Canada. Korean War Hmcs Nootka Veteran's Photographs

Original owner was Leading Seaman (Gunner) Kenneth Childs, who served with HMCS Nootka during the Korean War. Included are 153 black and white photographs, with gloss or matte finishes, many taken on board HMCS Nootka and during exercises, along with various town scenes in a post-war Japan and during visits to Malta and London, England. Five of the larger photos are marked: one of Childs in Uniform while with HMCS Ontario and Wearing an HMCS Tally Ribbon (inscribed in handwritten black ink with various stats and a list of his Second World War and Korean War awards on the reverse), one of Childs in Uniform and Wearing the HMCS Nootka Tally Ribbon (inscribed in handwritten black ink "27 yrs." and "1950" on the obverse, inscribed with personal info in pencil and inscribed in black ink "Sasebo Japan / 1951" on the reverse), one of a Group of Twenty-six Sailors (with the names of each and the inscription "Taken at Malta, Aug. 24/8/52" in handwritten blue ink on the reverse), one of a Group of Eight Officers (stamped in red "NAT. DEF. PHOTOGRAPH CANADA (COPYRIGHT)" and numbered "68855" on the reverse) and one of Two Men Seated at a Desk (stamped in black ink "PLEASE CREDIT PHOTOGRAPH BY A.R. TIMOTHY, KINGSTON" on the reverse). Accompanied by a newspaper article from the Halifax Chronicle-Herald showing sailors preparing to leave for service during the Korean War and a smaller article announcing Leading Seaman Child, RCNVR volunteering for Pacific theatre service after V-E Day was declared. Various sizes, some photos with remnants of photo corners on their edges, a few with edges tears, very fine.

Footnote: Leading Seaman (Gunner) Kenneth Childs, HMCS Ontario and HMCS Nootka, was a veteran of both the Second World War and the Korean War. His awards included: 1939-1945 Star, Atlantic Star, Burma Star, France and Germany Star, Canadian Volunteer Service Medal with Overseas Clasp, War Medal 1939-1945, Korea Medal, United Nations Korea Medal, Canadian Forces' Decoration with Bar and Coronation Medal 1953. The HMCS Nootka was a Tribal-class destroyer that served in the Royal Canadian Navy from 1946 to 1964. She saw service in the Korean War. She received the unit name Nootka while still under construction in Halifax after the RCN renamed the Fundy-class minesweeper HMCS Nootka (J35) to HMCS Nanoose (J35) in 1943. Nootka was ordered in April 1941. She was laid down on May 20, 1942 by Halifax Shipyards at Halifax, Nova Scotia and launched April 26, 1944. She was commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy on August 7, 1946 at Halifax and was the sixth Tribal-class destroyer to serve and the second Canadian-built. After commissioning, Nootka served as a training ship for the Atlantic Fleet. She was one of the ships assigned to take part in Operation Scuttled, the training exercise designed to sink U-190, the U-boat that had surrendered to the Royal Canadian Navy at the end of the Second World War. However before Nootka and her fellow ships could find the range on the submarine, the aircraft of the Naval Air Arm successfully attacked the vessel and sank her. In September 1948, she joined HMCS Magnificent and HMCS Haida on a training cruise to the Ungava peninsula in Quebec. There the two destroyers left the aircraft carrier and toured the north, visiting Churchill, Manitoba, becoming the first RCN warships to penetrate Hudson Bay. She remained as a training vessel until her conversion to a destroyer escort after being paid off on August 15, 1949. During the conversion to DDE, her 4.7 inch guns were replaced with 4 inch guns and the Y mounting was removed and 2 triple-barrelled Mark IV Squids were installed. She also received 2 Boffin gun mounts and a single 40mm Bofors on a twin 20mm Oerlikon-powered mounting. She received the new pennant DDE 213 in January 1950 and departed Halifax for Korea in December 1950, transiting the Panama Canal for the first of two tours of duty in the Korean War. On her first tour, she relieved HMCS Sioux, taking her place as one of the three Canadian destroyers assigned to the region. Not long after arrival, she was sent for shore bombardment duties in the Inchon area in January and was fired upon by Communist guns. On March 16, 1950, she became the Senior Officer's Ship for the Canadian force in the theatre, replacing HMCS Cayuga. During her time in Korean waters, she performed blockade, inshore bombardment and carrier screening duties. She sailed for home on July 20, 1950. Her second tour in Korean waters took place from February 12, 1952 until February 9, 1952. She returned to Halifax via the Mediterranean Sea, having become the second Canadian warship to circumnavigate the globe; HMCS Quebec having been the first. HMCS Nootka underwent further conversion and modernization in 1953-1954 and resumed training duties with the Atlantic Fleet. She participated in the massive Royal Canadian Navy deployment for the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 and was assigned a patrol area off the northern tip of Cuba during the crisis. n the summer 1963, HMCS Nootka joined her sister ship, HMCS Haida, for a tour of the Great Lakes. Her last deployment was for a NATO exercise in Bermuda in fall 1963, where she sustained hull damage while docking in strong winds. She was temporarily patched and returned to Halifax and was decommissioned at Halifax on February 6, 1964. She was scrapped at Faslane, Scotland in 1965.