Shortly after midday on the 21 May 1940 Venomous left Dover for Calais
to retrieve vital equipment for the detection of enemy submarines from
the Sangatte "loop station" and to evacuate key staff and equipment
from the Courtauld's factory.
Sixteen year old John Esslemont and his father were two of those who left Calais for Dover aboard HMS Venomous. John's Scottish father had met his French wife during the First World War and worked at the Courtauld's factory at Le Pont du Leu near Calais. They were at John's aunt's house at around 1 pm that day when they heard that a British destroyer was berthed alongside the Gare Maritime. They had no time to pack and left immediately for the harbour in their uncle's car but had to get out of the car and shelter during a German bombing raid on the quay where Venomous was berthed. John Esslemont gave a vivid account of his rescue in A Hard Fought Ship.
They were not the only refugees. Venomous also took on board fifty nurses from the Calais base hospital. AB Sydney Compston recalled "during the air raids there were many women and children on deck. Although exposed to the greatest danger they were as good as gold - not a murmur." Lt Peter Kershaw photographed the refugees crowding the deck of Venomous shortly before she left Calais for Dover.
On landing at Dover John Esslemont and his father went by
train to London and from there to Aberdeen where his grandparents
lived. His father soon got a job at Courtauld's factory in Preston and
John also worked there, as a mail boy and then as a junior clerk, but
as soon as he was old enough he joined the Royal Navy.
In 1943 he was
aboard HMS Balsam escorting Convoy KMS.9 from Londonderry to Gibraltar when he met up again with HMS Venomous. She came out from Gibraltar to meet the convoy and accompany it into harbour.
John was later stationed on shore duties at Cochin in India before
being discharged in 1947. He returned to Preston to work for Courtaulds
but in 1951 moved back to France where he lives today aged 87 at
Vaudricourt near Abbeville with his French wife. He has a daughter
working as a translator in Brussels and a son living in Paris.
