The Stray Ferret is publishing two articles this weekend looking back at Harrogate’s links with the Falklands War.
Yesterday, we spoke to Harrogate woman Christina Nelson who was only 22 when her husband Stephen Heyes was killed aboard HMS Ardent aged 21. Read the article here.
“Where’s the bloody Falklands?” was Harrogate sailor Neil Harper’s first thought following the Argentine invasion on April 2, 1982.
The former Harrogate High School pupil was always destined for a career at sea. He spent his formative years as a sea cadet in Harrogate and his dad was in the Royal Marines.
He was 19 when the British government dispatched a naval task force to the islands in response to the invasion.
Mr Harper joined the Navy aged 16 and was an able seaman gunner so knew that his services would be required.
“When it kicked off I was back in Harrogate on leave so it was a case of ‘get back to the ship’.”
After returning to Portland in Dorset, the captain of HMS Argonaut told the crew:
‘I can’t tell you where you’re going, but you’ll have a damn good idea.”
‘Attack after attack’
Mr Harper said the feeling onboard the ship on the 6,000-mile journey “was of apprehension, but not fear”.
He said:
“We were all a bit young and stupid!
“It was finally a chance to do the job were trained to do.”
The sailors encountered the Falklands’ unusual landscape, which Mr Harper described as being like “The Yorkshire Moors without the trees”.
“There are rolling hills, tundra grass and peat bogs. It’s quite bleak and it can be very, very cold. But it can be absolutely glorious down there too. You can see killer whales, penguins, seals and birds that are only found in the Falklands.”
Many hoped the crisis would be solved through diplomacy, but the fighting was fierce.
On May 21, HMS Argonaut faced assault from the sky. Mr Harper remembers “attack after attack” and frantic efforts to save the ship.
An unexploded bomb that was dropped on the HMS Argonaut
He said:
“They hit us with two 1000lb bombs, one in the boiler room and one in the diesel tank.
“Neither exploded luckily, but it caused a fire. We lost all power and were headed towards Fanning Head with no steering or working engines.
“At the time you were too busy to think about what’s going on.”
Two of Mr Harper’s friends, able seaman Iain Boldy and able seaman Matthew Stuart, were killed.
‘Are we gonna win?’
Lieutenant Peter Morgan is credited with saving HMS Argonaut after he dropped one of the ship’s anchors to use as an emergency brake.
The crew worked around the clock to restore power and radars. The captain sent out a signal to the crew to say they couldn’t move the ship, but could still fight.
Over the space of a couple of days, HMS Ardent, HMS Antelope and HMS Plymouth were also bombed.
Mr Harper said:
“We knew the Ardent had been hit. So there were thoughts of ‘what’s going on over there — and are we gonna win?'”
Once-in-a-lifetime assignment
Stray Ferret journalist Tim Flanagan was chief reporter for the Harrogate Advertiser in 1982.
He said the war was the talk of every pub, shop and workplace in the town.
Journalists at the paper kept a close eye on events due to the military connections in Ripon and at Pennypot in Harrogate.
Journalist Tim Flanagan in 1980
Mr Flanagan remembers interviewing Harrogate woman Christina Nelson, Stephen Heyes’ widow, not long after he died. She told him how Stephen’s pet cat Charlie still missed him, which has stuck with the journalist 40 years on.
“For a young woman, she was very poised. She was still in shock. She was courageous and a very brave person to speak about it. She wanted him to be honoured.”
Harrogate soldier Gavin Hamilton was also killed during the war and posthumously awarded the Military Cross for bravery.
Valentines messages
A year after the war was over, the newspaper sent Mr Flanagan to the Falklands. It was a once-in-a-lifetime assignment for a local news journalist who normally didn’t get further than Northallerton.
He stayed aboard HMS Sir Tristram to visit Royal Engineers from Ripon who were helping to rebuild runways and clear mines.
Mr Flanagan took with him some special messages from the wives of Harrogate district servicemen who were stationed there.
“I flew out on Valentine’s Day 1983 and went there with various things. I took messages for sweethearts and three or four Valentine’s cards.
“I got a lot more on the way back from the soldiers, and asked to drop off flowers, chocolate and letters to their wives.”
