Island Life Magazine Ltd February/March 2013 | Page 29

INTERVIEW

Commander Roy Hollis was a World War II
veteran who lived in Bembridge, and enjoyed an
amazing life in the Royal Navy...and beyond!
I went to interview Roy just a few weeks
ago and found the 95-year-old sprightly and
articulate, with a wealth of anecdotes about his
truly incredible Naval career. He also told me
briefly about his career change into teaching
when he was forced to leave the Navy because of
a sight defect and deafness, the latter brought on
by shell fire.
It was my intention to see Roy again and listen
to more of his fascinating stories. Sadly, he
passed away recently, but his family kindly
granted permission to use this slightly amended
interview with him, and we do so as a tribute to
a true gentleman and hero.

There cannot be too many retired
Naval Commanders who have found
themselves sitting on the hull of their
upturned Destroyer in freezing waters,
holding on to the ship’s cat.
But Roy Hollis was no ordinary
sailor, and until recently he was one of
only around 200 surviving sailors from
the 66,500 who served in the Russian
convoys.
Inspired by his paternal grandfather,
his thoughts as a youngster were only
ever ‘to go to sea’. However, even he
could not have envisaged his meteoric
rise to prominence in a 26-year career
that saw him involved in four separate
wars, including the horrors of World
War II.
Yet when he was forced into
premature retirement from the Navy,
Roy was not the type to sit around
and feel sorry for himself. Instead, he
embarked on a career in teaching that

ultimately saw him rise through the
educational ranks almost as quickly as
he did when at sea.
Roy was born in 1918, just before
the end of World War One. Despite
his sight defect and a severe hearing
problem, he remained active and alert.
And his mind was razor sharp, as he
underlined when he recounted some
of the incredible experiences of his life
at sea.
“When I saw pictures of my
grandfather’s sailing ship, I knew
the sea was cut out for him, and I
wished to follow in his footsteps. So
after school and passing the necessary
exams, a school friend and I were
selected to become officer cadets
for the Pacific Steam Navigation
Company. But my grandfather ‘blew
up’ at the thought of me disappearing
into the Merchant Navy, and ordained
I should go into the ‘proper Navy’

and start at the bottom,” smiled Roy.
“So I did as a Boy Seaman second
class, when I joined the training
establishment in Gosport on HMS St
Vincent in 1933 on a weekly wage of
one shilling and a penny-halfpenny
(6p!).”
Roy reflected that during his varied
and interesting Naval career, he came
up against ‘greatness of one sort or
another’ several times. In 1935 he
was serving in HMS Hood when he
was involved in his first conflict, the
Abyssinian War. He said: “One of the
first things I did as a boy sailor was
to be rowed secretly into Alexandria
Harbour where we waited in a dark
corner. None of us knew we were
there to rescue Haile Selassie, the then
deposed Emperor of Abyssinia. We got
him out, although one of his top aides
had already been murdered trying to
escape.”
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