Murdoch's off to Far East to look back on war years

Published on Thursday 4 March 2010 09:05

Murdoch Stewart, 85, a retired lorry driver who served with the navy in the Second World War, is preparing to make an emotional trip back to the Far East, 65 years after helping to defeat the Japanese forces there.

Murdoch Stewart, who now lives in Prestonpans, has been awarded money from the Big Lottery Fund's Heroes Return programme, to fund his trip to the Sri Lankan port of Trincomalee.

He was stationed there while serving on board the battleship Queen Elizabeth, and now hopes to revisit some of the areas he saw as a youngster.

Born in Leith on 24 January, 1925, Mr Stewart was raised in the area but found himself idle as a teenager after the schools were closed down by the war.

He took odd delivery jobs with pals, but in 1942, aged 17 and accompanied by his three closest friends, he lied about his age to join the navy.

"The three of us did everything together, and we had tried to sign up for the army but they insisted on seeing birth certificates," he recalled. "When we went to the navy recruiter we expected the same thing, but they just told us to go through and list our dates of birth. I added six months to my age to get in, and we all went off together."

He was assigned to the engine room of the Queen Elizabeth battleship, as a stoker, which involved shovelling coal into the huge ship's engines. And the trip out to the Far East was, he said, "wonderful". He added: "It was amazing, we were seeing all these new places – I had never been out of Scotland before, so things like the Suez Canal were just incredible."

Of course, the ship saw its fair share of action.

"She was a large target and we faced the Japanese in the Far East," said Mr Stewart. "Our job was to stop supplies getting to the Japanese in Burma and our mission was a success.

"There were some terrible times, though. We had to sink anything that moved, and you don't really know what's going on when you're below deck. It's also a little worse for the engine guys, as we knew that if we got hit, it was all over – there's no way you are getting out in time from there. One torpedo would have ended it for us, but fortunately that didn't happen."

After returning from the war, Mr Stewart felt "bored" after just a few months, and looked to sign up for the merchant navy, but was turned down due to ill health.

He eventually became a lorry driver, and met his wife Margaret, 79, in Jock's Lodge. The couple have now been married for almost 57 years, and have two children, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Mr Stewart has been awarded 5,500 so he and Margaret can travel to Trincomalee. The family have been very supportive of Mr Stewart's decision to go back.

"They have been great, and it has opened up a lot for them," he said. "I never really talked about all this before, so they are learning about it for the first time."