartime Sub Lt in the RNVR
10 Nov 2022 - Today is the 100th birthday of veteran ’P’ Party diver Don Lomer. Here is his story by Clearance Diving branch legend and breaker of multiple world records Eamon ‘Ginge’ Fullen QGM:
“I had the pleasure last week of meeting 99-year-old Don Lomer, one of only two known “P” Party divers that are still with us. I would like to wish him a happy birthday on the 10th of November as I am sure many others will also. Please find below a little more information about Don – One of the last of the chosen few. (Please do read the last paragraph…it will make you smile!)
Don had never really mentioned his part as a Bomb Disposal officer until a series came on TV several years ago titled ‘Danger UXB’. He told a few friends and family “Oh, I did that during the war” but he was still a bit reticent in telling his story. In 2022 good friend of Don’s called Wayne Thorn contacted Rob Hoole via the MCDOA’s old website and said he knew one of the old “P” Party divers and did anyone from the Royal Navy want to speak to him? Rob and myself keep in touch and he kindly passed on his details to me knowing that I would of course love to chat to him. By this point in mid-2022, we thought there was only one of the “P” Party divers left which was Johnny Payne BEM.
Your humble Webmaster (Rob Hoole) and Eamon ‘Ginge’ Fullen QGM (right) with Johnny Payne (left) at his home in Lancing, West Sussex on 5 August 2021
I was the first diver Don had met since his days in the "P" Party and several times his daughter Barbara would say "you have never talked about that before!". It was a real pleasure to get to know Don just a little and be able to share a Gin and Tonic, or two with him. He would later tell me that the real heroes were the Bomb Disposal officers in the early part of the war, many of whom were Don’s instructors. They were the guys who had to actually figure out how the mines worked and many paid the ultimate price, he just followed the instructions they put together.
Eamon ‘Ginge’ Fullen visiting Don Lomer in Ottawa last week
Don was born in Ottawa on 10 November 1922. His father had been a doctor in the First World War and his mother was a nurse. He was a surgical officer and was in some of the major battles in France and commanded a Field Hospital Unit. He ended up a Colonel and was awarded the DSO. Don had tried joining the Canadian Navy in 1936. He had flu though and did not manage to take the exams. He joined the Royal Navy and came to UK in 1942 when he was 20 years old. He was drafted into Coastal Forces but recommended for a commission. As a Sub Lt in 1943 he volunteered for Special Service. He told me he was hoping it might be back with the Coastal Forces but it was bomb disposal. He had volunteered so could not back out.
He trained in Mine and Bomb Disposal at HMS VOLCANO in Cumberland (now Cumbria). Don was one of the youngest and the others he recalled were mostly from the Police force. He thinks they all survived the war although one was blinded whilst doing a disposal job.
BSOs (Bomb Safety Officers) and RMSOs (Rendering Mines Safe Officers) outside the wardroom at HMS VOLCANO at Holmrook Hall near Ravenglass in Cumberland (now Cumbria) with Third Officer Doris Ellis WRNS during the Second World War. Photo courtesy of the late Lt Bill Young RNVR who was an instructor at HMS VOLCANO from January 1942 until July 1945 when he was among the last to leave with Third Officer Ellis and the Wren cook.
They were learning mostly about German munitions but also American and British ones as well. If they found anything they didn’t recognize they were told to photograph it straight away. That’s how they found the Zus-40 fuze apparently which was in a new type of mine at the time. These mines had booby traps in them and you had to be very careful. The Germans marked the fuze but somebody noticed from the photograph there was an extra mark on this one. They x-rayed it and found the booby trap. They were taught that the Germans were very meticulous and so they also learned to be as well. After doing the Bomb Disposal course Don was based in the south of England and did some jobs in Falmouth and Plymouth. He worked for a bomb disposal officer called Noel Cashford MBE RNVR who wasn't a diver but he was a very experienced disposal guy. Don would meet his future wife Naomi or ‘Tux’ as everybody called her who was a Wren working at the Hydrographic Unit. She was the only Wren surveyor in the British Navy at the time.