Legacy of war
The war lasted just 74 days but 40 years on, time has not healed all the mental wounds brought on by the conflict.
The UK government’s treatment of its veterans, and their widows, have made it more difficult for them to receive closure.
Christina Nelson has campaigned for the government to subsidise expensive air travel to the islands so widows can visit their partners’ graves.
She said:
“I’ve not seen Stephen’s grave since the 25th anniversary. The government should do right by us. I’d love to go again, but I will not beg. It should be our right, but they are not bothered.”
Like many veterans, Neil Harper has suffered from PTSD. He left the Navy in 1989.
“We were offered no psychiatric help when we got back. It was a case of ‘man up and get up with it’.”
He returned to the Falklands in 2019 with some fellow seamen who he served with.
He added:
“Like any sort of trained blokes, we try and not shed a tear, but we do. We talk and remember, we’re a support group.
“It was time to go back and put a few demons to rest.”
255 British military personnel died in the war. Three islanders and 649 Argentine soldiers also died.
Harrogate widow remembers husband killed in the Falklands aged just 21The Stray Ferret is publishing two articles this weekend looking back at Harrogate’s links with the Falklands War.
Today, we speak to Harrogate woman Christina Nelson who was only 22 when her husband Stephen Heyes was killed aboard the HMS Ardent aged 21.
HMS Ardent was sunk by Argentine bombs 40 years ago this month, on May 22, 1982.
Twenty-two British sailors died.
Ms Nelson told the Stray Ferret she finds every anniversary difficult. The couple had only been married for one year before his death.
“It doesn’t seem possible that I’m here at 62 and he never made it.
“He’s not growing old and grey and wrinkly.
“He said that to me before he left, ‘you’ll go old, grey and wrinkly but I’ll never grow older than 21’.
“He knew he wasn’t coming home.”
Meeting
Stephen, who was from Wigan, was 16 when he joined the Navy in 1976.
His first ship was HMS Cleopatra, a frigate that had been adopted by Harrogate since the 1940s. It was even given the freedom of Harrogate in 1979 and sailors aboard the ship would sometimes march through the town.
Ms Nelson, who went to Harrogate High School, worked for the Ministry of Defence on St George’s Road.
She attended an MOD dance at the Royal Hall where she met Stephen, who was there with some fellow sailors from the Cleopatra.
Ms Nelson said:
“Me and my girlfriends went out, we had no idea we’d bump into a group of sailors – there’s no ground water in Harrogate!”
Stephen knew he’d met the girl for him as, two weeks later, he hitchhiked to Harrogate from where he was stationed on the south coast and proposed.
Their wedding was two years later at Christ Church on March 28, 1981, which Ms Nelson remembers as “all done on a budget but we didn’t lack on anything”.
Stephen was a huge Roxy Music fan and their first dance was the song ‘Dance Away’.
Navy career
After getting married, the couple together lived in Devonport, Plymouth.
Stephen was a seaman in electronic warfare and “absolutely loved it” in the Navy, said Ms Nelson.
But unusually for a sailor, he couldn’t swim.
She said:
“He was terrified of water. When they told me it sunk, I said they won’t find him as he can’t swim.”
The stricken HMS Ardent. Credit: HMS Ardent Association
HMS Ardent was attacked by at least three waves of Argentine aircraft on May 21. It sank into the Atlantic Ocean the next day.
But at the time there were only rumours that a ship had been hit.
Ms Nelson was working part-time at a Ladbrokes bookies and her boss told her to go home after the rumours spread.
She spent an agonising night on the phone with military officials, hoping to receive an update on Stephen. She was eventually told that his ship, HMS Ardent, was not in that area where the attacks happened.
But that all changed when a customer came into the shop and said: “Bloody hell, you wouldn’t have thought they’d sink the Ardent.”
Ms Nelson said she knew then that Stephen had been killed.
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Good memories
Stephen was an animal lover and had adopted a stray cat called Charlie, who would still wait for him to come home long after he died.
Ms Nelson said it was a sign that he was still with them in some way.
She said:
“Every day at 4pm, Charlie would meet Stephen after work to have his tummy tickled. After he died he still did the same thing.”
Christina now lives in Alicante, Spain. She spent last weekend’s anniversary with one of Stephen’s old friends from the Navy, who had cycled over from Benidorm.
