Jeremy Ward (History 1974 – 97, Archivist 1997 – present) recently published a book, “On A Wing and A Prayer” focusing on the many Old Mancunians who served in the RAF. He writes:
I apologize for an error in my book “On A Wing and A Prayer”. The entries in Appendix 1 and 2 for Francis Ronald Emery are incorrect. The error arose because the MGS Biographical Register records his name as Ronald Francis Emery and another airman of that name (not an Old Mancunian) was killed in WW2. I therefore mistakenly included his details in the book.
If I had known of Ronnie Emery’s story I would have included a detailed account in the book. So belatedly, eighty years since his death, here it is
“Francis Ronald Emery, always known as Ronnie, came from Pendleton, part of a family whose main interest was running cinema chains. He and his brother Richard both gained Foundation Scholarships to MGS. He left from the Modern Side in 1929 and having moved to Blackpool was part of the family enterprise during the “Golden Age” of Cinema.
The Modern Upper Third, Emery is second from left on the front row
At the outbreak of war he and his brother both joined the RAFVR and LAC Emery found himself in the Far East from 1941 onwards as a specialist craftsman. It was initially a quiet sector of the war but the attack on Pearl Harbour (7 December 1941) changed all that and suddenly Ronnie was in the front line. In some ways his story in similar to Harold Utting’s (see “On A Wing and A Prayer” pp 124-26) in that they both ended up in Singapore as the Japanese completed their remorseless advance down the Malay peninsula. By 12 February 1941 defeat for the Allied forces had become inevitable and here is not the place to explain why what Winston Churchill described as “the greatest disaster in British military history” occurred. The thousands of Allied troops and civilians left on the island had two choices – escape or captivity. LAC Emery opted for the former.
A fleet of 46 mostly small boats was available to attempt the crossing of various straits to neighbouring Dutch East Indian islands – there was room for about 5000 troops altogether. Ronnie with about 50 fellow RAF personnel was assigned to the SS Trang, an elderly whaler, and departed on 13 February only to run aground shortly afterwards. Fortunately they were rescued by HMS Yin Ping, a tug commandeered by the Royal Navy. This small vessel (250 tons) with an inexperienced commander, was packed to the gunwales as much of its deck was occupied by piles of coal needed for the journey. It had 14 crew and 64 passengers of whom about 50 were from the RAF. Yin Ping made slow progress as it stopped to help out two other small craft in difficulty and in addition it was flying a very large flag due to the presence of a Senior Naval officer (who nonetheless declined to command the ship) and mysteriously was showing navigation lights. This attracted the attention of two Japanese warships en route to Sumatra – the Dutch were aware of their impending attack but because of poor communications the Royal Navy was not alerted to their presence. So in the early evening of 15 February the Japanese opened fire on the unarmed tug blowing up the bridge with its first shell and setting the ship on fire. Further shots wreaked havoc and 50 or so of the passengers and crew were either killed directly or drowned as the tug sank. One eyewitness confirmed that Ronnie Emery was in the latter category. About 30 survived to be taken prisoner. Ronnie would have been reported as “Missing in Action” and his death only confirmed much later in or after the war. His family must have gone through agonies not knowing what had happened to him. He is commemorated on the Singapore Memorial. Whether the Yin Ping could have made it to safety if the many errors that were made had been avoided no one can know but as was the case with so many of the OMs who were killed in WW2 bad luck and ill fortune payed a huge part in Ronnie Emery’s death.
MGS was apparently not aware of his death so he does not appear in the school’s “Memorial Book” published in 1947 nor is his name on the Boards in the Memorial Hall. At least this oversight can now at last be rectified.”
Jeremy Ward
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