Peter Philip Col Bateman

  Notes:

Originally from Ann G-P research.

From Bateman research; Sub-Lieut in Royal Navy, and dates.

War grave photo; http://twgpp.org/information.php?id=42147
Detail say;
Cemetery: Milan War Cemetery
Country: Italy
Rank: Sub-Lieutenant
Unit: H.M.S. Hereward.
Force: Royal Navy
Nationality: British
Details:
14th September 1943. Age 20. Son of Philip George and Marie-Louise Bateman of Rondebosch Cape Province South Africa. King's Medallist; R.N. College


From 'Philip Bateman (1896-1965) his families and circle';
Philip and Morit had one child, Peter Philip Col, born on October 28, 1922 in their flat in Bucharest (the name Col was a tribute to Colette). The good-looking boy was a favourite of Queen Marie and played as a child with the future King Carol. Peter was determined to become a naval officer. After a spell at an English preparatory school he joined the Britannia Royal Naval College Dartmouth in 1936 as a thirteen year old Naval Cadet. Academically gifted and a good linguist, he won the College's two top prizes, including the Sovereign's Gold Medal, when he passed out as a Midshipman, Royal Navy in 1939. He was sent to sea and took part in several actions against the Italian fleet in the Mediterranean as a junior gunnery officer in the battleships HMS Barham and Warspite ........
Philip was shocked to be informed by the Admiralty that his son Peter was missing in action. HMS Hereward, the destroyer in which Peter was serving as a Midshipman, had been sunk during the withdrawal from Crete on 29 May 1941 after a German dive bomber had delivered a bomb down the ship's funnel. Peter spent some time in the water before being rescued by Italians and made a prisoner of war.

Peter was an accomplished escaper, and got as far as stealing a boat at Bari before being sent to the punishment camp that was the Italian equivalent of Colditz Castle. In 1943, he was on a train in Italy being transported to a camp in Germany after the Italian surrender. Peter was one of a small group who decided to jump from the train. The last to leave the train, he was shot and killed on 14 September 1943, near Allessandria, Piacenza. Identified only by his naval jersey and leather belt, Peter was buried in the Italian civil cemetery at Corvino San Quirico. There is some doubt as to the identity of the grave but Peter's name is commemorated in the college chapel at Dartmouth. Mentioned as a keen escaper in George Millar's book 'Horned Pigeon', Peter was described by his best friend from the punishment camp - a fellow escaper - as "The bravest person I ever knew."