Gunner Norman Edward George SIMS (885789)
97th (Kent Yeomanry) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery

Date of birth: 1st January 1912
Date of death: 14th November 1942

Killed on active service aged 30
Commemorated on the Alamein Memorial Column 40
He was born at Canterbury in 1912 the son of William Albert Sims, cowman, and Mary Jane (nee Fairbrass) of Ivy Cottage, Lynsted, Sittingbourne, Kent.

He served in the Royal Artillery and retired to the reserve before becoming a groundsman at the King’s School Canterbury. He was married at Faversham in 1940 to Gladys Mary (nee Foreman).

Following the outbreak of war, he was mobilised as a Gunner in the 97th (Kent Yeomanry) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery and embarked with his regiment for service in France on board the SS “Ben-My-Chree” on the 23rd of September 1939 as one of the first Territorial Army units to land there. While he was there he wrote to the 1st Rugby XV congratulating them on their recent results:-

"We have quite a useful XV ourselves; in fact a truly representative Public School side. Tonbridge, Eastbourne, Dover, Cranleigh are some of the colours seen."

Following the German invasion of France on the 10th of May 1940 the regiment were posted to fifteen different locations in eighteen days before they were ordered to destroy their guns and march from La Panne to Dunkirk for evacuation. When they arrived at the beaches where they were split into small groups and evacuated on a number of different ships before arriving back in England on the night of the 31st of May 1940. Meanwhile, the 385th Battery of the Regiment was sent south to reinforce the 51st (Highland) Division at St Valery until they too were forced to destroy their guns and return to England on the 17th of June 1940.

On their return to England they were posted for garrison duty at Abergele in Wales from June 1940 and in Essex from February 1941. On the 30th of August 1941 the Regiment sailed for the Middle East on board the SS "Orantes" and landed at Basra on the 30th of October 1941. They served in Persia as part of PAI (Persia and Iraq) Force before moving overland to the Western Desert in May 1942 where they became part of 7th Armoured Division. They lost much of their equipment in a series of defensive actions including Sidi Resegh and Gambut in June 1942 and saw action at El Alamein in October 1942. During this time they suffered a number of casualties, killed wounded and missing, one of whom was Norman Sims who was taken prisoner.

He was one of 814 prisoners of war who were loaded at Spanish Quay in Tripoli Harbour onto the 1,903 ton coal burning steamer SS "Scillin" for transportation to prisoner of war camps in Italy. Accommodation was suitable for around 300 with the men in the hold were so packed together that they could not lie down. After protests from the senior British medical officer, Captain Gilbert, a further 195 men were taken to a separate area for loading onto a later transport.

The SS "Scillin" set sail on the evening of the 13th of November 1942. At around 20.30 hours the following night she was 10 miles north of Cape Milazzo when she came under fire from the British submarine HMS Sahib (P212) under the command of Lieutenant John Bromage RN. Having fired 12 shots from their 10" guns, one of which hit the superstructure of the ship. The submarine then fired a single torpedo which struck the hold where the prisoners were packed together, giving them no chance of escape. HMS Sahib picked up 27 British survivors, including Captain Gilbert who had been treating some wounded prisoners on deck, along with 45 Italian guards and crew members.

787 Allied POWs were lost in the disaster.

He is commemorated on the Canterbury war memorial in the Butter Market but is not currently commemorated on the war memorial at the King's School Canterbury.
 

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