Collection search - Leir, Richard H. - Interview

Record information – Brief

1

Leir, Richard H. - Interview

Item number (ISN):

336470

Series title:

Seasoned Sailors : Talking with Senior Survivors of Canada's Wartime Navy

Hierarchical level:

Item (Accession level)

Date:

2000

Item number (ISN):

336470

Type of material:

Moving images

Found in:

Archives / Film, Video and Sound

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Record information – Details

Fonds/collection:

RYAN, David Patrick

Accession:

2002-0081

Media:

Video

Part:

1 of 1

Production date:

2000

Release date:

2001

Production company:

Peter Chance (Interviewer)

Production credit:

director/producer, Pat Ryan; interviewer, Peter Chance

Description:

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The person interviewed in this Part One is Richard H. (Dick) Leir. Whilst still a midshipman, he served in two RN warships which, in quick succession, suffered destruction at the hands of the Japanese in the Far East. First was the battleship HMS Prince of Wales and then the cruise HMS Exeter, one-time the victor of the fight with the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee.~Leir tells of the early days when HMS Prince of Wales fought the German Bismarck in which action the mighty HMS Hood disappeared before his eyes after exploding in two pieces. Then he meets Roosevelt and Churchill in Placentia Bay before routing the Italian Navy in the Mediterranean. But his good luck came to a quick end when Prince of Wales and Repulse were sunk as the result of ineffective defence against the Japanese aircraft. Rescued at sea, he is headed back to the UK for Sub-Lieutenants' courses. Whilst enroute in Ceylon, he joins HMS Exeter to fill a vacancy... temporarily.~His story of the brutal treatment given prisoners by their Japanese captors is terrible in its description of that savagery. But Leir survives and lives to experience some small retribution before being magicallty transported back to western civilization.~Long declared missing and pressumed "Killed in Action" and accepted as such by all, his mother having received a Memorial Cross, he suddenly returns from the vault of the dead to a rejoicing but still unbelieving family.~Dick Leir's story, like that of the many hundreds of other Canadians who suffered the same horrors in the hands of Japanese captors, may not be in tune with the teachings of current educators. <78mn>

Language:

English

Original number:

Site 6, No. 1

Detailed holdings information:

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Vault ISN:

375455

Format:

VIDEO

Location number:

V7 2002-08-0149

Vault code:

GAT

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

SOF

Duration:

78:00

Made from:

DEPOSIT

Status:

MASTER

Vault ISN:

375456

Format:

VIDEO

Location number:

V1 2002-08-0004

Number of items:

1

Duration:

78:00

Made from:

DEPOSIT

Status:

REF

Vault ISN:

838685

Format:

VIDEO

Location number:

336470.MXF

Number of items:

1

Made from:

V7 2002-08-0149

Status:

MASTER

Vault ISN:

838686

Format:

VIDEO

Location number:

336470.MP4

Number of items:

1

Made from:

V7 2002-08-0149

Status:

REF

Vault ISN:

977880

Format:

VIDEO

Location number:

V4 2002-08-0028

Number of items:

1

Kind of sound:

SOF

Made from:

V7 2002-08-0149

Status:

MASTER
Ordering and viewing options

Conditions of access:

Open

Consultation copy number:

V1 2002-08-0004

Reproduction access:

with written permission of copyright owner : no donor restrictions~The permission of the donor was required to reproduce this material until his death.

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