Certificate of 'adoption' of HMS Jonquil, presented by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, February 1942, in St James' church, St Kew.
A note below the framed certificate reads:
HMS Jonquil. During World War 2, St Kew Parish donated money several times to Warships Week National Savings Campaign, certain comforts to HMS Jonquil, the Red Cross Prisoner of War Parcels Fund and other charities. In 1941 the parish was presented with a certificate in appreciation of their involvement with HMS Jonquil, which is hung on the south wall by the font. "HMS Jonquil was a Flower-class corvette of the British Royal Navy. The corvette, named after the flower genus Jonquil, served in the Second World War.
Laid down by the company Fleming and Ferguson on 27 December 1939 and launched on 9 July 1940, Jonquil entered service on 20 October and assumed convoy responsibilities the following month. Her first deployment was as an escort for Convoy WS.5A, bound for the West African port of Freetown.
Jonquil survived the war but was relegated to the reserve at Gibraltar from August 1945. Bought by Greece, the corvette was renamed Lemnos and was converted into a merchant vessel. Redesignated Olympic Rider in 1951, Jonquil sank after a collision with Olympic Cruiser in the Antarctic in 1955."
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"Warship Weeks were British National savings campaigns during the Second World War, with the adoption of a Royal Navy warship by a civil community. A level of savings would be set to raise enough money to provide the cost of building a particular naval ship. The aim was for cities to raise enough to adopt battleships and aircraft carriers, while towns and villages would focus on cruisers and destroyers. Smaller towns and villages would be set a lower figure. Once the target money was saved for the ship, the community would adopt the ship and its crew.
Local charity organisations, churches and schools would provide the crews of the adopted ship with gloves, woollen socks and balaclavas. Children would often write letters and send cards to the crew. When possible, officers and men from the adopted ship would visit the local community. To celebrate their visit, a parade would often be organised in their honour.
During the early parts of the war, the Royal Navy not only had lost many capital ships but was facing increasing pressure to provide escorts to precious convoys in the Atlantic. While there was not a shortage of sailors, ships sunk by enemy action had to be replaced.
Between 1941 and 1942, the concept of National Savings was introduced by the British government. Each region in the country was provided with a savings target to achieve. This was based on the region’s population, with each general level of savings having a class of warship assigned. This became known as Warship Week, due to its similarities with War Weapons Week – which was a drive to replace the materiel lost at Dunkirk through a savings campaign.
The ship’s commanding officer would exchange plaques, objects and photographs with the city or town that reached the target set, and an adoption would begin. The number of warships adopted was over 1,200, and this number included the battleships, cruisers, destroyers and trawlers.
The total amount raised for the war effort was £955,611,589. A community would sponsor a ship through individual savings in government bonds and national savings certificates. The campaigns were organised by the National War Savings Committee with the full support of the Admiralty. There were a total of 1,178 warship weeks organised during the campaign’s duration, involving a total of 1,273 districts. A press announcement quoted the adoption of eight battleships, four carriers, forty-nine cruisers, three hundred and one destroyers, twenty-five submarines, one hundred and sixty-four corvettes and frigates and two hundred and eighty-eight minesweepers.
Other national war campaigns included the 'Wings For Victory' Week to purchase bomber planes, a 'Spitfire Week' to purchase fighter planes, a 'War Weapons Week' and a 'Tanks For Attack' Week."
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