When I was young my Uncle Thomas Cusack was rarely mentioned. He had been killed in WWII at the tender age of 18 serving in the Royal Navy. I knew nothing about him or what ship he was on. All that was said was that he was a lovely lad and was still missed. I joined the Royal Navy in 1967 and served on an Aircraft Carrier, Frigate, and several Land Bases and finally volunteered for the Submarine Service. I have no idea why I joined the Navy and not one of the other services, perhaps I was following on from my Uncle, we have the same birthday date and I am named after him.
My Mum, Tom’s sister makes a yearly visit to our home on the South Coast and in 2007 on her visit she talked about her brother. From our conversation I discovered the name of his ship, HMS MARTIN, and a little about him. The family have just one photograph of him which is a head and shoulders portrait taken in his uniform. My quest for information (my wife calls it an obsession) then began. Through the Internet I found a limited amount of information but enough to keep the interest going. Most important was the email addresses of other relatives who were searching the same as myself.
To date I have collated a substantial amount of data about the MARTIN and her crew. I felt that a Website was the only way forward to reaching other relatives of the MARTIN’s crew.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the following people for the help and kindness afforded me.
Professor Andrew Strang
Gordon Smith at NAVAL-HISTORY.NET
Jim Ralph
Charles Webster
Henry Watson
My son James for realising his old dad was struggling creating this website and taking over the responsibility.
Tom Barnes
Don Cook
Harold Batchford
Norman Newton
George Dance
And the late S. Arthur Hands