Page 181 - KBHA BULLETIN 6

Vivian Hereward Wake 68426 v
21.6.1922 - 28.3.1945

Vivian Hereward Wake, eldest son of Vivian Beaumont Wake, completed his schooling at

SACS and matriculated at the end of 1940. He enlisted immediately in the SDF and was
posted to the cruiser HMS Enterprise which did service for most of 1941 in the Indian

Ocean from its base at Colombo. During the early months of 1942 Enterprise was in
Singapore and Rangoon just before they fell to the Japanese. Enterprise then joined

Admiral Sir James Somerville's Far Eastern Fleet which was devastated by Japanese

torpedo-bombers in April 1942. Enterprise picked up survivors from the sunken HMS
Cornwall.

After six weeks of compassionate leave in Cape Town, because of his father's death,

Vivian rejoined Enterprise on her homeward journey to the Clyde in the UK. On arrival

there in December 1942 he applied to join the Fleet Air Arm and was accepted in January
1943. A little over a year later, after training in the USA, he was awarded his Pilot's Flying

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