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Summer Reunion at the National Memorial Arboretum, 20th July 2013. The next reunion will take place at the site of the HMS Dunedin memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas, Staffordshire. This will be another wonderful opportunity to meet our fabulous survivors, to mingle with other members of the Dunedin Society and to pay our respects to the men of HMS Dunedin. Further details will appear on this website as we get nearer the date, but we would like you to tell us now if you are intending to come. You can do this by clicking here, where you will find an outline programme, some accommodation suggestions and details of how you can tell us what we need to know from you.
We look forward to seeing you there. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Click here for a report and photos of the November 2012 Dunedin memorial service at Southsea.
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Our On This Day feature marked the daily movements and activities of HMS Dunedin during her last months. It begins on 8th April, 1941, when HMS Dunedin left the shores of England for the last time, heading for Gibraltar. It was around 8.00pm and the buzzes around the ship suggested she would be back in November or December. You can see, every day, where she was and what she was doing. Some days, very little happened, but at other times, Dunedin was kept very busy. Dunedin's story unfolds here: on this day. The final entry reads as follows: "24th November: The story of the events of this day is long, complex and tragic. At the break of day, Dunedin was seemingly on a routine patrol; by early afternoon, Dunedin had gone, taking many men with her. As we know from the movements of U-124 in the preceding days, Captain Mohr's sighting of HMS Dunedin was a chance affair. A mast in the distance, an underwater pursuit, and then three torpedoes fired at great distance, two of which slammed into Dunedin at 1326. The ship's end was a quick one - about a quarter of an hour from first hit to sinking. We don't know how many men went down with her, but the number will have been big. Perhaps two hundred and fifty made it to the rafts and the open water. Many were wounded and most would not make it home. Sailors, Marines, Officers, huddled on the Carley rafts and hoped for the best. On one raft, twenty-two men clung to each other and watched as Dunedin slid below the waves. Three days later, only three of those men were left to tell the tale. And it was a similar story on the other rafts. By the time the SS Nishmaha, a passing American merchant, came across the sorry flotilla of rafts on the 27th, only seventy-two men were left. The next night claimed five more, leaving sixty-seven. Today, 24th November 2011, three of those men will stand with relatives of their former comrades and pay homage to the men of Dunedin. We all do the same today: To the memory of the men of HMS Dunedin."
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Message from Stuart Gill: as some of you will know, I left the UK in 2008 to take up a posting in Australia. I have now moved on to my next posting in Reykjavik, Iceland and will continue to operate the website from there. I hope - being closer to the UK - that I will be able to make it to more Dunedin events. I am aiming, also, to update the website with new software in the near future. In the meantime, please e-mail me if you spot any problems (eg missing links, photos etc) on the website and I will repair the damage. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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