CONVOY
Ted was born in Forest Gate in the East End of London, one of five sons to Elizabeth Venton and John Cordery, a fishmonger. He attended Odessa Road school.
After leaving school, Ted began work as an apprentice printer. His first assignment was to produce Stork margarine labels.
During the Blitz, Ted’s home was totally destroyed – luckily with no casualties. This incident led to Ted signing up and he volunteered for the Royal Navy when he was just eighteen.
Ted was posted to HMS Belfast, escorting the Arctic convoys – “The worst journey in the world” (according to Winston Churchill). They were protecting supply ships going to the Soviet Union.
In December 1943, HMS Belfast, in which Ted was a senior torpedo operator, was involved in the Battle of the North Cape. The notorious German battleship, the ‘Scharnhorst’, was sunk by British torpedoes. Only 36 German sailors were rescued (out of a crew of 1968). Ted felt guilty about his role – and grieved for the dead Germans for the rest of his life.
Ted was at D-Day on the 6th June 1944. HMS Belfast was protecting both Gold and Juno beaches by bombing German positions and was in turn attacked itself – without any significant damage.
Asked if he had been nervous, Ted said, “Once you’ve gone to sea, you’ve always got to be ready for action, U-Boats or anything.”
Ted was one of two men operating cranes that lifted wounded men out of the sea. He worked from the upper deck, so he had a bird’s eye view of what was happening. He witnessed some appalling sights that reduced him to tears when he spoke about them. “There was nothing I could do about it. I’m a soft sod. You would never believe what they went through. Those poor men.” Ted estimated that of the men he lifted on board that day, about 3% survived. In total, about 10,000 allied troops died on D-Day.
Shortly afterwards, Ted met Lily Sadler (known as Lila). They married just three weeks after meeting. They were to have one son called Michael.
Ted was then sent to a minesweeper off the coast of Scotland, where he stayed until 1946.
After being demobbed, Ted returned to printing, rising to become a warehouseman. This meant he could operate any of the machines in the print shop.
He worked for the Temple Press, producing ‘Motor’ magazine before moving onto national newspapers such as The Times and the Daily Mirror, as well as the Sunday People.
Ted became ‘Father of the Chapel’, which meant he was the union organiser in the printworks. He was in regular conflict with the Mirror Group owner, Robert Maxwell, and took pride in the fact the latter hated him.
When Maxwell’s crimes were exposed in 1991, leading to the tycoon’s death, Ted reflected that he was one of the few people that had had the courage to stand up to him.
Lily died in 1991, and Ted married a second time – to Glynis Freshwater (nee Griffiths). The couple moved to Oxford.
Ted was decorated by the Russian government and was awarded the Legion d’honneur by the French.
On the 75th anniversary of D-Day, three hundred veterans sailed from Portsmouth to the beaches in Normandy where they had seen action.
At a presentation beforehand, Ted was introduced to The Queen, the Prince of Wales and American President Trump. There was also a military fly past to commemorate the occasion.
They were seen off by cheering crowds – something that made Ted extremely proud.
In an interview on Good Morning Britain, Ted was very modest – “Like millions of others, I did my bit.” However, as he told his story, he burst into tears, live on TV.
On the day of Ted’s funeral, HMS Belfast flew its flags at half-mast.
RIP – Robertmaxwell’s Irritating Printer