Your humble Webmaster (Rob Hoole) flanked by the late veteran bomb & mine disposal officer and prolific author Noel Cashford MBE (right) and David Ouvry (son of Cdr John Ouvry DSO RN who was the first to render safe and recover a German magnetic mine at Shoeburyness in November 1939) in July 2009
The late Noel Cashford MBE with MCDOA member Peter Greenwood at a Project Vernon fundraising event on board HMS BELFAST in London in November 2009
They were then looking for volunteers for diving and he volunteered again. He joined HMS VERNON(D) at Brixham in 1944 and completed a course on the Sladen suit and the diving mixture that they used over a month or so course. The Sladen suit he recall was one suit fits all and being fairly small there were a lot of folds but it did not leak. They had designated dressers and they knew what they were doing. He remembers it being pretty cold in the winter. Maurice Patience RNVR from New Zealand was one buddy from the Bomb Disposal course who was also at Brixham and Don shared a room with him. His brother was a pilot in the Air force from New Zealand. The officers were accommodated in the Northcliffe Hotel overlooking the small village of Brixton before moving into Wolborough House. At one point in the wardroom at Brixton, there were five officers who had the George Medal and Les Harries had the GM and bar. A lot of these guys were on staff and went diving every now and again to keep their hand in. Buster Crabb used to call in every now and again but he was always drunk.
The dining room of HMS VERNON(D)’s wardroom in the since demolished Northcliffe Hotel at Brixham before moving to Wolborough House (below) which still exists
‘P’ Party officers outside Wolborough House
He was assigned to a “P” Party and was sent to Ostend in Belgium and after that Cookshavan. They went in straight after the Army had secured the area and searched for booby traps and mines, etc. Don was in a truck with about 300 pounds of explosives in it so nobody wanted to travel with him so he was always tail end charlie. In early 1945 he was sent with a small team to Heligoland which was an island about 30 miles from Hamburg which was completely smashed. Heligoland had been a submarine base and there was a big pen there which could take two submarines. There was a big store of 25 G mines there in a vault cut into the rock. They had pretty much everything underground such as accommodation, hospital and workshops etc. Don sent a signal asking if the HQ wanted any of these mines back in UK and they said “yes please” so he had to methodically start taking them apart keeping the internal mechanisms to the UK for further inspection.
‘P’ Party diver at HMS VERNON(D) in Brixham
Some of the German mines really were a work of art. These were all magnetic mines, he never came across any acoustic mines. These mines had a switchboard on them which were sensitive to magnetic fields. Every time a ship went over them it will click this thing over one notch. They could set these mines to 17 pulses before it fired. He had done about five mines one day and the silence inside the vault on your own was immense. He was sitting on another one of these mines working on it and all of a sudden, he could hear a “tic, tic, tic,”. He thought, “my God I have started a clock and don’t know where it is!” He listened carefully and it was the one he was sitting on. The mines were slung already to move along and get loaded onto the submarines and thankfully he saw it was only a bit of wire that was knocking up against the mine and causing the ticking noise. Well for those few seconds he saw his whole life flash before him.
‘P’ Party divers in Antwerp in October 1944
His time in the Navy ended there and, at the end of 1946, Cdr Les Harries OBE GM and Bar RCNVR got him transferred to the Canadian Navy. After six months he was demobbed and got a little pay out and then left. He received a diving certificate saying he was qualified as a “P” Party diver years later in 1947. After the war Tux came over to Canada for a visit and never left. They married in 1948 and would have two children. Don never dived again after his time in the Royal Navy although he was on the reservist list for the Korean War.
I said to Don his memory was fantastic and he immediately told me he keeps it going with Gin and Tonic! They have had a positive effect. What's not to like Don says with his near-permanent broad smile. “The tonic stops malaria, the lime juice prevents scurvy, the gin prevents snakebites, and the ice prevents dehydration and heat prostration,” he says. “And I know it works because I’ve never been bitten by a snake, and I’ve never had malaria or scurvy.” He was told he is still on the Retired Officers call-up list so is still waiting for a phone call to return to service! “I am able, ready and waiting”. “Well”, he adds “maybe only slightly able nowadays eh?””
Ginge Fullen in Ottawa flanked by Don Lomer (right) and his friend Wayne Thorn (left) who first put us in touch
By Webmaster: I am sure all members of our community will join me in expressing our admiration for Don and extend our very best wishes to him on his 100th birthday TODAY!
Postscript: Don’s 100th birthday was enhanced with a visit by Lt Cdr Ray Snook RN, Chief of Staff of the British Defence Liaison Staff in Canada, accompanied by Lt Cdr Lloyd Wilson RN. They delivered a special letter of congratulations from our First Sea Lord. Don revealed that the secret of his longevity was eggs, milk and plenty of gin & tonic!
Ray Snook and Lloyd Wilson with Don Lomer on his 100th birthday on 10 November 2022
Post postscript: Sadly, Don Lomer crossed crossed the bar on the morning of 13 December 2022. He had been in hospital for the previous five days after suffering acute respiratory failure. I am sure all members of our community will join me in extending our heartfelt sympathy and condolences to his daughter Barbara and his other close family and friends. I am so pleased that we were able to make his 100th birthday so memorable.