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A more extensive account of events that evening at St. Peter Port was later published in the Great Western Railway Magazine:
‘On 28 June 1940 enemy bombers attacked in earnest. About 7 o’clock in the evening a number came over, flying at about 3,000 feet.
Diving lower, they then machine-gunned the jetty and its vicinity, and bombed the harbour very intensely. As it was low tide, the area
under the jetty provided reasonably good shelter for those who were able to get there, but casualties were nevertheless considerable.
Three of the Company’s staff were among the wounded who were taken to a hospital in the Island.
The jetty itself was soon ablaze with burning lorries, and at the end of the raid the scene was an inferno, and passage from any one
point to another was not an easy matter. It is now clear to the Company’s staff that it was high time to leave. There were three vessels in
the harbour, which had been kept in steam in readiness for just such an emergency. They each had some guns for defensive action, and
had succeeded in keeping hostile aircraft far enough away to prevent any direct hits. The vessels sailed for England at 9.30 p.m. the
same evening, the Company’s staff, as had already been stated, being on the last boat to leave. Of the 49 Great Western and Southern
Railway joint staff at Guernsey, 38 sailed to England, three are known to have been left behind wounded, and eight remain
unaccounted for. Most of the wives and families of the men had sailed for England at an earlier date. It is understood that the island of
Guernsey was occupied by German troops on Sunday 30 June.’
And a glowing portrait of Golding’s calmness under fire was later published in the Bournemouth Daily Echo, from which the following
extract has been taken:
‘The ship had some near misses and there were very heavy casualties among the people on the quay. A large number of lorries caught
fire. The bombing and machine-gunning went on for about an hour. The quay was a shambles with 50 killed, 200 wounded and over
100 lorries burning.
Many of the women and children passengers were unaccompanied by men, and with the large number of people on the ship and on
the quay a panic with grave consequences might easily have commenced.
Captain Golding issued orders from the bridge and then walked along the decks keeping everybody as calm as possible. His presence
was felt immediately wherever he went, and in my judgment he was largely responsible for the steadiness of the crew, the passengers
and the people on the quayside.
As soon as he felt the people aboard were steady, he walked across the quayside to telephone to the Naval Authorities, then returned
calmly to his bridge, although concentrated machine-gunning and bombing were going on.
When the bombing had finished, he had to make important decisions. How many people he would take aboard from the number who
were clamouring to come; the best time to leave in view of the fact that he would be unescorted and so on. It must also be remembered
that he had a very tired crew. They had been working at top pressure for many weeks.
Captain Golding remained on duty the whole of the day as he had on every other day when in Guernsey. During the bombing and
afterwards, he was absolutely calm and imperturbable, and tireless in stimulating and encouraging his crew.’
The Isle of Sark was in fact the final ship to depart St. Peter Port before the German occupation, with 647 passengers embarked, and but
for the light A.A. and Lewis gun fire she put up at the attacking Heinkel IIIs, casualties may well have been higher – on Golding’s
recommendation, Able Seaman G. Mace, also received the Company’s M.S.M. for manning the ship’s gun on the same occasion.
Having been actively employed elsewhere, Golding was not able to attend the first investiture of the Company’s M.S.M. in August
1940, but shortly afterwards, he received his award at Southampton from the ‘Docks and Port Manager, in the presence of many
officials and staff – the gathering also included the Flag Officer i./c. Naval Operations, Southampton, the Garrison Commander and the
Principal Sea Transport Officer’ (Southern Railway’s Journal refers).
Golding returned to his old command, the Isle of Jersey, in December 1940, by now a fully fitted-out hospital carrier attached to the
Home Fleet at Scapa Flow, and in which capacity he remained in command until the War’s end. During the Normandy landings, the
Isle of Jersey steamed south and served off Gold and Juno Beaches, bringing home nearly 2000 patients in a matter of weeks. He was
awarded the O.B.E. and returned in triumph to St. Peter Port in October 1945.
He finally retired in late 1947, after 33 years with the Southern Railway Fleet, latterly having served as Commodore of the company’s
Southampton Section – and having completed 4,800 Channel crossings.
He died in December 1982, aged 94 years.
www.dnw.co.uk
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