She said it still doesn’t seem real that four decades have passed by since her husband’s death.
“I’m sat here looking at pictures on the wall — how the hell can it be 40 years?”
Stephen and Christina’s wedding day in Harrogate
Christina said she likes to remember Stephen as a big-hearted family man.
She added:
“He was just somebody with a smile that could light up the room – when he smiled you knew he was there. He didn’t have a nasty bone in his body, he was a gentle soul.”
Stephen Heyes was one of 255 British military personnel that died in the war. Three islanders and 649 Argentine soldiers also died.
Tomorrow, we speak to Harrogate Falklands veteran Neil Harper about his experiences during the conflict. We also speak to journalist Tim Flanagan who reported on the war for the Harrogate Advertiser.
Ripon man auctions 255 bottles of whisky for Falklands veteransA Ripon man is to auction 255 signed bottles of whisky to raise money for Falklands veterans.
Next month marks the 40th anniversary of the start of the 10-week war, which claimed the lives of 255 British military personnel.
Simon Mercer, whose family has strong military connections, came up with the idea after a chance encounter with Nigel Phillips, the current Governor of the Falkland Islands, on a flight to the British overseas territory in 2018.
Each bottle has been numbered and signed by Mr Phillips and Major General Julian Thompson, who led 3 Commando Brigade during the conflict with Argentina.
Many bottles have been additionally signed on the front label by Falklands veterans including Sara Jones, widow of Lt. Col. H Jones, who posthumously received the Victoria Cross after being killed in action during the Battle of Goose Green in May 1982.
Each signatory served their country with extraordinary bravery on land, at sea and in the air.
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The cask-strength 53.5%, 13-year-old Glen Moray whisky will be auctioned online by Scotch Whisky Auctions, which has waived its usual fees.
Each bottle is signed by Nigel Phillips and Major General Julian Thompson, who led 3 Commando Brigade.
The auction will take place from April 1 to 10 to coincide with the anniversary of the start of the war on April 2, 1982.
All of the profits will be donated equally between the charities Falklands Veterans Foundation and South Atlantic Medal Association 82.
Mr Mercer said the project had become a “labour of love” during lockdowns.
He said the Ukraine war highlighted the need to look after veterans.
“I believe we must give back to life. We can’t just take. I’ve done all sorts of successful fundraisers with Ripon Cathedral as a trustee but I never go to church. It’s just a nice building worth preserving and each generation has a duty.
“Supporting our armed services has never been more important than it is today. The Falklands was the last legal war and we have a duty of care to support those who served. I’m just doing my bit.”
Ripon Cathedral to hold memorial service for famous TV dramatist
A memorial service will be held at Ripon Cathedral at 3pm on Tuesday for playwright and TV dramatist Ian Curteis, whose play about the 1982 Falklands conflict was at the centre of a BBC controversy.
Mr Curteis, who in 2001 married Lady Deirdre Hare, widow of the 7th Baron Grantley of Markenfield Hall, spent the latter years of his life focused on the conservation and restoration of the medieval building, which has been the Grantley family seat since the 13th Century. He died in November.
In 2008, he and Lady Deirdre, who described the moated hall as ‘the loveliest place you’ve never heard of’ won the first annual restoration award sponsored by Sotheby’s and the Historic Houses Association.
Better known to people who followed Mr Curteis’ writing rather than restoration activities, was his work on the BBC blockbuster drama series, The Onedin Line, for which he was commissioned to write a number of episodes.
Markenfield Hall.
His innovative approach saw him pioneer a new drama-documentary format for his play on the 1956 Suez crisis, broadcast by the BBC in 1979.
Mr Curteis used the same drama-documentary approach for a play about the Falklands War commissioned by the then BBC director-general Alasdair Milne in April 1983 — just a year after the conflict had started.
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However, The Falklands Play, which was for many years at the centre of a controversy involving claims of political bias and attempted censorship, was finally broadcast on BBC Four after a number of re-writes in April 2002.
In a less controversial arena, Mr Curteis wrote an adaptation of JB Priestley’s last novel Lost Empires for ITV and also adapted for broadcast by the BBC The Choir , a novel written by Joanna Trollope.
