Thank you for the opportunity to see the MV Royal Daffodil again. I was on board in 1946 en route to Calais when she was being used as a Troop Ship between Dover and the Transit Camp in Calais. I was in the REME on my first posting to 12 Heavy Workshop REME in Hanover.

Happy Memories!

Eric

And I also went to Calais around 1955 when a day trip was 16/- return and when we approached Southend pier (from whence we sailed) everyone on board started singing 'Now is the Hour'. She had a Sister ship, the Royal Sovereign, that used to do the same trip, I believe. She only had one funnel and was smaller, though. I still have a boxed plastic letter opener souvenir from MV Daffodil.

I really liked the two great pictures of the M.V. Royal Daffodil. Please correct me if I am wrong, but didn't she play a part in the evacuation of Dunkirk, when the Wermach had the British, and other forces, pinned down on the beaches there??? Early in WWII?

She was one of the ships that took part in Operation Dynamo, the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940. She rescued 9.500 men in seven trips. According to Wikipedia

She was also used to evacuate children from London to Lowerstoft as described by Alec Turner on the BBC website WW2 People's War

I can remember going to either Ramsgate or Margate from Southend on the Royal Daffodil around 1960 thereabouts. Our whole family Mum, Dad and us children just for a days outing. Great memories. BTW The best years of my life as a child were those of when I lived on Canvey Island.

I served on The Daffodil for one season in 1964. She was my first ship in a career in the Merchant Navy. As we passed the old forts in the Thames Estuary, we would re-tune the ships radio to hear Screaming Lord Sutch saying hello from his radio station on one of the forts. There was a plaque on the deck to show where the bomb passed through during the Dunkirk evacuation. What a shame she ended up in the scrap yard.

Yes,the Dunkirk connection alone, should have seen the Royal Daffodil restored, and perhaps moored and kept as a "Heritage" site. The 'scrap yard' ending must have bitterly disappointed those W.W.11 passengers.!! Gerald Hudson.

Does Richard Bryan remember my father Frank Cawthron who was Chief Steward on The Daffodil?